SUZANNE GAUCH > Professor of English & Author
From: Born in Quebec of Swiss parents who are from Niederwil, Aargau, Switzerland.
Work: Professor of English at Temple University, Philadelphia.
Hobbies: Gardening (permaculture), cooking, cycling (road and mountain), Nordic skiing.
Recent books: James McBride’s Kill'em and Leave, and a graphic novel by Thi Bui, We Did the Best We Could.
Favorite food from Switzerland: Vermicelles, a Swiss dessert.
Favorite spot in Switzerland: Anyplace in the Alps. I love hiking and biking above the tree line.
How has your Swiss background made an impact on your perspective on the world and it’s many cultures?
I’ve always been struck by how the Swiss instill a sense of social responsibility. When I was young, I saw this as a kind of demand for conformity. This made me uneasy because I was a kid raised in the individualistic US. Over the years, though, I’ve seen how this Swiss social responsibility cultivates a respect for everyone in society, though it can sometimes lead to exclusion or xenophobia. Still the Swiss don’t write off segments of society as worthless, as you see here. There’s a sense of cohesiveness and working together that I try to bring to my perspective here.
What brought you to Philadelphia?
My job at Temple University, in the spring of 2000. I was delighted to discover the real city that I had never before visited.
Can you discuss the many courses you teach at Temple University, and which one is your favorite to educate the students about?
Broadly speaking, I teach classes in film, gender, and postcolonial studies. What that means more concretely is that I teach classes in the literature and film of Africa, transnational feminisms, postcolonial theory, and general education courses in food cultures. I enjoy teaching all of them. I’m always thrilled to see students discover the rich literature and cultures of the world beyond the US. It’s also interesting to see the diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences, concerns, and ideas that Temple students bring to the classroom.
What do you think your most important work has been and why?
They’re all important when you’re working on them. As long as I’m still working, the answer to this question will always be the work I’m currently working on both in the classroom and in my research. Overall, I’d say my most important work is exploring and exposing the culturally conditioned assumptions that have structured our relationships with those whose cultures are deemed different from “ours”. Lately, I’ve been trying to do different styles of writing such as blog posts, or video essays in order to broaden my audience beyond the academic world.
Would you say your biggest passion is writing, teaching, or researching?
They’re not distinct pursuits! What goes on in the classroom influences my research as much as the other way around.
What got you interested in North African film and literature?
There’s no simple answer to that. In 1989, an eventful year, I was living in Geneva. I met people from all over Africa and the Middle East who opened my eyes to all kinds of literature and culture that I’d never encountered during my undergraduate education. I started reading and found familiar and new themes, concerns, and language among them. The film only came later, a natural development in light of my longstanding interest in the visual arts.
What was your biggest setback when conducting research?
I’m not sure there’s anything I would call a setback. There may be challenges, but challenges are always productive in making you reassess the presuppositions and the premises of my work.
If you could summarize the most important aspects of your work, what would you say? Where can we find your books?
My recent work has been about how writers and filmmakers from North Africa engage popular themes and tropes, like the figures of Shahrazad, or down and out or dangerous youth. They do this to explode stereotypes from within and challenge preconceptions of what is possible. My present work examines how the kinds of images that North African, Middle Eastern, and African films are expected to show today were determined over a century ago by early films whose characterizations of those regions were problematic at best. This project explores how silent film adaptations of the Thousand and One Night used those stories as a pretext for innovation in film form, language, and technique. You can find my books at the usual sources like Amazon and for academic publications, the publisher’s websites (U of Minnesota Press, Oxford U Press).
Do you have anything to say about contemporary filmmakers in North Africa?
There are many interesting and different kinds of films being made at the moment. A big obstacle for filmmakers in the Maghreb has been exhibition spaces. Morocco has more and more megaplexes, but are expensive for most people, and show primarily if you can work with T.V. stations you can get some exposure, but you also have to cut down and censor for television. So some filmmakers are doing interesting work with genre films, whether it’s romantic comedy or film noir, while engaging political issues. Others are making more experimental films or documentaries. It has become more difficult to categorize Moroccan, Tunisian, or Algerian films because filmmakers are more flexible, and mobile and their financial supports come from a range of institutions around the world.
Will you return to Switzerland anytime soon?
I’m heading there next month for a family event!
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS WRITTEN BY SUZANNE GAUCH
Maghreb's in Motion: North African Cinema in Nine Movements. (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Liberating Shahrazad: Feminism, Postcolonialism, and Islam. (University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
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