Department of English > Graduate Programs

English Department Faculty by Area of Specialization: Film & Literature

Film and Literature at NIU

In NIU’s Department of English, Film and Literature is one of the most interdisciplinary graduate fields as it examines literature in relation to cinema as well as other forms of media. Whether taking a few classes or pursuing the Master’s degree in Film and Literature, students working in this field will be able to diversify their research and teaching by examining other popular mediums along with literature.

A Program Grounded in Innovation

Professors Emeriti Robert T. Self and Lynne Waldeland introduced film courses and co-founded Literature and Film graduate studies in 1976, establishing the NIU English department as a leader in the interdisciplinary study of the relationship between literature and the cinema. Today, the core courses for the program include ENG 690: Film and Literature, a seminar giving students a foundational basis for understanding not only film as a storytelling medium but also literature’s role in the age of mass media. Film and Literature graduate students also take ENG 604: Teaching Film, a graduate pedagogy course tailored to the specific needs of different levels of English teachers, from high school to college.

Beyond the core courses, graduate students are offered a variety of film-related topics classes. Recently, these courses covered cinema in relation to Shakespeare and film, critical theory, gender and sexuality, and specific filmmakers, including a recent seminar on Alfred Hitchcock. Film and Literature students also often take coursework in the Department of Communication, including classes on film theory and history. COMS 657: Documentary Theory and Practice offers students production experience by working on documentary projects.

From Classic Hollywood to the Digital Age and Documentary

The department’s lead professor in Film and Literature is Dr. Scott Balcerzak , whose research encompasses both American and European cinema, along with media studies and cultural theory. Balcerzak’s Buffoon Men: Classic Hollywood Comedians and Queered Masculinity (Wayne State University Press, 2013) employs gender theory to reinterpret popular screen comedians from the first half of the 20^th century, tracing social changes related to class, ethnicity, race, and technology as they appear in film comedy.

Balcerzak’s work has appeared in such journals as The Journal of Film and Video, Camera Obscura, Post Script, and Film/Literature Quarterly. His research also includes theorizing digital culture and cinema – co-editing and contributing to Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Film, Pleasure, and Digital Culture, Volumes 1 and 2 (Wallflower Press, 2009/2012).

Supporting faculty in the Film and Literature program include Professor Emeritus Robert Self, who is a nationally recognized authority on the work of Hollywood director Robert Altman. His research on Altman’s films has appeared in numerous journals and has been published in two books:  Robert Altman’s Subliminal Reality (University of Minnesota Press, 2002), and Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West (University Press of Kansas, 2007).

Professor of Communication Jeffrey Chown also serves as adjunct faculty in the Department of English. Besides being a published film scholar, Chown is an acclaimed filmmaker, whose historical documentaries include Barbed Wire Pioneers, John Peter Altgeld: The Eagle Remembered, DeKalb Stories, and Lincoln and the Black Hawk War.

More Interdisciplinary Connections: Popular Music and Culture

Other professors in the department work in the area of popular culture studies by focusing on music. Dr. Joe Bonomo has published three books in this field with Continuum Press: AC/DC’s Highway to Hell (2010), Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found (2009/2011; translated into French, 2013), and Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band (2007; translated into French, 2012). He is also the editor of Conversations with Greil Marcus (University Press of Mississippi, 2012).

Along with often employing cinema in his classes, Dr. Timothy Ryan’s current research covers literature and music, as his book in progress, Yoknapatawpha Blues, examines thematic and formal parallels between the works of the first generation of Mississippi blues recording artists and canonical white novelist William Faulkner.

If you study Film and Literature at NIU

Film and Literature students partake in various film-related activities around campus and the local community. They have helped to organize film screenings at the historic Egyptian Theatre in downtown DeKalb, including the Tournées French Film Festival and an AFI American Film series. The campus also hosts the Reality Bytes Film Festival, a long-running showcase of international student film work in both documentary and fiction categories. The festival always brings a high-profile film industry professional to DeKalb to interact with NIU students.

In addition to the department’s Master’s degree concentration in Film and Literature, the NIU English department has regularly supported doctoral students who wish to focus their research in the field. Recently completed dissertations have included analysis of film representations of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the attacks of 9/11; of colonial and postcolonial spaces in recent films depicting Great Britain; and of film adaptations of John Webster’s Renaissance drama The Duchess of Malfi.

For More Information

If you have any questions, please call (815-753-1608), email (valtmaier@niu.edu), or stop by the Department of English Graduate Studies office in Reavis 215. You may also contact the department’s Film and Literature program advisor, Professor Scott Balcerzak (sbalcerzak@niu.edu).

M.A. in Film and Literature program requirements < http://catalog.niu.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=19&poid=3300&returnto=454>

Ph.D. in English requirements < http://catalog.niu.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=19&poid=3254&returnto=582>

Admissions < http://www.engl.niu.edu/graduate/admissions.shtml#native