Hélène Tissières PhD
Visual Arts, literature, film from Africa
Amahiguere Dolo
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Committed and passionate, Hélène Tissières has many years in academia, teaching literature, film and contemporary art from Africa (Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa) and its diaspora to Bachelor, Master and Phd students. Associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, she taught in many centers and departments including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for African and African-American Studies, the Center for Women's and Gender Studies, the Program in comparative literature. Her courses were at times cross-listed as well with the Department of Radio, Television and film. In 2016, she resettled in Geneva, Switzerland and organized/curated a major exhibition entitled Dakar-Martigny: homage to the Biennale of contemporary art. In 2003, thanks to a Fulbright Scholar grant, she taught at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal for nearly two years. More recently, in 2021, she taught at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, Niger thanks to another Fulbright. She works on the links between artistic forms and on the strategies of resistance put in place by artists, writers, filmmakers and rappers. She is also interested in ecology and cultural diversity.
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Works Aimé Mpane (upper left), Abdoulaye Ndoye and El Anatsui (upper center), Safaa Erruas (lower left), Pascal Konan (lower center), Cheick Diallo (lower right). Photos Hélène Tissières.