Nava Dushi B.F.A., M.A., Ph.D.

Professor, Film and Media Studies

Nava Dushi

Professional profile

Nava Dushi (Ph.D.) is a professor of film and media studies at Lynn University's College of Communication and Design. She teaches courses related to communication and media technologies, media and culture, film history, film theory and international film.

Her research traces the concept of the minor, its aesthetic manifestations, and ethical consequences for culture and history. Her work was published in the anthologies "Films with Legs: Crossing Borders with Foreign Language Films" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), "Israeli Cinema: Identities in Motion" (University of Texas Press), "Casting a Giant Shadow: The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema" (Indiana University Press), "Femininity and Psychoanalysis: Cinema, Culture, Theory" (Routledge Publishing), as well as in academic journal publications. Dushi presents her research regularly at the annual conferences of leading professional organizations and specialized colloquia. She is a winner of the American Israel Cooperative Enterprise Schusterman Israel Scholar Award and a recipient of a Ph.D. research grant awarded by The Florida Israel Institute.

Education

  • B.F.A., Tel Aviv University
  • M.A., Florida Atlantic University
  • Ph.D., Tel Aviv University

Teaching philosophy

Our era is dominated by instantaneous and inexhaustible access to information and connectivity. Professional careers coveted by students entering their freshman year in college may undergo significant changes or altogether disappear upon their graduation. In this state of affairs, the role of academe consists of two important tasks: on the one hand, imparting the critical and rhetorical skill-set necessary for the pursuit of specialized knowledge, and on the other hand, fostering the development of an intellectual core that would withstand the demands of ongoing shifts in the professional arena. To this end, instilling the importance of a broad education that engages students in critical discussions concerning the significance of history, the diversity of societies and cultures, the role of the arts, ethics and morality, is of fundamental importance and remains the cornerstone of higher education.

Areas of scholarship

  • Critical theory
  • Cinema and philosophy
  • National and transnational cinema
  • Israeli cinema and culture
  • Minor cinema
  • Pedagogy–The place of cinema in liberal arts education

Awards and honors

  • American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise Schusterman Israel Scholar Award, 2010–2011
  • American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise Schusterman Israel Scholar Award, 2009–2010.
  • Florida Israel Institute Research Grant, 2008.