Film Studies

The film scholar must be respectful and critical of past work, open-minded and dubious about the present, and optimistic about the future of film.

Courses Taught

Advanced Writing for Film/TV

Hitchcock Disciples

Screen Comedy & Clowns

The Hollywood Western

Hollywood’s Golden Age

Masters of Film: Griffith, Welles, and Hitchcock

The Language of Film

Intellectual Property & the Movies

Understanding Movies

Fundamentals of Writing for Film and Television

Film and Culture

Introduction to Film

Women of Film

WOMEN OF FILM

SENIOR SEMINAR

“Cinema is an art form meant to be experienced and appreciated in a group setting. To enable my students to experience films they study in ways they were intended to be seen, on a large screen, in a theater, I have arranged with the creative manager of our local Alamo Drafthouse cinema to screen a number of films each semester as part of the theater’s film club series.”

My Teaching Philosophy

Film studies to me is about discovery and sharing. In guiding students in their discovery and discussion of film, it is my aim to awaken them to a deeper understanding, something more than an appreciation of any individual film or filmmaker’s oeuvre. I believe it is the responsibility of the student of film to act as interpreter, to be a conduit between the film artist and filmgoer who seeks more than just to be entertained during a movie’s running time. The film scholar must be respectful and critical of past work, open-minded and dubious about the present, and optimistic about the future of film.

There are several learning objectives I value that are consistent from course to course. First, I aim to develop students’ analytical skills. Second, I encourage curiosity so that students become independent learners. Third, I support students in the development of their own voice. Lastly, I encourage students to be open to others’ viewpoints and to work collaboratively.

In order to achieve this, it is necessary for me to engage students’ interest, make content relevant, and guide them toward an understanding of difficult concepts. Film studies should be about ideas and not the memorization of names, dates, and filmographies. My assigned readings, in-class discussions, and assessments are designed with this in mind. It is through ideas that we examine our culture—its past, present, and future. I employ various active-learning strategies to keep the focus on the larger concepts we examine. For instance, to help students analyze, draw connections between, and chart the evolution of a genre or individual filmmaker’s canon, I have them work together throughout the semester to compile a matrix which becomes a practical way to document the results of in-class discussions about theme, style, and narrative content, and helps students to recall material read, screened and discussed weeks prior.

Of the high-impact practices I employ, Project Based Learning has been the most popular and effective. I found the best way to engage media students’ interest is to encourage their creativity with a collaborative, semester-long project. Students conduct research on course-related issues, discuss their findings, then refine and compile their materials to present and explain on-camera (with students interviewing each other in our TV studio) in what becomes a mini-documentary about the course. Students enjoy this production-based approach, saying it differs from courses where they typically write a research paper then present it in power-point format to a room of classmates all anxious about their own presentations. By participating in the creation of a professional-quality media project, students are immediately invested and interested in each other’s work, offering constructive criticism, all with the objective of creating an entertaining and informative window to the course.

Cinema is an art form meant to be experienced and appreciated in a group setting. To enable my students to experience films they study in ways they were intended to be seen, on a large screen, in a theater, I have arranged with the creative manager of our local Alamo Drafthouse cinema to screen a number of films each semester as part of the theater’s film club series. Students join a community of cinema enthusiasts who engage in ongoing discussions of the art of film and how it is used to enrich people’s lives, grapple with and illuminate contemporary issues, and, of course, entertain.

Finally, making myself available to discuss not only students’ current courses, but their academic careers in general, as well as beyond, is all part of my approach. I am immensely proud of my students’ work and honored to be their teacher.