Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies

Dr Estrella Sendra Fernandez

Key information

Roles
Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies Research Associate
Qualifications
PhD, MA Critical Media and Cultural Studies (SOAS), Licenciado Journalism (Universidad de Sevilla), Licenciado Audiovisual Communication/Film Studies (Universidad de Sevilla)
Email address
es29@soas.ac.uk
Thesis title
Two-tier Festivals in Senegal between the Local and the International: A Case Study of the Festival International de Folklore et de Percussion in Louga (Senegal)

Biography

Estrella Sendra is a scholar, teacher, filmmaker, journalist and festival organiser. She is recognised as Fellow by the Higher Education Academy. Her research interests include festival studies, film festivals, global screen media, African cinema, audiovisual representations of migration, transnational communities, youth and digital media, and gender. She is Associate Editor of Screenworks and Editorial Board Member in the Journal of African Media Studies. Since 2011, when she directed Témoignages de l’autre côté / Testimonials from the other side (2011), an awarded documentary film about migration, she has been developing a regional expertise in Senegal.

In 2018, she completed her PhD on cultural festivals in Senegal, fully funded by the Department of African Languages and Cultures at SOAS. She engages with creative and innovative teaching methods, such as assessment through video essays, and is the co-author of the Introductory Guide to Video Essays published in Learning on Screen (2020). In 2020, she was awarded the SOAS Director’s Teaching Prize for Inspirational Teaching. She was the director of the Cambridge African Film Festival in 2014, and 2015, as well as part of the curatorial team until 2019. In 2020, she was the curator of the African Film Festival of Barcelona-FICAB. As part of her public engagement, she has been involved in further festivals in Spain, Senegal, South Africa and the United Kingdom, as a jury member, organiser, media officer, curator or panelist. She is one of the editors and journalists of Wiriko, an online magazine devoted to African arts and cultures, and contributes with further media platforms internationally, such as El País in Spain and Le Soleil in Senegal.

 

Publications

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