MA in Screen Studies, Oklahoma State University
BS in Mass Communication, Shepherd University
Areas of Interest & Expertise
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History of American cinema
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Film training and professionalization
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Film festivals
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Experimental film and literature
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Postmodern fiction
Recent Courses Taught
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ENGL 1113: Composition I
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ENGL 1213: Composition II
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ENGL 2413: Conversations in Literature
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ENGL 2453: Introduction to Film and Television
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ENGL 3453: History of American Cinema
Selected Conference Presentations
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"Mockbusters and Professionalization in the Late-Second New Hollywood." Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). Denver, Colorado. April 2020. (accepted but conference canceled)
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"The Post-Fordist Film School." Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). Seattle, Washington. March 2019.
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"Experimental TV: The Children's Television Workshop and the Avant-Garde." Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). Toronto, Canada. March 2018.
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"Jane Campion presents Julia Leigh: Mentorships at the International Film Festival." MPCA/ACA Regional Conference. Chicago, Illinois. October 2016
Digital Projects
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This web-based interactive fiction was a collaboration with author James Brubaker to adapt his short story into hypertext to promote the author’s collection of short stories and explore the possibilities and limitations of hypertext fiction in contrast to print.
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A Rose for Emily: An Interactive Fiction, 2016.
This web-based text-based adventure game is an adaptation of William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” and was developed as a teaching tool for undergraduate literature students learning modernist and post-modernist literary strategies. The project is currently under redevelopment to be submitted to a digital humanities or related journal on the intersection of digital media, literature, and pedagogy.
Professional Service
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OSU English Department webmaster, 2015-present
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Exciterbulb projectionist, 2012-2018
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OSU First-Year Writing webmaster, 2014-2015
Awards and Recognition
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Houston-Truax-Wentz Travel Award, Spring 2019
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Houston-Truax-Wentz Travel Award, Spring 2018
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Leonard J. Leff Film and Media Studies Award, Spring 2016
Professional Memberships
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Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
Current Research Projects
My dissertation project is concerned with practice-based film, television, and media education programs and their development under the logic of neoliberalism and post-Fordist production. I will investigate the global film industry's influence on film and television production training and how regional film schools serve runaway productions and their local economies.
In addition to researching and writing my dissertation, I am also researching and drafting two articles. The first article explores mentorship practices in the film industry, specifically how national cinemas mobilize the reputations of externally recognized directors to initiate younger talent and thereby grow their cinema. I use as my primary case study award-winning New Zealand-born but Australian-trained Jane Campion’s state supported mentorship of Australian director Julia Leigh with her directorial debut, Sleeping Beauty (2011). The second article tracks the Children’s Television Workshop and Sesame Street’s interest and affiliation with avant-garde and experimental filmmaking in its formative years, 1969-1974. More specifically, the article highlights how the organization contracted avant-garde and experimental practitioners and incorporated their practices into the program’s visual style to complement the show’s pedagogical goals. I use as my primary case study Jim Henson and his work with Sesame Street, which was informed by his background in both advertising and experimental filmmaking.