Current Courses

Professional Organizations

• University Film and Video Association. 02/2017 - present. Position : Member.
• Northeast Modern Language Association. 01/2009 - 08/2015. Position : Member.
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies. 01/2005 - present. Position : Member.
• National Communication Association. 01/2005 - present. Position : Member.
• Association of Cultural Studies. 01/2004 - present. Position : Member.

Courses I Teach

• FILM 2120 - Introduction to Media Arts
  This course introduces a broad survey of media arts and explores rapid changes in moving images, media and digital culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through lectures, discussions, readings and writings about media examples, this course offers an overview of the ways in which various media arts have been developed, established, and discussed. Students will learn contextual information for major media examples, as well as advance their understanding of theoretical concepts in media and arts. The goal of this course is to provide students with conceptual tools that can be helpful in both critical thinking about contemporary media culture, and in the creative practices of media production.
• FILM 4210 - Film Genres: Independent Cinema
  This course will provide an overview of the key theories and ideas supporting the critical analysis of contemporary American independent cinema. Starting with the work of John Cassavetes, and continuing to films such as sex, lies, and videotape, Lone Star, and Four-Eyed Monsters, we will explore the ways in which independent cinema has been understood from the 1970s to the present. Addressing the sociocultural implications of the intersections between independent cinema and identity, this course will address the ways in which discourses of power, subjectivity and location become visible through filmic style. We will study the work of film scholars from various genres to see what media production, distribution, exhibition and reception can tell us about the changing meanings of independent cinema within contemporary culture. Investigating the ways in which cinema and digital cultures converge in a contemporary film landscape, this course will also study the ways in which international cinema, television, podcasts and web series have been intertwined with independent filmmaking.
• FILM 4210 - Convergence Cultures
  This course will provide an overview of the key theories and ideas supporting the critical analysis of convergence cultures. Through a variety of theoretical perspectives, we will explore the ways in which cinema has been reimagined with the advent of YouTube, online streaming and other digital technologies. Addressing the sociocultural implications of the intersections between cinema studies and digital culture, this course will address the ways in which discourses of power, identity and location become visible through new media and communication technologies. Emphasizing the ways in which the forms and technologies of popular culture have changed during the age of the internet, this course will interrogate such issues as convergence, digitality, emergence, fan cultures, paratexts, etc. We will study the work of media scholars from various genres to see what media production, distribution, exhibition and reception can tell us about the changing meanings of cinema within contemporary digital culture. Investigating the ways in which cinema and other forms of media converge, this course will also study the ways in which notions of participation, communication and identification have transformed in this context.
• FILM 6350 - Film Theory
  This course explores rapid changes of film and moving images in global visual culture. Situated in cultural theories and media studies, this course examines contemporary issues of media convergence, representation, globalization, visual simulations, identity and subjectivity, and gender and sexuality.
• Film 3120 - Film History
  Cinema history from 1952 to the present.