Amgad Serour holds an MA in French from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He completed his Ph.D. degree in French Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He also has three Ph.D. minors in Film Studies, Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society, and Development Studies and Social Change. His current book project, “Films of Devastation: The Visual Ethics of Loss in French and Francophone Cinemas,” explores new ways of representing loss. Instead of utilizing the representative function of cinema, he argues that films of devastation ― such as Hiroshima mon amour, The Battle of Algiers, and Level Five ― mobilize the cinematic play of presence and absence to elaborate new film ethics. They locate ethics on both sides of losses: their simultaneous unavailability and ever-ghostly presence.
Amgad has experience teaching undergraduate courses at all levels. His teaching record includes beginning, intermediate, and advanced French language and communication courses at both semester-long and accelerated paces as well as literature, film, and culture courses. At Pitt, he teaches "History of French Cinema,” “Advanced French Conversation,” and “Writing French.”