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Research Topic:Screen Transitions: Framing Trans Citizenship in Contemporary French Cinema

Supervisor: Professor Emma Wilson

Ry’s doctoral research explores representations of trans experiences in the French cinema of the 2010s and 2020s. In their thesis, Ry situates films such as Petite fille (Sébastien Lifshitz, 2020) and Orlando, ma biographie politique (Paul B. Preciado, 2023) in relation to the universalist discourse of French neorepublicanism, offering new readings which foreground the technological affinities between cinema, biomedicine and surveillance. Ry’s thesis draws on the work of trans scholars, artists and activists working in France today, whose contributions remain largely overlooked in Anglophone scholarship on the topic.

Before starting their PhD, Ry completed their undergraduate degree with First-Class Honours in History and Modern Languages (French) at the ������Ƶ and graduated with Distinction from their MA in Urban History and Culture at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). 

Writing and publications:

2025. “No Papers, Please: Refusal as Aesthetics in Vos Papiers (ID, Please, 2013).” In Media Res. https://mediacommons.org/imr/content/no-papers-please-refusal-aesthetics-vos-papiers-id-please-2013.

2024. “Soukaz in Space: Visuality, Protest and Appropriation in the Films of Lionel Soukaz.” Modern & Contemporary France, 33 (2), 133–151. doi:10.1080/09639489.2024.2386665.

Ry’s writing and translations have also appeared in French Studies Bulletin and TROU NOIR, alongside book reviews for French Studies, Modern & Contemporary France and the LSE Review of Books.

Selected Papers and Invited (*) Talks:

‘Against direction: (In)visibility and refusal in Bruce’s Vos papiers (2013).’ World Picture Conference, 2025.

* ‘Filming the fightback: Liberation and resistance in the cinema of Lionel Soukaz (1953–2025).’ Pride Event, Corpus Christi College, 2025.

* ‘‘On s’en fout de la loi’: representations of transmasculine pregnancy in contemporary French visual culture.’ Broadly Conceived Conference, 2024.

* ‘‘Mademoiselle parfaite’: transchild martyrdom in Sébastien Lifshitz’s Petite fille (2020).’ Childhood and Youth in Contemporary European Film, University of Nottingham, 2024.

‘‘On s’en fout de la loi’ : universalisme et transparentalité dans A Good Man de Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar (2020).’ Colloque ‘Les identités trans* et queer dans le monde francophone’, Mount Royal University, 2024.

‘Sous les pavés, ‘le Souk’ : reclaiming (re)public(an) space in the films of Lionel Soukaz.’ Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF) Conference, 2023.

‘‘Qu’est-ce qu’il y a entre les molécules?’: Seropositive visions of community in Lionel Soukaz’s Journal Annales.’ ������Ƶ French Graduate Conference, 2023.

Scholarships/Prizes:

ASMCF Postgraduate Paper Prize, 2024

Odette de Mourgues Fund, 2023

Runner-Up, Postgraduate Poster Competition, Society for French Studies (SFS) 63rd Annual Conference, 2022

MA (Partial) Scholarship, University of London Institute in Paris, 2021–2022