CV

PDF copy of my CV

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Cinema and Media Studies, June 2019

  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • Dissertation: “Space Invaders: Warner Bros. and the History of Hollywood in the Video Game Industry”
  • Advisor: John T. Caldwell
  • Date of advancement to doctoral candidacy: October 2015

M.A., Cinema and Media Studies, June 2011 

  • University of California, Los Angeles

B.A., English, May 2009

  • Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
  • Minors: Film and Adolescent Education (English, grades 7-12)
  • Summa Cum Laude
  • Studied abroad at University of Essex, Colchester, England

PUBLICATIONS

Edited Volumes

The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy (co-editor with Bryan Hikari Hartzheim and Stephen Mamber). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

  • Review: Meikle, Kyle. “Franchises: Now More than Ever!” Adaptation, 1 November 2019. (PDF)

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

  • “Worldbuilding, Retconning, and Legacy Rebooting: Alien and Contemporary Media Franchise Strategies.” In Film Reboots, edited by Daniel Herbert and Constantine Verevis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming.
  • “The Road to Arkham Asylum: Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Transitional Transmedia.” In Comics | Games: From Hybrid Medialities to Transmedia Expansions, edited by Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, and Jan-Noël Thon. New York: Routledge, forthcoming.
  • “Amazon’s Prime Initiative: The Ecommerce Alignment of Amazon Studios and Twitch.” In Content Wars: Tech Empires vs. Media Empires, edited by Denise Mann, Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming.
  • “Introduction: The Franchise Era” (co-author with Bryan Hikari Hartzheim and Stephen Mamber). In The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy, edited by James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber, 1-28. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
  • “The (Im)Perfect Organism: Dissecting the Alien Media Franchise” (co-author with Stephen Mamber). In The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy, edited by James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber, 31-51. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
  • “Hollywood’s VR Vision: New Frontier or Virtually the Same Thing?” In The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy, edited by James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber, 277-299. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
  • “‘Sometimes the Old Ways Are the Best’: Ret-Conning in James Bond Video Games”. In James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy, edited by Michele Brittany. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2014.

PRESENTATIONS

Invited Talks

  • “The Road to Arkham: Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Transitional Transmedia.” Oral presentation at Comics/Games: Aesthetic, Ludic, and Narrative Strategies symposium, Hanover, Germany, November 5-7, 2018.

Conference Presentations

  • “Priming Amazon: Twitch and the Streaming Wars.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Denver, Colorado, April 1-5, 2020.
  • “Low-Budget Franchise, Low-Budget Game: Friday the 13th and Film-to-Video Game Adaptations in the Networked Era.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, November 15-17, 2019.
    • Panel Chair (with Daniel Singleton): “Video Game Adaptations”
  • “The (Im)Perfect Organism: Dissecting the Alien Franchise.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Seattle, Washington, March 13-17, 2019. 
  • “Building a New Type of Video Game Tie-In: The Adaptation Strategies of LEGO Dimensions.” Association of Adaptation Studies Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 27-28, 2018.
  • “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s the Birth of the Tie-In Video Game Genre: Atari’s Superman.”  Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Toronto, Canada, March 14-18, 2018. 
    • Panel Chair (with Oscar Moralde): “Ways of Play: Histories and Futures of Genre in Video Game Studies”
  • “Back in the USSR: Paratextual Reframing and the From Russia With Love Video Game.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 13-17, 2017. 
  • “New Frontier or Virtually the Same Thing? : Hollywood’s VR Vision.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, March 30-April 3, 2016.
  • “A Winner Is Warner Bros.: How a Movie Studio Came to Rule the Video Game Industry.” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 10-13, 2016.
  • “Playing with Reflexivity: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and the Transmedia Production of Batman: Arkham Origins.” Presented at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Montreal, Canada, March 25-29, 2015.
  • “Rebooting the Movie-Game: The Effects of Transmedia Storytelling and the Mobile Market.” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 11-14, 2015.
  • “Infinite Change: Disney Infinity and the Licensed Video Game.” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 19-22, 2014.
  • “Seeing Double(07): Franchise Rewriting in James Bond Video Games.” Popular Culture Association and American Culture Associations Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2013.
  • “Negotiating Nostalgia and Contradictions in Epic Mickey.” Conference of the National Popular Culture & American Culture Assocation, Boston, Massachusetts, April 11-14, 2012.
    • Panel Chair: “Issues in Animation: Offshoring, Games, and MMORPGs”
  • “Getting Committed: Inside The Asylum.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 8-11, 2012.
  • “Revenge of the (Angry Video Game) Nerd: James Rolfe and Web 2.0 Fandom.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture & American Culture Association and the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture & American Culture Association, San Antonio, Texas, April 20-23, 2011.

Workshops

  • “Movies and Memos.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Seattle, Washington, March 13-17, 2019.
  • “The Nuts and Bolts of Lesson Planning.” University of California, Los Angeles, Teaching Assistant Conference, Los Angeles, California, September 25-26, 2017.
  • “Hacking the Industry: Studying Hollywood Digitally.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, March 30-April 3, 2016.

Departmental Talks

  • “Machinima’s Two Masters: A Multiplatform Network’s Struggle to Straddle Hollywood and Digital Culture.” Cinema and Media Studies Colloquium, University of California, Los Angeles, November 29, 2017.
  • “ClipNotes in the Classroom.” Cinema and Media Studies Colloquium, University of California, Los Angeles, November 9, 2016.

AWARDS, GRANTS, AND HONORS

External

  • Graduate Student Travel Bursary, Association of Adaptation Studies, 2018
  • Student Travel Grant, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2017
  • Strong Research Fellowship, The Strong National Museum of Play, 2016

University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate Division

  • Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, 2015
  • Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, 2014

University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media 

  • Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship, 2018
  • Moving Image Archive Studies Travel Award, 2016
  • Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship, 2016
  • Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship, 2015

Le Moyne College

  • The Monsignor Charles F. McEvoy Medal in Sophomore Liberal Arts, 2009
  • The Eugene J. Fitzmartin Medal in English, 2009
  • Outstanding Student Teacher Award, 2009
  • Newhouse Award for Critical Essay for “The Breakdown of Good and Evil in M,” 2007
  • Dean Scholarship, 2005

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Fellow, September 2014-August 2019

  • UCLA Havas Digital Incubator and Think Tank
  • Author of white papers and blog posts on topics involving connections between Silicon Valley and Hollywood (e.g., virtual reality, Amazon’s digital ecosystem, and artificial intelligence) on behalf of Havas Media Group and University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

Research Assistant, October 2018-June 2019

  • John T. Caldwell, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Background research and copy-editing

Researcher and Programmer, January 2016-June 2019

  • ClipNotes, instructional video annotation app for iPad and PC, 2016-Present

Research Assistant, October 2009-June 2011, September 2013-June 2019

  • Denise Mann, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Background research, transcribing, and copy-editing

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Washington University in St. Louis (Instructor of Record)

  • “Introduction to Video Game Studies” (Spring 2020)
  • “History of American Cinema” (Spring 2020)
  • “American Film Genres” (Fall 2019)
  • “Major Film Directors: Spike Lee” (Fall 2019)
  • “The New Hollywood Cinema” (Fall 2019)

Los Angeles City College (Instructor of Record)

  • “History of the Motion Picture” (Spring 2019, online)
  • “History of the Motion Picture” (Fall 2017)

Le Moyne College (Instructor of Record)

  • “Mass Media and Society” (Summer 2013)
  • “Studies in New Media” (Fall 2012)
  • “Critical Writing” (Fall 2011, Fall 2012)

University of California, Los Angeles (Instructor of Record)

  • “Practice of Teaching Film and Television Seminar (M.F.A.)” (Fall 2017)
  • “Practice of Teaching Film and Television Seminar” (Fall 2016, Fall 2017) 
  • “English Composition, Rhetoric and Language” (Winter 2017)

University of California, Los Angeles (Teaching Assistant Assistant/Associate/Fellow)

  • “Overview of Contemporary Film Industry” (Summer 2015, Summer 2016, Summer 2017, Summer 2018, online)
  • “American Television History” (FTVDM; Spring 2017)
  • “History of the American Motion Picture” (Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Winter 2015, Fall 2015, Winter 2016)

RELATED EMPLOYMENT

Submissions Reviewer, August 2015-Present

Film Program Director and Instructor, July 2012-July 2019

English Teacher, September 2012-June 2013

  • Liverpool Central School District, Liverpool, NY
  • Courses: English (Grades 9-10); Writing Workshop (Grade 12)

English Language Arts Teacher, July 2012-August 2012

  • Oswego County BOCES Summer School, Central Square, NY
  • Courses: English Language Arts (Grades 7-8)

Film Summer Instructor, July-August 2010

  • University of Southern California, South Central Upward Bound Program, Los Angeles, CA
  • Course: “Introduction to Film Studies” (Grades 10-12)

SERVICE

Institutional Service (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Coordinator and moderator, “Will Movies Survive? – Producing and Financing Content in an Ever-Changing Landscape,” Film and Media Studies Program guest-speaker event, November 2019.
  • Bi-Annual Learning Assessment Committee, Film and Media Studies Program, September 2019

Institutional Service (University of California, Los Angeles)

Professional

CERTIFICATIONS

  • UCLA Graduate Certificate in Writing Pedagogy (2018)
  • Online Network of Educators (@ONE): Introduction to Teaching with Canvas (2018)
  • Online Network of Educators (@ONE): Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning (2018)
  • New York State Teaching Certification in English Language Arts, Grades 7-12 (2011)
  • New York State Teaching Certification in Students With Disabilities, Grades 7-12 (2011)

ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS

  • The Association of Adaptation Studies
  • Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education
  • Modern Language Association 
  • National Council for Teachers of English
  • Society for Cinema & Media Studies (Media Industries, Transmedia Studies, and Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Groups)

TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

  • Coding: XML
  • eLearning: Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle
  • Photo editing: Adobe Photoshop
  • Video editing: Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, iMovie
  • Web platforms: WordPress

LANGUAGES

  • English: Native
  • French: Intermediate
  • Spanish: Intermediate

CV last updated: March 2020