Dr. Beus's work is situated at the crossroad of cinema & literary studies, and like that of most comparatists, her intellectual identity rests within several disciplines & national literatures. Her fields of research interest include comparative literature, theatre & film studies, cultural studies, and inter-arts studies. Since coming to BYUH, she has been engaged in the following topics: modernity in visual culture, intertextuality and reflexivity in art and literature, cultural/national identity & globalization, and indigenous story-telling, covering Sinophone and Francophone areas studies. Her current research studies indigenous storytelling in Pacific narrative cinemas.
Education
PH.D. COMPARATIVE LITERATURE; MINOR, FILM STUDIES — 2000
Indiana University at Bloomington
Dissertation: Towards a Paradoxical Theatre: Schlegelian Irony in German and French
Romantic Drama, 1797–1843, directed by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch and Roger Herzel
M.A. THEATRE & FILM — 1989
Brigham Young University, Provo
Thesis: Towards Tragedy: A Comparative Study of the Presentation of Protagonists’
Conflict and Suffering in Selected Western and Chinese Plays, directed by Marion J. Bentley
B.A ENGLISH — 1987
National Chengchi University, Taipei
Academic Positions
PROFESSOR — 2011
Film Studies/Visual Arts/Integrated Humanities, Arts & Letters (formerly International Cultural Studies and World Languages), Brigham Young University–Hawaii
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR — 2004-2011
International Cultural Studies & World Languages, Brigham Young University–Hawaii
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR — 2000-2004
International Cultural Studies and World Languages, Brigham Young University–Hawaii
WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR — 1996, 1997
Germanic Languages, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Taught Language Shock workshop ASSOCIATE INSTRUCTOR — 1992
Dept. of Germanic Studies, Indiana University
Taught G091 Inter-Language Concepts, (linguistic concepts of learning a foreign language as well as grammar and composition of the English and the German languages)
ASSOCIATE INSTRUCTOR — 1991-1992
Film Studies, Dept. of Comparative Literature, Indiana University
Taught C190 Introduction to Film Art TEACHING ASSISTANT — 1990
Film Studies, Dept. of Comparative Literature, Indiana University Assisted/Taught C392/592 Science Fiction Cinema
Administrative Experience
ASSOCIATE ACADEMIC VICE PRESIDENT — 2021
Faculty Affairs & Development
DEAN — 2018-2021
Faculty of Arts & Letters
CHAIR —2017-2018
Dept. of Visual Arts and Communication
COORDINATOR — 2015-2017
World Languages, Dept. of Cultures & Languages
CHAIR — 2006-2014
Dept. of International Cultural Studies & World Languages
PROGRAM FACILATOR— 2007
Summer in Cambodia Study Abroad, Phnom Penh
PROGRAM DIRECTOR — 2004 ; 2006
Summer in Xian Study Abroad at Xian International Studies University
Summer in Shanghai Study Abroad at Fudan University
ACTING CHAIR — 2003
Dept. of International Cultural Studies & World Languages, January-August
Research Interests
visual culture, cultural studies, postcolonial & indigenous cinema
Peer Reviewed Publications, Presentations & Awards
MONOGRAPH
Towards a Paradoxical Theatre: Schlegelian Irony in German and French Romantic
Drama, 1797–1843, Bern & New York: Peter Lang, 2003
JOURNAL ARTICLES
“The Force Awakens: Mana as Causal Agent in Pacific Cinemas,” Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies 6.2 (2018): 121-36.
“Cinematic Tropes of Migration: Cruise and Train Ride in Contemporary China,” Working USA, (March 2014), 77-92.
“Authorship and Criticism in Self-reflexive African Cinema,” Journal of African Cultural Studies 23:2 (2011): 133-52.
“Far Away, So Close? Nation, Global Chinese Cinema and the Question of Identity” in Quarterly Review of Film and Video 25.4 (July 2008): 306-314.
“ Alfred de Musset’s Romantic Irony,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 31. 3/4 (Spring/Summer 2003): 197-209.
BOOK CHAPTERS
“Redemption Songs: Musical Moments in Joseph Gaï Ramaka’s Karmen Geï (2001) and Flora Gomes’s Nha Fala (2002),” in The Sight of Sound: When Music Takes Over in Film, eds. Phil Powrie, Claus Tieber and Anna K. Windisch, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 161-180.
“On Becoming Nora: Transforming the Voice and Place of the Sing-song Girl through Zhou Xuan,” in Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities, eds. Andrew
Weintraub and Bart Barendregt, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2017. Pp. 65-82.
“Festivals, Censorship and the Canon: The Makings of Sinophone Cinemas,” in Diasporic Cinemas to Sinophone Cinemas, eds. Audrey Yue, Olivia Khoo and Song Hwee Lim, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Pp. 45-61.
“Postcolonial Beaux’ Stratagem: Dancing and Singing Back with Carmen” in Storytelling in World Cinemas, vol. 2 Context, ed. Lina Khatib, London: Wallflower Press, 2013. Pp. 90-100.
“Griots and Talanoa Speak: Storytelling as Theoretical Frames in African and Pacific Cinemas” in De-Westernizing Film Studies, eds. Saër Maty Bâ and Will Higbee, London: Routledge, 2012. Pp. 113-126.
“Colonialism, Democracy, and the Politics of Representation in Alain Corneau’s Le prince du Pacifique” in New Zealand, France and the Pacific Anthology, ed. by Ian Conrich, London: Kakapo Books, 2011. Pp. 91-108.
“Self-reflexivity in Play within the Play and Its Cross-genre Manifestation” in The Play within the Play: The Performance of Meta-Theatre and Self-Reflection, eds. Gerhard Fischer and Bernhard Greiner, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. Pp. 15-26.
“Oriental’s Orientalism: The Fantastic and Cultural Authenticity,” in Querying the Genealogy: Chinese American Literature and Chinese Language Literature in the United States. Ed. Jennie Wang, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2006. Pp. 428-438.
“After the Last Sky: A Liminal Space” in Paradoxical Citizenship: Edward Said, ed. Silvia Nagy-Zekmi, Lanham, M.D.: Lexington Books, 2006. Pp. 211-220.
“The Road to Modernity: Urban and Rural Scenes in Zhang Yimou’s The Story of Qiu Ju, Not One Less, and The Road Home” in Representing the Rural: Space, Place, and Identity in Films about the Land, eds. Catherine Fowler & Gillian Helfield, Detriot: Wayne State UP, 2006. Pp. 276-291.
ENCYCLOPEDIA & SOURCE BOOK CHAPTERS
“Novels and Memoirs” in Migration and Literature section, The Encyclopedia of Global
Human Migration, ed. Immanuel Ness, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013
“Bye Bye Africa,” in Directory of World Cinema: Africa, eds. Sheila Petty and Blandine
Stefanson, Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2010
“Karmen Geï,” in Directory of World Cinema: Africa, eds. Sheila Petty and Blandine
Stefanson, Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2010
“U-Carmen,” in Directory of World Cinema: Africa, eds. Sheila Petty and Blandine
Stefanson, Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2010
BOOK REVIEWS
“Review of Reel Resistance: The Cinema of Jean-Marie Teno” by Melissa Thackway and
Jean-Marie Teno. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (62.2, 2023): pp. 195198.
"Review of Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawaiʻi and Polynesia" by Maile Arvin. Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies (9.2, 2021): pp. 269-271.
“Review of Huihui: Navigating Art and Literature in the Pacific,” edited by Jeffrey Carroll, Brandy Nalani McDougall, Georganne Nordstrom, Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies (5.1, 2017): pp. 104-106.
“Review of The Black Pacific: Anti-Colonial Struggles and Oceanic Connections” by Robbie Shilliam. Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies (4.1, 2016): pp. 76-77.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & PAPERS
“Re-placing Paradise: the Missing Waikiki as Site of Indigenous Protest,” New Zealand Studies Association annual conference, Prague, July 9-12, 2024.
“The Ocean in Our Blood: Dehistorying through Cinema,” New Zealand Studies Association annual conference, Stockholm/Turku, June 26-30, 2023.
“Writing Indigeneity in Oceania: Reconfiguring the Time-Space Continuum,” American Comparative Literature Association annual conference (June 15-18, 2022), virtual.
“Framing Femininity: Waru (2017) and Vai (2019),” Society for Cinema and Media
Studies (March 30-April 3, 2022), virtual
“Chloé Zhao’s Journey to the West: Redefining Westernism and Chartering Frontiers,”
Women in East Asian Cinemas Symposium, University of Manchester (Manchester,
December 2019)
“Reimagining Paradise: Dialectic Time-Space Relationships through Tana and
Moana,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies (Seattle, March 2019)
“Moana Talks Back,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies (Toronto, March 2018)
“Contested Authenticity, Contested Soundscape in Vaiana, la légende du bout du monde,” New Zealand Studies Association (Strasbourg, July 2017)
“The Force Awakens: Mana as a Causal Agent in Pacific Cinema,” New Zealand
Studies Association (Lugano, July 2016)
“The Time-Space Architecture of Pacific Indigenous Cinema: Some Observations of
‘Continuity’ at Work,” New Zealand Studies Association (Vienna, July 2015)
“Indigenizing Pacific Cinema: ‘Va’ and the Notion of Continuity,” Society of Cinema and Media Studies (Montreal, March 2015)
“Film Festivals as a Pedagogical Tool” (“Student Centered Film Festivals and Film &
Media Study Away/Abroad Courses” Workshop), Society of Cinema and Media
Studies (Montreal, March 2015)
“Speaking of the Subject: The Minor and the Dwarf as De-centering Agents in Pacific
Indigenous Cinema,” New Zealand Studies Association (Oslo, July 2014)
“Taking the Line of Flight: Minors as the Liminal Subject in Seediq Bale: The Rainbow
Warriors,” Deleuze Studies in Asia conference (Taipei, June 2013)
“Deterritorializing Essentialism: Narrating Place and Space in Filming the South Seas,”
Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (Chicago, March 2013)
“Minor Nationalism: Nationalizing Indigenous Taiwanese Cinema in the Case of
Seediq Bale,” Film Asia Conference (Osaka November 2012)
“The Minor’s Tongue: The Staging of Silence and Voice in The Land Has Eyes and The
Whale Rider,” European Network for Cinema and Media Studies conference (London,
June 2011)
“Imagined Chinese Communities? (De)Territorialisation of Nation and Screen
Culture,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature (Tainan, May 2011)
“Griots and Talanoa Speak: Storytelling as Theoretical Frames in African and Pacific
Cinemas, Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (New Orleans, March
2011)
“After the Last Sky and Thereafter: A Model for Cross-genre Writing and Mediating
Conflicts,” International Comparative Literature Congress (Seoul, South Korea, August
2010)
“The Positionings of Female African Filmmakers as Storytellers: Fanta Nacro, A Case
Study,” French & Francophone Scholarly Interest Group Special Session Workshop,
Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (Los Angeles, March 2010)
“Constructing the Location of the Past: Architectural Nostalgia and Nostalgic Architecture in Yacoubian Building” Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (Los Angeles, March 2010—previously scheduled for Tokyo, May 2009, which was cancelled due to swine flu)
“From Margin to Canon: What Do Festivals Do for Ang Lee and Zhangke Jia,”
Transnational Cinema in Globalising Societies: Asia and Latin America conference
(Puebla, Mexico, August 2008)
“Yasmin Ahmad’s Orked Trilogy: Gender, Race, Religion and the Construction of
National Identity,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (Philadelphia,
March 2008)
“Postcolonial Beaux’ Stratagem: Dancing and Singing Back with Carmen,”
International Association for Media and History conference: Media & Imperialism
(Amsterdam, July 2007)
“Still Imagining the Pacific? The Politics of Story-telling and Representation in Alain
Corneau’s Le prince du Pacifique,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference
(Chicago, March 2007)
“From Postcolonial to Global—The Empire Returns: Self-referentiality and
(Trans)National Identity in Francophone African Cinema,” Modern Language
Association conference (Philadelphia, Dec. 2006)
“Recasting Polynesia’s White Savior Legend: Colonialism, Democracy, and Identity in
Alain Corneua’s Le prince du Pacifique,” joint conference with New Zealand Studies
Association and Centre de Recherche sur les Identités Culturelles et les Langues de
Spécialités (Paris, June 2006)
“Far Away, So Close? Nation, Global Chinese Cinema and the Question of Identity,”
Asian Cinema Studies Society (Beijing/Shanghai, June 2005)
“Oriental’s Orientalism: The Fantastic and Cultural Authenticity in Chinese American
Literature,” Fudan Forum on Chinese American Literature (Shanghai, June 2005) “From Resistance to Self-writing: Self-reflexivity in African Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (London, April 2005)
“Self-reflexivity in Play within the Play,” Spiel im Spiel Sydney Symposium (Sydney,
July 2004)
“Challenges in Teaching Indian Cinema,” Indian Cinema Pedagogy workshop, Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference (Atlanta, March 2004)
“Romantic Irony and the Modern,” Southern Atlantic Modern Language Association convention (Atlanta, November 2003)
“A Brave New World? Reading Cross-cultural Intertextuality,” Southern Comparative
Literature Association conference (Austin, September 2003)
“Silence as Voice: The Use of Non-Diegetic Silence in Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Documentary
Film,” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association conference (Bellingham,
November 2002)
“China’s Other in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Case Study of the
Dialogue between East and West in Mapping the Self,” Chinese Comparative
Literature Association congress (Nanjing, August 2002)
“Paradoxical Orientalism: the Problem of Authenticity in Contemporary Chinese
Cinema,” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association convention (Vancouver,
October 2001)
“Can the Natives Really Speak?” Philological Association of Louisiana conference
(New Orleans, March 2001)
“Towards a Paradoxical Theatre: Schlegelian Irony in Early Romantic Drama of the
Late 18th Century,” Southeastern Society for Eighteenth Century Studies conference
(Atlanta, March 1998)
WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS
“Student-Centric Teaching and Learning in Higher Education,” National University of
Singapore, May 2011
“Designing China,” Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory, Humanities Research Institute, University of California-Irvine, Shanghai, China, August 9-22, 2009.
Summer Institute on Korean Society and Culture, East-West Center/University of
Hawai‘i at Manoa, May-June 2004
Infusing Southeast Asian Studies into Undergraduate Curriculum, East-West
Center/University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, July 2002
Cinéma Africain et Créole: Immersion Française à Montréal (in conjunction with Vues d’Afrique Film Festival), Montréal, Canada, April 2002 & 2004
ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Workshop, Middlebury, VT, July 2001
GRANTS & AWARDS
David O. McKay Lecturer, Brigham Young University–Hawaii, 2023
Honors Professor of the Year, Brigham Young University–Hawaii, 2014
Exemplary Faculty of the Year, Brigham Young University–Hawaii, 2011
Faculty Research Grants, Brigham young University–Hawaii, summer 2003, summer
2007, spring 2008, Summer 2014
“Heart of Germany” Fellowship, Freie Universität-Berlin, 1991
Outstanding Student in Theatre History, Theory & Criticism, Dept. of Theatre & Film,
Brigham Young University, 1988-89
Language fluency, Citizenship & Professional Affiliation
LANGUAGES
English, near native in all aspects
Chinese, native in all aspects
German, fluent in reading; good in speaking & writing
French, fluent in reading; fair in speaking & writing
Arabic, novice level
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Search Committee member (English, Theatre, Social Work, Visual Arts, TESOL)
Program Review Team Member (English, History)
University Testing Center Task Force
Asian Studies Steering Committee (Co-chair)
Promotion & Tenure Review Committee
Faculty Advisory Council (Vice Chair)
University Scholarship and Awards Board
China Study Abroad Committee (Chair)
International University Task Force
Professional Development Application Review Committee, College of Arts & Sciences International Film Series Faculty Advisor
PRIOFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
New Zealand Studies Association (Council member)
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Modern Language Association
International Comparative Literature Association
European Network for Cinema and Media Studies
CV Last Revised June,2024
