Peer-reviewed scholarship, in-press work, public scholarship and book reviews.
The CV PDF provides the complete record of academic employment, teaching, and service.
Book Manuscript in Progress
Bessai, J. W. Counter-Policy in Canada: Public Code, Art as a Public Service, and the Settler Welfare State: Experiential Archives and Institutional Learning in Canadian Public Life. Single-author scholarly monograph in progress. Proposal and sample chapters submitted to McGill-Queen’s University Press in March 2026.
Reviewed Journal Articles – Forthcoming
Bessai, J. W. (forthcoming). Countering distorted pasts: Interactive documentary as public service in far-right history wars. Práticas da História.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (Published)
Bessai, J. W. (2026). Storytelling, technology, and justice: The National Film Board of Canada’s role in human rights education. Human Rights Education Review, 9(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/25355406.2026.2719469 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25355406.2026.2719469
Bessai, J. W. (2026). Capital’s media, digital command, and the fate of public communication: Reflections on David Harvey’s The Story of Capital. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 24(1), 225–243. https://doi.org/10.31269/m4s7t679
Bessai, J. W. (2026). Art as a public service in the Canadian aporetic condition: The NFB, stylisation of experience, and national identity. British Journal of Canadian Studies, 38(1), 107–125. https://doi.org/10.3828/bjcs.2026.7
Bessai, J.W., (2026) 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. W. (2026). From Documentary to Digital: The Role of the National Film Board of Canada in Transnational Knowledge, Transfer, Twentieth–Twenty-First Century. Hungarian Historical Review, 15(1), 116–145. https://doi.org/10.38145/2026.1.116
Bessai, J. (2026). The Toxic in Public Discourse: Art, Media, and Digital Spaces. Culture and Dialogue, 14(1), 25-44. https://doi.org/10.1163/24683949-12340153
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. (2025). Art as a catalyst for global citizenship: The National Film Board of Canada’s approach to societal challenges. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 21(1–2), 94–108. https://doi.org/10.5130/pjmis.v21i1-2.9636
Bessai, 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 counter-publics 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. (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
Invited Review Essay – Forthcoming
Bessai, J. W. (forthcoming). The politics of intersectionality: Representation, movements, institutions and the political economy of inequality. International Political Science Abstracts, Trends in International Political Science.
Scholarly Book Chapters – Accepted/Forthcoming
Bessai, J. W. “Writing in the Aporetic Age: Reclaiming Voice and Complexity in the Post-Chatbot Classroom.” Accepted for Human Writing in the College Classroom: Post-Chatbot Approaches. Routledge.
Bessai, J. W. (forthcoming, 2026). “Breathing the Settler Order: Toxic Sensorium, Poetics, and the State in Canada.” In M. Prabir (Ed.), Bodies That Breathe: The Politics of Air, Health, and Survival (Earth and Us, Vol. 1). Sturges and McGregor.
Bessai, J. W. (forthcoming). “Sensing the Aporia: Environmental Crises and the Toxic Sensorium in Canadian Visual Media.” In Sensing and Resisting Environmental Crises Through Visual Culture. University of Exeter Press. https://doi.org/10.47788/FVJB4763
Public Scholarship
Bessai, J. W. (2026, August 21). Reading Papaschase land: Mill Creek, Treaty 6, and the environmental making of South Edmonton. NiCHE, The Otter. https://niche-canada.org/2026/08/21/reading-papaschase-land-mill-creek-treaty-6-and-the-environmental-making-of-south-edmonton/
Bessai, J. W. (2026, August 5). Environmental rule and administrative form: The Indian Act and the Canadian aporetic condition. NiCHE, The Otter. https://niche-canada.org/2026/08/05/environmental-rule-and-administrative-form-the-indian-act-and-the-canadian-aporetic-condition/
Bessai, J. W. (2026, July 6). Kichi Zībī as public code: Heritage, jurisdiction, and the Ottawa River. NiCHE, The Otter. https://niche-canada.org/2026/07/06/kichi-zibi-as-public-code-heritage-jurisdiction-and-the-ottawa-river/
Bessai, J. W. (2026, May 19). Reservoir modernity: Lake Diefenbaker and the Great Acceleration on the Prairies. Active History / NiCHE. https://activehistory.ca/blog/2026/05/19/reservoir-modernity-lake-diefenbaker-and-the-great-acceleration-on-the-prairies/
Bessai, J. W. (2026, May 4; updated June 8). Shared air, shared water: Environmental resistance across Canadian sites under Canada-U.S. strain. NiCHE, The Otter. https://niche-canada.org/2026/05/04/shared-air-shared-water-environmental-resistance-across-canadian-sites-under-canada-u-s-strain/
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/
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters (Published)
Bessai, J. W. (2026). Digital storytelling and democracy: The National Film Board of Canada as a counterpublic institution. In P. Jonsson Severson & E. Ricknell (Eds.), Everyday Democracy: Building Resilience Against Polarization and Radicalization (pp. 163–179). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112231791-008
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
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
ORCID: 0009-0003-2755-6623
