Peer-reviewed scholarship, in-press work, public scholarship and book reviews. The CV PDF provides the complete record of academic employment, teaching, and service.
Peer-reviewed journal articles (published)
Bessai, J. (2025). Populist style, nationalist affect, and the aporetic condition: Rhetorical realignment in Canada’s 2025 election. Journal of Intercultural Studies. Advance online publication.
Bessai, J. (2025). Algorithmic realities and the Canadian aporetic condition: Digital counter publics and epistemological justice. Alma Mater – Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Kulturforschungen, 2(3), 15–25
Bessai, J. W. (2025). Digital flames: Public storytelling, climate, and reconciliation at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series, 15(1), 29–38.
Bessai, J. W. (2025). The aporetic condition in Canadian public policy: Cultural resurgence and ecological transition. Études canadiennes / Canadian Studies, 99, 93–103.
Bessai, J. W. (2024). Interdisciplinary dialogues: Media arts in humanities scholarship: The National Film Board of Canada as an interdisciplinary infrastructure. Scaffold: Journal of the Institute of Comparative Studies in Literature, Arts and Culture, 1(2), 5–11.
Peer-reviewed book chapters (published)
Bessai, J. W. (2026). Sustainability as strategic narrative: The Canadian aporetic condition and global environmental governance. In S. Gudek-Golcek, G. Durmaz, & A. Inan-Simsek (Eds.), Critical approach to sustainability discourse and action in international relations (pp. 349–376). IGI Global.
Accepted / in press
Bessai, J. W. (in press). Exposing the digital gaze: The NFBC and vernacular media in contemporary Canadian storytelling. Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature, 50(1).
Bessai, J. W. (in press). From documentary to digital: The National Film Board of Canada’s role in transnational knowledge transfer, 20th–21st century. Hungarian Historical Review.
Bessai, J. W. (in press). Art as a public service in the Canadian aporetic condition: The NFB, stylisation of experience, and national identity. British Journal of Canadian Studies.
Bessai, J. (in press). Digital genre fiction at the National Film Board of Canada: Civic storyworlds, Indigenous futurisms, and environmental memory. Literature, Critique, and Empire Today (special issue: Breaking Convention: Genre Fiction in a Global Frame).
Bessai, J. (in press). The toxic in public discourse: Art, media, and digital spaces. Culture and Dialogue, 14(1).
Forthcoming
Bessai, J. (forthcoming). The toxic in public discourse: Art, media, and digital spaces. Culture and Dialogue, 14(1).
Bessai, J. (forthcoming). Global citizenship and digital storytelling: The aporetic condition across Canada and India. Journal of Multi-disciplinary International Studies.
Bessai, J. (forthcoming). Digital storytelling and everyday democracy. In Everyday Democracy: Building Resilience Against Polarization and Radicalization. Routledge.
Bessai, J. W. (forthcoming). The Acadian expulsion: Empire, aporia, and archival evidence. In Pro and Con. Arguments: “The Acadian expulsion”. Infobase.
Public scholarship
Bessai, J. (2025, December 5). Playing inside the grid: Bear 71, Do Not Track, and life under observation. NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment), The Otter.
Book reviews
Bessai, J. (2025). Review of Philosophizing the Americas. H-Net Reviews.
Bessai, J. (2024). Review of Sitting Bull and the paradox of Lakota nationhood. H-Net Reviews.
Bessai, J. W. (2017, Fall). Review of The Margaret Atwood Effect: Essays on Atwood’s works and influence. Waterfront Magazine.
ORCID: 0009-0003-2755-6623
John W. Bessai, PhD 