Skip to content

Saadia El Karfi Azzarone

Saadia El Karfi Azzarone is a PhD candidate in the Department of French and Italian at Princeton University. Born and raised in Rabat, Morocco, Saadia graduated with a BA in French and Francophone studies from Mount Holyoke College in 2017. Her current research focuses on Monsters and the interdisciplinary explorations in monstrosity and their interconnections with the representational practices of sexuality and gender in Francophone literature and film from North Africa. Her other research interests include comics, film theory, and the relationship between disease, madness, and colonialism in Francophone literature and film.

From the poster for Black Girl by Ousmane Sembène, 1966

Ousmane Sembène: Feminism in African Francophone Cinema

Known as “the grandfather of African cinema,” Sembène created powerful female characters who challenged Western notions of gender and sexuality.