Jerry White teaches and writes about cinema, literature, and culture in Quebec, Canada, and Europe.

He is the author of It's Nation Time: A Progressive Defence, as well as books on Stan Brakhage, Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville, and John Berger and Alain Tanner, in addition to the book The Radio Eye, on cinema experiments in the North Atlantic (Quebec, Newfoundland, the Faroe Islands, and Ireland).  He has also edited two anthologies on Canadian cinema: North of Everything (2002, with William Beard) and The Cinema of Canada (2006, preface by Atom Egoyan).  He is also the author of a book on the Swiss-Canadian filmmaker and photographer Peter Mettler, published as a catalogue for the Toronto Film Festival retrospective that he curated in 2006.

In addition to that TIFF retrospective he has curated film programmes for Cinémathèque Québécoise (Montreal), the Filmoteca de Catalunya (Barcelona), and the cinematheque of the National Archives of Georgia (Tbilisi).

He wrote for the film magazine Cinema Scope for nearly the entirety of its 25-year existence (his first article appeared in #3 in 2000, his last in #93 in 2023; the last ten years of articles can be found here) and spent about a decade (2015–24) as the film critic for the Dalhousie Review (all of his chronicles can be found here).  He has also written for the Literary Review of Canada and published op-eds in Le Devoir and the Irish Times.

He has previously served as the president of the Film Studies Association of Canada and of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies.  He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, New Hibernia Review, Sjani: Journal of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature (Tbilisi), and Alternative francophone.

He is also Adjunct Professor of French at Dalhousie University.

Following the example of his beloved mentor Tom Waugh, he points out that he was born in the year of La Salamandre, Mon oncle Antoine, L'Acadie, l'Acadie?!?, Christmas at Moose Factory, The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, THX 1138, Walkabout, Trafic, and La Région Centrale.  He was born in the year in-between Reason Over Passion and Pierre Vallières; he was also preposterously close to being born on the same day as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was released.

Current CV (as of 7 November 2024)

Selected conference papers of the last ten years

(i.e. material that never became an article or chapter)

Publications in University of Saskatchewan signature research area: Indigenous Peoples

Books:

It's Nation Time: A Progressive Defence.  Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2024.

Stan Brakhage in Rolling Stock, 1980–1990.  Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2018.

Two Bicycles: The Work of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville.  Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013.

Re-visioning Europe: The Films of John Berger and Alain Tanner. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2011.

The Radio Eye: Cinema in the North Atlantic, 1958–1988.  Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009 (paperback 2018).

[co-edited with Marie Carrière]  Transplanter le Canada : Semailles / Transplanting Canada: Seedlings. Edmonton: Canadian Literature Centre / Centre de littérature canadienne, 2009.

Of This Place and Elsewhere: The Films and Photography of Peter Mettler. Toronto / Bloomington: Toronto International Film Festival / Indiana University Press, 2006.

The Cinema of Canada. London: Wallflower Press, 2006.  Preface by Atom Egoyan.

[co-edited with William Beard]  North of Everything: English Canadian Cinema Since 1980. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2002.  Preface by Seth Feldman.

Special sections edited:

Hidden Europe — Dalhousie Review 101.1 (Spring 2021)

The Cinematic Informer — New Hibernia Review 24:2 (Summer 2020)

La France Catalane — Dalhousie French Studies 113 (Winter 2019)

Minor Cinemas [edited with Doris Hambuch, UAE University) — Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 45:3 (Fall 2018)

Key articles over the years (one per decade):

"Pasolini in/and Catalonia: Translation, Minority Languages, and Internationalism."  Comparative Literature 74.1 (2022).  Pp. 99–118.

“Informe general and the Missing Link of Third Cinema.”  Screen 54:3 (Fall 2013).  Pp. 305-321.

"Arguing with Ethnography: The Films of Bob Quinn and Pierre Perrault."  Cinema Journal 42.2 (Winter 2003).  Pp. 101–124.

"Alanis Obomsawin, Documentary Form, and the Canadian Nation(s)."  CineAction 49 (1999).  Pp. 26–36.

Articles and chapters of the last 10 years (complete list of refereed articles and chapters, arranged chronologically, is here):

Book chapters:

“Rediscovering the Republic: The Work of Joan Daniel Bezsonoff.”  In Albert Braz and Paul D. Morris, eds., National Literature in Multinational States.  Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2022.  Pp. 129–145.

“Nothing is Black: the Early Celtic Tiger and Europe.”  In Anne Fogarty and Marisol Morales-Ladrón, eds., Deirdre Madden: New Critical Perspectives.  Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022.  Pp. 165–179.

“For a Renewed ‘Linguistic Turn’: Comparative Studies and the Language-Department Model.”  In Susan Ingram and Irene Sywenky, eds, Comparative Literature in Canada: Contemporary Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Publishing in Review.  Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2019.  Pp. 23–37.

"Maps, Movements and Migrants: Reading Tim Robinson Though Gluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta"  In Derek Gladwin and Christine Cusick, eds., Unfolding Irish Landscapes: Tim Robinson, Culture and Environment.  Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.  Pp. 160-172.

“Grierson in Ireland.”  In Zoë Druick, ed., The Grierson Effect: Tracing Documentary’s International Movement.  London: British Film Institute / Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.  Pp. 169-186.

“Ephemeral Godard: Video, History and Quebec.”  In Zoë Druick and Gerda Cammaer, eds., Cinephemera: Archives, Ephemeral Cinema, and New Screen Histories in Canada.  Montreal/Kingston: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2014.  Pp. 184-195.

“Sauver le Québec, sauver l’Irlande: Jacques Ferron et l’effelquois atlantique.”  In Linda Cardinal, Simon Jolivet, and Isabelle Matte, eds., Le Québec et l’Irlande: Culture, Histoire, Identité.  Quebec City: Septentrion, 2014.  Pp. 236-251.

Journal articles: 

"What Was Film Criticism?"  Dalhousie Review 103.3 (2023).  Pp. 420–30. 

"Translating Quebec into Irish: Risteárd Ó Foghludha's Version of Maria Chapdelaine."  Australasian Journal of Irish Studies 23 (2023).  Pp. 32–53.

"Le Relanti.  Sauve qui peut (la vie) et France tour détour deux enfants."  Décadrages 48-49-50 (2023).  Pp. 168–186.  [Written in English, translated into French]  

“The Question of Translation in Fleur Jaeggy: Perspectives from Huston and Kundera.”  Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 49.3 (Fall 2022).  Pp. 304–315.

“‘Pro Fide et Patria’, but for Europe: Iris Hibernia and a Swiss-led vision for European Ireland.”  Studia Hibernia 48 (2022).  Pp. 129–155.

"The Imperative to Discuss European Islam: A Response to Grinell and Črnič."  European Review 30.4 (August 2022).  Pp. 572–587.

"Was the Defeat Undone? The Two English Translations of Alain Finkielkraut’s La Défaite de la pensée."  Australian Journal of French Studies 59.2 (2022).  Pp. 144–157.

"Pasolini in/and Catalonia: Translation, Minority Languages, and Internationalism."  Comparative Literature 74.1 (2022).  Pp. 99–118.

“Some Preliminary Considerations for a Métis-Catalan Comparison.”  Aboriginal Policy Studies 9.2 (2021).  Pp. 75–95.

“The Three Cities of George Steiner.”  Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue canadienne de littérature comparée 47:2 (Summer 2020).  Pp. 230–240.

“The Cinematic Informer: Uptight!”  New Hibernia Review 24:2 (Summer 2020).  Pp. 54–62.

“In Search of Our Roots: Remembering Simone Weil’s North American Emergence.”  Dalhousie Review 99.3 (Autumn 2019).  Pp. 411–420.

“Republican Difficulties: Noè Jordania’s Difficultés socialistes, Antoni Roviri i Virgili’s L’Estat català, and the Vagaries of Exile Writers in France.”  Sjani: Journal of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature 20–21 (2019).  Pp. 266–272.

“Reading the Gaeltacht Civil Rights Movement Through Michel Deguy and Israel.”  Dalhousie French Studies 114 (Summer 2019).  Pp. 31–41.

 “Cold War Contexts: Pawlikowski in Film, Television and European History.”  Film Quarterly 72:3 (Spring 2019).  Pp. 44–51.

“‘Y a-t-il des Catalans en France pour pouvoir y espérer l’avènement d’un cinéma catalan ?’ : Introducing La France catalane.”  Dalhousie French Studies 113 (Winter 2019).  Pp. 3–23.

“Introduction: Four Kinds of Minor Cinema (and some notes on a fifth).”  Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue canadienne de littérature comparée 45:3 (Fall 2018).  Pp. 357–380.

“The Spectres Haunting Europe: Reading Contemporary Catalan Nationalism Through The Break-Up of Britain.”  European Review 26:4 (Winter 2018).  Pp. 600­­–615.

“Poitín agus an ‘Tercer cine’.” New Hibernia Review 20:4 (Winter 2016).  Pp. 76–90.  [Written in English, translated into Irish]

“Forms of Multiculturalism and Secularism: Charles Taylor and Ireland.”  Irish Studies Review 24:3 (Summer 2016).  Pp. 327-350.

[Co-authored with Nino Dzandzava]  “The Cinema of Georgia’s First Independence Period: Between Republican and European.”  Film History 27:4 (2016).  Pp. 151-182.

“Place, Dialect and Broadcasting in Irish: Plus ça change…..” Éire-Ireland 50:1-2 (2015).  Pp. 113-136. 

“The Archival Situation of Georgian Cinema.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists 14.1 (Spring 2014).  Pp. 10-29.

Academic book reviews and medium-length articles:

“Establishing Shots: An Oral History of the Winnipeg Film Group, ed. Kevin Nikkel.”  Prairie History 12. (Fall 2023).  Pp. 63–64.

“The Revisability of Film History.”  Canadian Journal of Film Studies 32:1 (Spring 2023).  Pp. 140–150.

"A History of Icelandic Film."  Canadian Journal of Film Studies / Revue candienne d'études cinématographiques 30:1 (Spring 2021).  Pp. 164–67.

“Remembrance and the Fate of a Commercial Canadian Cinema.”  Short Film Studies 10:1 (2020).  Pp. 79­–81.

"Canadian Films in Georgia and a Common Film Front to the World."  Canadian Journal of Film Studies / Revue candienne d'études cinématographiques 28:2 (Fall 2019).  Pp. 81–87.

“Crosscurrents: How Film Policy Developed in Quebec, 1960–1983.”  Canadian Historical Review 100.4 (2019).  Pp. 684–86.

“Report from Tbilisi.”  Film Quarterly 71:4 (Summer 2018).  Pp. 58–64.

“In Memorium: John Berger of the Haute-Savoie.”  Film Quarterly 70:4 (Summer 2017).  Pp. 93-98.

“Sociolinguistics in Ireland, edited by Raymond Hickey.”  Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development 38:4 (2017).  Pp. 375–77.

“Part Seminar, Part Something Else: The 69^th Festival del Film, Locarno.”  Film Quarterly 70:2 (Winter 2016).  Pp. 74-80.

“The Woman Who Married Clark Gable and Thaddeus O’Sullivan: Short Films.”  Estudios Irlandeses #10 (2015).

“Fògradh, Fàisneachd, Filidheachd / Parting, Prophecy, Poetry, edited and translated by John A. Macpherson and Michael Linkletter.” Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society Journal 17 (2014).  Pp. 143-45.

Op-eds:

"Five Europes at play in the ongoing Catalan crisis," Irish Times, 16 April 2018 

"La Catalogne, un mouvement indépendantiste moderne et territorial," Le Devoir, 3 October 2017

"Gaelic Grievances Deeper than 'Still Mad About Culloden,'" Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 24 March 2014

CBC or Radio-Canada appearances:

Sur la situation catalane: le 11 octobre 2017

On Brexit: 21 June 2016

Non-academic book Reviews:

Scots and Catalans, in the Irish Times, 29 September 2018

Review of Charles Taylor, The Language Animal, in the Literary Review of Canada, July/August 2016

“Change Your Direction” [On Rebecca Schuman’s Schadenfreude: A Love Story].  Open Letters Monthly, June 2017.

“Insurrections of the Bland”  [On The New Republic’s 100^th anniversary].  Open Letters Monthly, November 2015.

“Il n’y pas d’Israël pour moi” [Review of Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission].  Open Letters Monthly, April 2015.

“Independence Day” [On separatism in Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia].  Open Letters Monthly, January 2015.

“Not Just Cutting Ribbons” [On the Irish presidency].  Open Letters Monthly, April 2014.

Curatorial Writing:

Cinémathèque Québécoise

• 2020: Dossiers de la cinémathèque 20: Le cinéma de Pat Collins

• 2018: Dossiers de la cinémathèque 19: Revoir le cinéma géorgien

• 2017: Dossiers de la cinémathèque 18: À propos du cinéma catalan

Centre for European Studies / Filmoteca de Catalunya / Irish Film Institute):

• 2014: (w/Regina Uí Chollatáin): Films gaèlics a Catalunya / Scannáin Ghaelacha sa Chatalóin 

Museum of Modern Art / Pacific Film Archive

• Essay “From Tbilisi to Tehran and Back Again,” for their catalogue Discovering Georgian Cinema (2014)  [Also published in a Georgian-language edition]

Canada Comparative Literature Cultural Studies European Studies Film Ireland Minority languages Quebec