Zeynep Aras

Zeynep Aras is a Ph.D. student in Film and Moving Image Studies at Concordia University. She received her BA in Aesthetics and Practice of Cinema from the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and her MA in Media and Visual Studies from Bilkent University. In her master’s thesis, she examined the use of analog effects in the age of digital cinema by concentrating on the work of contemporary French directors. After completing her MA, she served as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Communication and Design at Bilkent University, teaching two undergraduate courses: Introduction to Art, Design and Culture I (Fall 2023) and Analysis of Moving Image (Spring 2024). She is currently working as the copy-editing manager of the Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies. She is a huge fan of Michel Gondry and looks for every possible way to incorporate his work into her research.

Supervisor: Dr. Martin Lefebvre

Thesis Title: The Poetics of “Auteur Comedy”: Contemporary French Filmmakers’ Use of Special Effects

Research Interests: Contemporary French cinema, special and visual effects, animation studies, authorial film practices, theories on film aesthetics

Teaching / TAShips: FMST 215 Le Cinéma Québécois (Fall 2025), FMST 203 Film History III (Summer 2025), FMST 214 Canadian Film (Winter 2025)

Selected Publication:

Aras, Zeynep, and Colleen Kennedy-Karpat. 2024. “Les Filles de Méliès: L’exception Culturelle, Analogue Aesthetics and Women Filmmakers of Le Cinéma-Monde.” French Screen Studies, October, 1–17. 

Website