Film Studies at UBC
Faculty & Staff
Faculty:
LISA COULTHARD
Assistant Professor
Film Studies
BA and MA Advisor
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Lisa Coulthard holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Her main research falls into the areas of film theory and violence. She is particularly interested in film sound and violence, contemporary American and European cinemas, continental philosophy and Lacanian theory. Currently writing a book titled The Super Sounds of Quentin Tarantino, she has presented her work at dozens of conferences, has many articles published or forthcoming in major journals and edited collections and is on the editorial board for The International Journal of Zizek Studies.
Teaching Interests/Courses Taught Recently:
- FIST 200: Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1960
- FIST 436: American Cinema after 1960
- FIST 336: European Cinema
- FIST 331: Film Theory
- FIST 534: Graduate Seminar: Film Sound and Music
- FIST 534: Graduate Seminar: Contemporary Film Theory
- FIST 534: Graduate Seminar: Zizek
- FIST 534: Graduate Seminar: History, Memory and Film
- FIST 534: Graduate Seminar: Film Violence
- FIST 534: Graduate Seminar: Film Melodrama
Selected Recent and Forthcoming Publications:
- "Torture Tunes: Tarantino, Popular Music and New Hollywood Ultraviolence." Music and Moving Image 2.2 (Summer 2009).
- "Uncanny Memories: Stan Douglas, Subjectivity and the Cinema." Scope: an online journal of film and tv studies 12 (October 2008).
- “Desublimating Desire: Courtly Love and Catherine Breillat.” Journal for Cultural Research 14.1 (January 2010).
- "Visible Violence in Kiki Smith’s Life Wants to Live." Journal of Medical Humanities 25.1 (Spring 2004).
- "Killing Bill: Rethinking Feminism and Film Violence." Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture. Eds. Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2007.
- "‘I am awake in the place where women die’: Violent Death in the art of Abigail Lane and Jenny Holzer." Killing Women: The Visual Culture of Gender and Violence. Eds. Annette Burfoot and Susan Lord. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfred Laurier Press, 2006.
- "Ethical violence: suicide as authentic act in the films of Michael Haneke." The Cinema of Michael Haneke: Europe Utopia. Eds. Ben McCann and David Sorfa. London, UK: Wallflower Press, 2010.
- "The Scream of Rape: Bruno Dumont's Twenty-Nine Palms." Rape in Art Cinema. Ed. Dominique Russell. London, UK: Continuum Press, 2010.
ERNEST MATHIJS
Associate Professor
Film Studies
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Ernest Mathijs holds a Ph.D. from the Free University of Brussels. His main research interests include the reception of alternative cinema, cult cinema, and of film and stage performance. He is the editor or co-editor of 10 books, author of a dozen journal articles and book chapters, and the author of The Cinema of David Cronenberg: from Baron of Blood to Cultural Hero. He heads the Department's Centre for Cinema Studies and he is the series editor of Contemporary Cinema and Cultographies. He is currently co-authoring a textbook on cult cinema and preparing an anthology on film censorship.
Teaching Interests/Courses Taught Recently:
- FIST 200: Intro to Canadian Cinema
- FIST 300: Cult Cinema
- FIST 331: Film Theory
- FIST 534b: Seminar in Film Studies: David Cronenberg
- DRAM 201: Modern and Contemporary Drama
- DRAM 300: Theory of Performance and Dramaturgy
- THTR445: From Stage to Screen
Selected Publications:
Mathijs, Ernest (2008), The Cinema of David Cronenberg: From Baron of Blood to Cultural Hero. London: Wallflower Press. 317 pages.
Mathijs, Ernest and Xavier Mendik (eds) (2007). The Cult Film Reader. London/New York: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill. 549 pages.
Barker, Martin and Ernest Mathijs (eds) (2007). Watching The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s World Audiences. New York: Peter Lang. 297 pages.
Mathijs, Ernest (ed) (2006), The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context, London: Wallflower Press.. 341 pages.
Mathijs, Ernest and Murray Pomerance (eds) (2006). From Hobbits to Hollywood: Essays on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. New York/Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi. 403 pages.
Barker, Martin, Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik (2006), ‘Menstrual Monsters: The Reception of the Ginger Snaps Cult Horror Franchise, Film International, 21 (4/3), 68-77.
Mathijs, Ernest (2005), ‘Bad Reputations: the Reception of Trash Cinema’, Screen, 46 (4), 451-472.
Mathijs, Ernest (2004), ‘Nobody is Innocent: Cinema and Sexuality in Contemporary Belgian Culture’, Social Semiotics, 14 (1), 85-101.
Mathijs, Ernest and Janet Jones (eds.) (2004). Big Brother International: Format, Critics and Publics. London: Wallflower Press. 261 pages.
Mathijs, Ernest and Xavier Mendik (eds) (2004). Alternative Europe; European Exploitation and Underground Cinema Since 1945. London: Wallflower Press. 269 pages.
Mathijs, Ernest (ed.) (2004), The Cinema of the Low Countries, London: Wallflower Press. 266 pages.
Mathijs, Ernest (2003), ‘AIDS References in the Critical Reception of David Cronenberg: It May Not Be Such a Bad Disease after All’, Cinema Journal, 42 (4), 29-45
Mathijs, Ernest (2002), ‘Big Brother and Critical Discourse: the Reception of Big Brother Belgium’, Television and New Media, 3 (3), 311-322.
I have also contributed several dozen entries to the encyclopedia 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 100 European Horror Films, 101 Horror Films You Must See Before You Die, 101 Science-Fiction Films You Must See Before You Die, 501 Movie Directors, and 501 Movie Stars.
Professional Service (Selected):
BA and MA advisor (Spring 2008 and Spring 2009)
Chair of the editorial board of Participations, online Journal for Audience and Reception Research (www.participations.org) (2003-ongoing).
Editor of the book series: Contemporary Cinema (Editions Rodopi): www.centreforcinemastudies.com (with Steven Jay Schneider) (2003-ongoing).
Editor of the book series: Cultographies (Wallflower Press/Columbia University Press): www.cultographies.com (with Jamie Sexton) (2005-ongoing).
Recent Graduate MA Thesis Supervisions:
Brenda Cromb, “Ambivalent Passion: Pedro Almodovar’s Postmodern Melodrama’s”
Andrew deWaard, “Andre Malraux and the Intertextual Museum: towards a Cultural Economy of Intermediality”
Graeme Krautheim, “Subjectivity, Pornography, and the Construction of Comfort: Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter and Seed of Evil”
BRIAN McILROY
Professor
Film Studies
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Brian McIlroy holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. His main research interests are in Canadian and Irish Cinema and Media. He also has interests in cultural studies and theory. He is the author, editor or co-editor of six books, the most recent being Genre and Cinema: Ireland and Transnationalism (Routledge, 2007). Author of some 45 book chapters, journal articles and book reviews, in 2007-08, he was President of the Film Studies Association of Canada. He is co-founder of the Department's Centre for Cinema Studies, and some of his work can be read at www.centreforcinemastudies.com. Currently, he is exploring the potential of researching early cinemagoing and film exhibition in Vancouver.
Teaching Interests/Courses Taught Last Five years
- FIST 200 Intro to Canadian Cinema
- FIST 210 Silent Cinema
- FIST 334 Studies in Documentary
- FIST 336 Studies in European Cinema
- FIST 430 Studies in Auteurism
- FIST 500 Research Methods
- Arts One Program
Selected Publications
Genre and Cinema: Ireland and Transnationalism, ed. Brian McIlroy (London and New York: Routledge, 2007).
A Vision of the Orient: The Texts, Intertexts and Contexts of Madame Butterfly, eds. Jonathan Wisenthal, Sherill Grace, Melinda Boyd, Brian McIlroy and Vera Micznik (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006).
Shooting to Kill: Filmmaking and the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland (Richmond, B.C.: Steveston Press, 2001).
Auteur/provocateur: The Films of Denys Arcand, eds. Andre Loiselle and Brian McIlroy (Westport, CT.: Praeger, 1995).
Irish Cinema: An Illustrated History (Dublin: Anna Livia Press, 1988)
World Cinema 2: Sweden (London Flicks Books, 1986).
Professional Service (selected)
Chair, Film Studies Program, 1997-99, 2004-07.
External Reviewer (University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Program, 2005; Brock University Communications, Popular Culture and Film MA program, 2008).
Juror, SSHRC Raymond Klibansky Prize (2006)
BA Film Studies Advisor, 2002-2006; MA Film Studies Advisor, 1989-2006.
Tenure and Promotion reviewer (Carleton University, Boston University, North Carolina State University)
Book and manuscript reviewer for Minnesota University Press, Syracuse University Press, Oxford University Press.
Recent Graduate MA Thesis Supervisions:
Katherine Barcasy, “Profit and Production: Jane Austen’s Pride and Pejedice on Film” (2008)
Richard Colin Tait, “Assassin Nation: Theorizing the Conspiracy Film in the Early 21st Century” (2007)
Jennie Carlsten, "A Cinema of Resistance, A Resistance of Cinema: On the Limits and Possibilities of Northern Ireland's Commemorative Cinema" (2005)
Brock Poulin, "Dark Time(s): Non-Linear Narratives in the Postmodern Film Noir" (2005)
Jonathan Stubbs, "Sleeping with The Hegemony: British Cinema in the 1990s and the Hollywood Problem" (2002)
Katherine Pettit, "The Truth and Death of Indexicality: Philosophy, Photography and the Cinema." (2002)
Sessional Instructors:
DIANE BURGESS
Sessional Instructor
Film Studies
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Diane Burgess holds a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University. Her main research interests are international film festivals and cultural policy. She is the former Canadian Images Programmer at the Vancouver International Film Festival. She has published widely on film in BC, the Pacific New Wave, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and she has a wide range of experience as a project researcher. She is currently developing her Ph.D. dissertation, Negotiating Value: A Canadian Perspective on the International Film Festival, into a book project. She is a sessional lecturer in the Film Studies degree program.
MARK HARRIS
Sessional Instructor
Film Studies
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Mark Harris has a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. He has published approximately 3,000 critical articles in more than 50 publications. He is the senior film critic for the Vancouver weekly cultural review The Georgia Straight. He is also a poet, translator, and prize-winning playwright. He is a regularly invited to speak at cultural events and symposia across the province of BC. He is currently working on a project that explores the use of translation, subtitling, and dubbing in cinema. He is a sessional lecturer in the Film Studies degree programs.
Staff & Administration:
KAREN TONG
Film Studies Program and Graduate Secretary
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Karen Tong is the Program and Graduate Secretary for the Film Studies program. She is the immediate point of contact for any information on Film Studies at UBC, and she handles student queries on admission, prerequisites, and graduation.
RICHARD PAYMENT
Film Collection Coordinator, Visual Resources Centre
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Richard Payment is the Collection Coordinator of the Film Library at the Visual Resources Centre. He manages the purchases and lending of titles (5000+ and counting) and the use of viewing stations and the screening facilities in the seminar room.
JENNIFER SURATOS, Administrative Assistant, Film & Theatre Studies
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Jennifer Suratos is the department’s Administrative Assistant for Theatre and Film Studies. Prior to working on the administrative side, she was with the department as a Teaching Assistant and helped coordinate the Canadian Association for Theatre Research conference in the summer of 2008. She recently graduated with a Master’s in Theatre Studies from UBC.
LINDA FENTON MALLOY
Program Website.
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Linda Fenton Malloy BA Theatre (U of Ottawa) MFA (UBC), designed and maintains the Film Studies program website. Her experience as a theatre artist influences her imaginative, site specific web designs for creative organizations and individuals. See more of Linda's work at: www.lindafentonmalloy.com
