Dr. Conor O'Kelly

Biography

I came to teach in Trinity College Dublin after a two decade career in technology roles working for Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, Siemens, Saatchi & Saatchi), investment banks (Bank Of America SF, Natwest Wall St., W.R. Hambrecht & Co.) and startups (Antefacto, Ebookers, Arconics) in locations including Dublin, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, London and Delhi. I started teaching in TCD in 2015, after the award of my PhD (Thesis Title: 'Profane love, the heartening story and sublation : the dialectical image in film'), and was visiting Assistant Professor in Film with a Digital Specialism in 2016. Since 2017 I have held the position of Teaching Fellow in the Film Department of The School of Creative Arts.

My research and teaching interests are primarily in biopolitical and post-colonial representations in Non-Western cinema. This research has formed the basis of all of my Non-Western undergraduate and masters programmes in the film department for the past number of years. This research is also the basis of two undergraduate modules that explore women directors in the Middle East and Magreb, and Iranian Post-revolutionary cinema. My European film modules are primarily focused on the representation of Holocaust memory in film. I have an upcoming book with the Amsterdam University Press that, based on my PhD research, establishes a new methodological use for Walter Benjamin's writing on film and the dialectical image.

Having first taught a broad curriculum module in 2012 I am one of the longest serving members of staff in the Film Department. During this time I have been part of the development of the programme from a Two Subject Moderatorship to the new Trinity Joint Honours pathway, along with the introduction of a Single Honours Programme. As the Freshman convenor during this period I have had a very significant level of pastoral and administrative engagement with undergraduates. In 2025 I have returned to the role of Sophister convenor. Further administrative roles include departmental responsibility for incoming and outgoing European Erasmus and International Study Abroad students. I am responsible for the organisation and administration of the Film Department"s Foundation Exams. As the module leader of the final year Research Skills module I organise visiting speakers from industry. I have supervised Undergraduate and Postgraduate dissertation theses since 2015.

As a module leader in a small but expanding department I have taken great enjoyment in the challenge of delivering and assessing a broad selection of modules:

Junior Fresh: Introduction to Non-Western Cinema, Introduction to European Cinema, American Cinema from The Silent Era to the 1930s, Introduction to Film Theory II.

Senior Fresh : Non-Western & World Cinema, Ireland and Cinema, European Cinema, Introduction to Documentary Theory and Practice.

Sophister: Female Directors of The Middle East, Contemporary Non-Western Cinemas, Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema, Experimental Film, Bad Robots, Research Skills.

MPhil: Current Trends in World Cinema, Current Trends in European Cinema, Cinema Now: Current Trends in Contemporary Film, Contemporary Non-Western Cinema.