Imre Szeman is Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies and Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. He conducts research on and teaches in the areas of social and cultural theory, film and visual culture, globalization and nationalism, and Canadian studies.
Szeman is the recipient of the John Polanyi Prize in Literature (2000), the Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award (2003), the Scotiabank-AUCC Award for Excellence in Internationalization (2004), an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2005-7), and President’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision at McMaster University (2008), among other awards. He is the founder of the Canadian Association of Cultural Studies and a founding member of the US Cultural Studies Association. Szeman is co-editor of Reviews in Cultural Theory and a member of the editorial collective of the journal Mediations. Current projects include: a book on globalization, temporality and politics; an introductory text on cultural theory; and research on aesthetics, politics and contemporary documentary film.
He is interested in supervising students working on topics and issues in social and cultural theory (1850 to the present) and the politics of contemporary culture (including postcolonial fiction, science fiction, film and the visual arts).