Dr Agnieszka Piotrowska, Reader in Film Theory & Practice at the University, launched the books called Black and White: Cinema, politics and the arts in Zimbabwe and Psychoanalysis and the Unrepresentable: From culture to the clinic at a special event at Birkbeck University of London.

Dr Piotrowska said; “Black and White documents my practice research in Zimbabwe, attempting to dislodge some of the easy assumptions and stereotypes about Zimbabwe promoted by Western media.

“It also positions myself both as a researcher and as an artist firmly in the discourse, subverting a patriarchal presumption regarding the position of the researcher in an academic discourse.”

The event also featured a screening of Dr Piotrowska’s award-winning documentary Lovers in Time or how we didn't get arrested in Harare, which explores the life and legacy of Mbuya Nehanda, a national icon and leader of an uprising against the white settlers in Zimbabwe at the end of the 19^th Century.

“I am proud of my work in the community in Harare and feel privileged to have been given a chance to do this work, both as a filmmaker and as a scholar,” said Dr Piotrowska.

Escape, launched at the Zimbabwean International Film Festival in Harare in October and received acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Next week Dr Piotrowska will be the keynote speaker at the Languages of Trauma conference in Berlin, where she will show Lovers in Time and discuss postcolonial trauma.