Education
Indiana University (Ph.D.)
University of Miami (MA)
University of Missouri (BA)
Areas of Expertise
Film history, film and TV genres (action, noir, sci-fi, horror), race, gender, and
technology in media, digital aesthetics, architecture and city space in screen cultures
Biography
After an earlier incarnation as a singer-songwriter-musician in London (ah, the 鈥80s),
I am pleased to have found a home in the Department of Electronic Media and Film since
2015. I explore film genre (horror, noir, sci-fi, action), film history, race, gender,
and technology in film and television, digital aesthetics, and cinematic urban architecture
in teaching, conference presentations, research and publishing. My fifteen seconds
of fame occurred when I played a pivotal role 鈥 鈥淭hird-Class Survivor鈥 鈥 in Titanic (1997), now archived in the wilds of YouTube as 鈥淒eleted Scene #29.鈥 I hope this
isn鈥檛 a metaphor.
Teaching
- Film History
- Genre Theory and Criticism: Horror Cinema
- City Cinema: Film Noir, Romance, and Action in the Urban Environment
- Intro to EMF: Media, Culture, and Convergence
- Special Topics: History of Action Cinema; Contemporary Non-Fiction Cinema: Cultural
& Social Impacts; Body Image through History; Principles of Film and Media Production
Publications
Book
Home Screens: Public Housing in Global Film and Television, Editor and Author (鈥淚ntroduction: Public Housing in Global Film and Television鈥
and 鈥淐h. 1, Uncanny Architecture: Haunted Structures in Candyman and The Pruitt-Igoe
Myth鈥), London: Bloomsbury Academic (Nov. 2023).
JOURNAL ARTICLES
- 鈥淯ntethered Technology in Gravity: Gender and Spaceflight from Science Fact to Fiction,鈥
Science Fiction Film and Television, Special Issue: 鈥淲hen the Astronaut is a Woman:
Beyond the Frontier in Film and Television,鈥 co-edited with Dr. Lisa Purse, University
of Reading, UK (2019).
- 鈥淏lood in the Corridor: The Digital Mastery of Hero-Run Shootouts in Kick-Ass and
Wanted,鈥 Journal of Popular Film and Television, co-authored with Dr. Stuart Bender,
Curtin University, Australia (2017).
- 鈥淐ranked Masculinity: Hypermediation in Digital Action Cinema,鈥 Cinema Journal (2012).
- 鈥淏lack Man/White Machine: Will Smith Crosses Over,鈥 The Velvet Light Trap (2011).
- 鈥淩uby Red and Emerald Green: The Queer Demon Diva of My Dreams,鈥 Camera Obscura (2008).
-
- 鈥淲ith All Due Retrospect: The Essential Harold Lloyd,鈥 Film & History (2005).
BOOK CHAPTERS
- 鈥淢arket Forces: James Bond, Women of Color, and the Eastern Bazaar,鈥 in The Cultural
Life of James Bond: Specters of 007, Amsterdam University Press (2020).
- 鈥淎 Digital Nature: Lucy Takes Technology for a Ride,鈥 in A Companion to the Action
Film, Wiley-Blackwell (2019).
- 鈥淔emale Leadership, Sacrifice, and Technological Mastery on Star Trek: Voyager,鈥 in
To Boldly Go: Essays on Gender and Identity in the Star Trek Universe, McFarland &
Co. (2017).
- 鈥淭he Road to Lordsburg: Rural Masculinity in Supernatural,鈥 in TV Goes to Hell: An
Unofficial Roadmap of Supernatural, ECW Press (2011).
- 鈥淪he鈥檚 Just a Girl: A Cyborg Passes in The Sarah Connor Chronicles,鈥 in Across the
Screens: Science Fiction Film, Television, and Adaptations, Routledge (2011).
- 鈥溾楲e Western Noir鈥: The Punisher as Revisionist Superhero Western,鈥 in The Amazing
Transforming Superhero! Essays on the Revision of Characters in Comic Books, Film
and Television, Routledge & Co. (2007).