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 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. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3373-1707-6.ch011
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (Published)
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).https://doi.org/10.1177/30333962251414774
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).https://doi.org/10.1177/30333962251414774Bessai, J. W. (2025). Populist style, nationalist affect, and the aporetic condition: Rhetorical realignment in Canada’s 2025 election. Journal of Intercultural Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2025.2565772
Bessai, J. W. (2025). Algorithmic realities and the Canadian aporetic condition: Digital counterpublics and epistemological justice. Alma Mater – Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Kulturforschungen, 2(3), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.29329/almamater.2025.1360.2
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. https://doi.org/10.31178/UBR.15.1.3
Bessai, J. W. (2025). The aporetic condition in Canadian public policy: Cultural resurgence and ecological transition. Études canadiennes / Canadian Studies, 99, 93–103. https://doi.org/10.4000/15g1r
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. https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/J-ICSLAC/article/view/4885
Peer-Reviewed Scholarship (In Press)
Journal articles (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.
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). The toxic in public discourse: Art, media, and digital spaces. Culture and Dialogue, 14(1).
Bessai, J. W. (in press). Global citizenship and digital storytelling: The aporetic condition in Canada. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies.
Public Scholarship
Bessai, J. W. (2026, January 19). Reading the city through countermonuments of ecology: From
Mistaseni to Floodlines. NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment), The Otter. https://niche-canada.org/2026/01/19/reading-the-city-through-countermonuments-of-ecology-from-mistaseni-to-floodlines/
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. https://niche-canada.org/2025/12/05/playing-inside-the-grid-bear-71-do-not-track-and-life-under-observation/
Historical Research and Argument-Based Analysis (Forthcoming)
Bessai, J. W. (forthcoming). The Acadian expulsion: Empire, aporia, and archival evidence. In Pro and Con Arguments: “The Acadian expulsion”. Infobase.
Book Reviews
Bessai, J. W. (2025). Review of Philosophizing the Americas, edited by J. A. Carter & H. A. Estévez. H-Net Reviews. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=60974
Bessai, J. W. (2024). Review of Sitting Bull and the Paradox of Lakota Nationhood (G. C. Anderson). H-Net Reviews. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=60297
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
