Vita

This is an abbreviated version of my CV; see bottom of page for a full copy,
and see Citations for places online and in print in which my work has been referenced.

Teaching and Research Interests

the film musical, Shakespeare in film/video and popular culture, Gene Kelly, Twitter (and other social media) in the college classroom, gender representation in film and television

• ENGL 10123: Introduction to Drama
• ENGL 10803: Seinfeld: Introductory Composition
• ENGL 1310: Satire, Culture, Rhetoric
• ENGL 20803: Seinfeld: Intermediate Composition
• ENGL 2210: Science and Technology in Drama
• ENGL 2220: Science and Technology in the Novel
• ENGL 2322: British Literature to 1780
• FILM 1310: Introduction to Film
• FILM 1310: Introduction to Film, Distance Learning (DL)
• FILM 2340: Critical Approaches to Cinema Studies
• FILM 2350: Cinema History
• FILM 3342: Shakespeare in Film
• FILM 3980: Film Noir
• HUAS 6310: Introduction to Film and Film Theory, graduate seminar
• LIT 2341: Literary Analysis
• LIT 3320: Politically (In)Correct Shakespeare: Gender, Race, and Empire
• LIT 3320: Shakespeare: Comedies and Histories
• LIT 3320: Shakespeare: Tragedies and Romances
• MCS 209: History of Cinema III, 1976 – Present (forthcoming, winter 2012)
• MCS 273: Storytelling and Style in Cinema (forthcoming, winter 2012)
• RHET 1310: Argumentation and American Pop Culture

Works In Progress

Locating Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century (co-editor with Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm). Under contract with Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Expected completion: spring 2012. Essays explore current alternative strands, identities, and locations of “Shakespeare” (e.g., metanarratives, gender-reworking, inter-cultural adapting, online streaming), which are growing as fast as technology, performance, social networking, and cinema will allow.

Select Publications: Refereed

“The Best Sex in Contemporary Hollywood: Utopia, Ecstasy, and (Classical) Musical Number in The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Bright Lights Film Journal 71 (Feb. 2011).  Considers the musical number at the end of The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2006) and argues that, unlike other recent closing-credit numbers, it is imperative to the viewer’s understanding of the narrative, e.g., it functions as a part of the diegesis, evokes several core conventions of the classical film musical, and employs the musical’s utopic sensibility to express extraordinarily good sex.

“It Would Make John Waters Proud, But Shakespeare?: Musical Spectacle and the Absence of the Bard in Hamlet 2.” Bright Lights Film Journal 70 (Nov. 2010). Explores the presence of Shakespeare in Hamlet 2 and argues that, ironically, the film is memorable because of its lack of attention to the playwright.

“Something’s Gotta Give and the Screwball Comedy.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 37.1 (2009): 9-15.  Maintains that Nancy Meyers’s Something’s Gotta Give (2003) may have succeeded both critically and financially because it imitates the central conventions, characterization, and narrative structure of classical screwball comedies, e.g., presenting a comparatively complex view of love and romance represented by slapstick humor, verbal sparring, and active characters; paying attention to casting as well as the distinct character types and narrative framework of the commitment comedy.

“The Creative Process and the Power of Art in Shakespeare Behind Bars; or So This Is What Looking for Richard Meant to Do?” Literature/Film Quarterly 37.2 (2009): 140-50.  Looks at Shakespeare Behind Bars (2006), a documentary about an all-male Shakespeare company at a Kentucky prison, and claims that it accomplishes what Al Pacino’s documentary, Looking for Richard (1996), attempts but fails to do: invite the spectator to take part in the creative process of adapting Shakespeare while simultaneously demonstrating that art has the ability to spark passion in any person.

Select Publications: Non-Refereed

“Sex and Screwball Comedy in The Good Wife.” In Media Res(14 Oct. 2011). Looks at how CBS’s The Good Wife infuses elements of classical screwball comedy into the relationship of Diane Lockhart and ballistics expert Kurt McVeigh.

“Aaron Sorkin’s Elite Smart Girls (or Lack Thereof).” In Media Res (30 Jun. 2011). Examines the last 30 seconds of Aaron Sorkin’s Golden Globes acceptance speech (Best Screenplay, The Social Network) and considers the drastically different ways it was interpreted online (e.g., an apology for the film’s misogyny, an ode to girl-power, falsely grounded in a fictional character, etc.).

“Gene Kelly, Volkswagen, and Posthumous Performance,” FlowTV13.11 (Apr. 2011). Asserts that while Volkswagen’s two ads featuring Gene Kelly might succeed within the world of advertising awards and in the eyes of some viewers, they disappoint as homages to the star and the classical film musical because they draw attention to their own artifice, something neither Kelly nor the genre would presume to do.

“Bromance and the Boys of Boston Legal,” FlowTV, 13.07 (Jan. 2011). Also selected as a FlowTV Favorite (May 2011). Compares the homosocial bond between Boston Legal‘s Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Crane (William Shatner) to the barrage of other onscreen bromances and finds that it pales in comparison for a number of reasons.

“The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear: For the Young or the Young at Heart?” FlowTV 13.03 (Nov. 2010). Contends that Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity was not “a Woodstock for the Millennial generation” as many touted, but an event aimed heavily at Generation X and Baby Boomers. (This is a firsthand account of the rally.)

“Show Musical Good, Paired Segments Better: Glee’s Unevenness Explained,” FlowTV 12.4 (Jul. 2010).  Argues the first season of Glee feels uneven because its creator refuses to implement consistently one of the most important structural conventions of the musical genre: paired segments, evenly spaced thematic and/or sexual oppositions underscored via setting, shot selection, music, dance, and style.

“Something’s Rotten in the State of Heterosexual Love? A Timely Message from the Sassy Gay Friend.” Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, 11 Apr. 2010.  Suggests that The Second City’s “Sassy Gay Friend” Shakespeare series went viral because it reflects the volatile state of heterosexual romantic relationships in popular culture and reinforces the recent onslaught of bromances in which heterosexual romance is either floundering or virtually nonexistent and homosociality is the norm.

Recent/Forthcoming Presentations

“Gene Kelly in the Twenty-First Century,” SCMS Annual Conference, Boston. March 2012.

“The National Theatre’s “Live” Lear: Performance, Reception, Exhibition,” Joint Conference of the National PCA/ACA and the SW/TX PCA/ACA, San Antonio. Apr. 2011.

“What I Give to You, What I Share, I Do with No One Else: Homosocial Love in Boston Legal,” Film & History Conference, Milwaukee, November 10-14, 2010.

Roundtable member, “Glee: Give Us Something to Sing About.” Flow TV Conference, Austin, TX. 30 Sept.–2 Oct. 2010.

“It Would Make John Waters Proud, But Shakespeare?: Musical Spectacle and the Absence of the Bard in Hamlet 2.” SW/TX PCA/ACA Conference, Albuquerque, February 10-13, 2010.

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