Academic + Research
Academic Interests
- American Studies
- Popular Culture
- Film and History
Research Interests
The misperception of our history, culture, and values as a result of media constructions, conventions, and fictions. We live in a media environment and our fellow citizens need visual literacy skills so that they can act intelligently in our democracy. I teach interdisciplinary seminars on film and television, on important decades, and on themes such as the Presidency, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam war. Also, I have supervised dissertations on Flannery O'Connor, Steinbeck, Jack London, and Hemingway on the literary side. Additionally, I have some interest in the ethnic experience--dissertations on the Boston Irish; Mexican-American literature; and African-American literature. (One of my former students is a popular African-American author.) Film research by students has focused on the adaptations of literature to film by major authors plus special works on the 1970s in film, on Vietnam in film, and on single creative personalities such as Frank Capra. My strengths as an advisor are due to my fascination with the details of history and culture--a focus which enriches and enlightens both literary and cinematic texts. This focus was cultivated during my undergraduate years in Harvard's History and Literature (Honors) Program and further developed in the History of American Civilization PhD program. I have done nothing else ever since--in writing and on film--and plan to trudge along this interdisciplinary path until I drop. God bless Captain Vere and Perry Miller!