Associate Professor Stephen Teo's current research work focuses on several aspects of theoretical interest in film. Firstly, contributing to the discourse on Asian Cinema as an alternative paradigm to Hollywood as the global form, and thus to evolve a concept of Asian Cinema as a viable cinematic and media theory supporting pedagogical and creative modules. Asian cinema and the concept of national cinema are inter-related forces but it is the latter that tends to subsume the former in theoretical discourse. Teo's research work seeks a concentrated, rigorous approach to defining Asian cinema as a specialized norm of aesthetics and thematic field that can be broadly applied to Asian films produced by diverse national film industries in Asia. How do Asian cinemas transcend national interests and become an Asian Cinema as a unitary and unifying element? With Asian film industries modelling themselves on Hollywood,how can an Asian cinema stand up as an alternative model to Hollywood? A second area of Teo's reasearch interest revolves around the nature of film in relation to cultural theory and other fields of cultural interest, including literature, history and popular arts. The literary and visual contrast inherent in cinema is a striking anomaly that calls for more theoretical investigation. Teo's work has concerned itself with how historical literary works are transposed into the cinema and how historical prototypes are transfigured as cinematic personalities but retaining essential qualities. A third area of Teo's work lies in genre and auteur studies. Teo is interested in standard Hollywood genres such as the Western, the action-adventure film, the thriller, the epic, the musical, and he seeks to explore their inter-textual connections with Asian genres such as the martial arts film, the gangster action film, the melodrama, horror, and historical epic. How do auteurs transform genre? A fourth area of research interest lies in the study of emerging Asian "New Waves" in traditionally ignored film industries such as those in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. Can these Southeast Asian cinemas make a lasting impact on the discourse of Asian cinema?