Leshu Torchin

Biography

I specialise in the subject of film and its role in bearing witness to genocide and human rights abuses, distant and near, past and present, with particular attention to the uses of film and other screen media in activist campaigns. I am especially interested in how film and entertainment culture are brought to bear on advocacy. My monograph, Creating the Witness: Documenting Genocide on Film, Video, and the Internet (University of Minnesota Press, Visible Evidence Series) conducts a transhistorical study of media witnessing across several key sites of genocide, from an examination of film-based campaign by Near East Relief in response to the Armenian Genocide to the consideration of YouTube as a site of activism in response to the crisis in Darfur.

Research Interest

I research topics in research in documentary, Holocaust and genocide studies, media and activism (such as economic and social justice, human rights, feminism), film festivals, and politics on film. Other interests include media and migration (both travelling cultures and the expanded realms of film), and tourism. Proposed theses on these topics are welcome.