Research interests

My research focuses primarily on journey narratives, film industry and issues of transnational cinema with a particular focus on Latin America and the Portuguese-speaking world. I wrote my doctoral thesis in 2012 and published my first book Journeys in Argentine and Brazilian Cinema: Road Movies in a Global Era by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014. I translated the updated version of The Penguin Portuguese Phrasebook (2014).  My other books as an editor include World Film Location São Paulo (2013), World Cinema Directory: Brazil (2013), New Approaches to Lusophone Culture (2016) and, more recently, Journeys on Screen: Theory, Ethics, Aesthetics (2018). I have published articles and chapters in English and Portuguese on various aspects of Latin American and Portuguese-speaking cinema and delivered conference papers and invited talks in Australia, the United States, Canada, UK, Ireland and Brazil. Many of my publications examine issues of nation building in a transnational context. I write reviews for journals such as Bulletin of Hispanic Studies and WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society. I wrote several pieces for The Conversation, The Platform and Mediático.

Other publications include the chapter “Luso-Brazilian Coproductions: Rescue and Expansion” in the book Portugal’s Global Cinema: Industry, History and Culture; an article in Portuguese entitled “Esquecer de Lembrar em vale dos esquecidos e Huanacache tierra Huarpe” in  Significação: Revista de Cultura Audiovisual (See http://www.revistas.usp.br/significacao/article/view/103325 ) and the articles “Diaspora and National Identity in Daniel Burman’s El abrazo partido”, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies and "Transnationality and Transitionality in Sandra Kogut´s The Hungarian Passport", Alphaville: Journal of Media and Film Studies. University College Cork: Ireland. Available at: (see http://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue%201/ArticlePinazza.html )

UNESCO / KEIZO OBUCHI RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

https://en.unesco.org/fellowships/keizo-obuchi/summary-research-carried-out/achieving-intercultural-dialogue-through-arts-and-culture

Research collaborations

In September 2010 I worked for the Cultural Sectors at the UNESCO Headquarters and I attended The Intergovernmental Committee of the 2005 Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. I was nominated by the Brazilian Government as the national candidate for the UNESCO Keizo Obuchi Research Awards and my proposal, “Achieving Intercultural Dialogue through Indigenous Visual Arts: Brazil and Canada”, was selected by an international committee. Cluster: “Observatoire des Nouvelles Pratiques Symboliques”  https://en.unesco.org/fellowships/keizo-obuchi/fellow/natalia-appezzato-pinazza

In 2016, I was an invited speaker at the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge. 

In June 2017, I delivered a paper at Screen Conference on Cinema and Neoliberalism, where I presented in a panel including Dr Anna Cooper Reynolds (University of Arizona), Erica Stein (Vassar College) and Dr Louis Bayman (University of Southampton). The outputs will be part of a special edition of the journal The New Review dedicated to cinema and neoliberalism.

World Cinema Directory: Brazil (2014)  and World Film Location: São Paulo (2013)

I co-edited with Dr Louis Bayman (University of Southampton) two major projects, the World Cinema Directory:  Brazil and World Film Location: São Paulo. These edited volumes consist of collaborations from more than eighty scholars from across the world. The projects were unprecedented in English language with a view to covering Brazilian cinema since its early years  to contemporary days. These encyclopedic projects also involved the translation of numerous contributions of scholars outside the Anglophone world. The projects aimed to disseminate Brazilian culture abroad. The São Paulo Film Commission (São Paulo City Hall) launched the World Film Location: São Paulo as part of events to encourage the use of the city as a location.

See 

World Cinema Directory: Brazil  https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo16814387.html

World Film Location: São Paulo

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo16815394.html

External impact and engagement

I took part in the Being Human Festival in 2018 and 2019. 

I was an invited speaker at the BFI Film Festival in 2016. I also introduced films and participated in Q&A at the Chagford Film Festival in 2019. 

In November 2015, I organised the film screening series “Journeys in Brazilian Cinema” with the Brazilian Embassy in London.  

In December 2014, I spoke about my co-edited volume World Film Location: São Paulo to the public as part of an event organised by the São Paulo Film Comission. 

The Penguin Portuguese Phrasebook 

Penguin Random House contacted me in 2013 to translate a Portuguese Phrasebook. I produce it together with Jill Norman, the author of other phrasebooks in the same series. Penguin Random House published the Portuguese Phrasebook in 2014, months before the World Cup in Brazil, and is currently on sale across the globe.

Contribution to discipline

I marked exams and courseworks for the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hull.

I am a member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies.  

I have reviewed articles and books for a number of journals. 

Media

Interview with Canal Londres 

https://www.canallondres.tv/paginas-do-cinema-brasileiro-em-londres-natalia-pinazza/

The Big Picture Magazine

https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/BP22.pdf

Teaching

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. My teaching reflects my interest in Latin American and Portuguese-speaking culture.

Modules taught

• MLP1002 - Introduction to the Lusophone World
• MLP1052 - Portuguese Language for Beginners
• MLP2005 - Travelling Identities in the Lusophone World
• MLP2052 - Intermediate Portuguese
• MLP3002 - Afro-Brazil: Ideas of Africa in Brazilian Fiction
• MLP3111 - Advanced Portuguese Language Skills
• SML1207 - Introduction to Film
• SML3041 - Green Matters in Modern Languages and Cultures
• SMLM236 - Latin American Cinema: Race, Nation and Representation

Biography

I was born and schooled in São Paulo, Brazil. I was awarded my BA in Languages and Literature (First Class) at the University of São Paulo. I hold an Academic Excellence Awards funded MA with distinction and an Overseas Research Student Awards Scheme funded PhD from the University of Bath. I worked at the Cultural Sector of UNESCO headquarters in Paris. In 2012, I was awarded the UNESCO Keizo Obuchi Fellowship to explore intercultural dialogue through visual arts at the University of Ottawa, Canada. I taught content and language modules at the University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield, Regent’s University and Birkbeck College, University of London.