• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Cost, Aid & Scholarships
    • Visit Us
    • Request Information
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Programs
      • BA in Journalism
        • News Reporting & Editing
        • Public Relations
      • BA in Media
        • Cinema and Media Studies
        • Film, Television and Digital Production
        • Interactive and Digital Media
        • Media Advertising
        • Media Management, Law and Policy
        • Media Science
        • Media Technologies, Games and Culture
        • Sports Media
      • BFA in Cinematic Arts
      • BS in Game Design
    • Graduate Programs
      • MS in Media
        • Data Journalism
        • Design and Production
        • Journalism
        • Management
        • Strategic Communication
      • MA in Media Arts & Sciences
      • PhD in Media Arts & Sciences
    • Minors & Certificates
    • Honors Programs
    • Courses
    • Precollege Programs
  • Research
    • Centers, Affiliates & Partners
    • Student Opportunities
  • Career Prep
    • Career Possibilities
    • Internships
    • For Employers
  • Student Experience
    • Travel Opportunities
    • Student Work Gallery
      • Gallery Archive
    • Service Learning
    • Student Organizations
    • Media Living Learning Center
  • People
    • Leadership
    • Faculty Directory
    • Staff Directory
    • Graduate Student Directory
    • Student Ambassador Directory
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
      • Past Events
    • Speaker Series
  • Student Portal
    • Advising
      • Graduate Advising
      • Undergraduate Advising
    • Career Prep & Internships
      • Finding Internships & Jobs
      • Applying for Internship Courses
    • Get Involved
      • Student Ambassadors
      • Managing and Creating Organizations
      • Graduate Association
      • Honors Programs
      • Part-Time Jobs
    • Courses & Registration
      • BFA admission
    • Scholarships & Financial Aid
      • Travel Funding
      • Undergraduate Scholarships
      • Graduate Scholarships
    • Student Support
    • Technology
      • Connect2 Troubleshooting
      • Course Websites
      • Website Profiles
    • Travel Opportunities
  • About
    • Governance Document
    • Facilities
      • Virtual Tour
      • Radio-Television Building
      • Reserving Space
      • Audio/Video Production Facilities
    • Our History
    • Collections
    • Dean’s Advisory Board
    • Diversity
    • Join Our Team
    • Contact
      • General Inquiries
      • Report an Issue
      • Request Photos & Materials
  • Alumni & Giving
    • Giving to the School
    • Alumni Association
      • Constitution
      • Nominations
    • Distinguished Alumni Awards
    • Alumni Stories
    • Class Notes
    • Subscribe to the Newsletter

The College of Arts + Sciences

The Media School

  • Home
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Cost, Aid & Scholarships
    • Visit Us
    • Request Information
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Programs
    • Graduate Programs
    • Minors & Certificates
    • Honors Programs
    • Courses
    • Precollege Programs
  • Research
    • Centers, Affiliates & Partners
    • Student Opportunities
  • Career Prep
    • Career Possibilities
    • Internships
    • For Employers
  • Student Experience
    • Travel Opportunities
    • Student Work Gallery
    • Service Learning
    • Student Organizations
    • Media Living Learning Center
  • People
    • Leadership
    • Faculty Directory
    • Staff Directory
    • Graduate Student Directory
    • Student Ambassador Directory
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Speaker Series
  • Search
  • Student Portal
  • About
  • Alumni & Giving
  • Home
  • People
  • Profile

Cole Nelson

Contact Information

Email:
cownelso@iu.edu

Research and Creative Interests

  • Labor and Film
  • political economy of media
  • Critical theory (Adorno, Benjamin, and Brecht)
  • identity formation
  • Democracy and Media
  • Intersections of Race and Class
  • Climate Change and Media
  • Media and Social Class
  • Media representations of climate refugees

Biography

B.A. Film & Digital Media, University of California, Santa Cruz

My undergraduate thesis (“Situating the Social: The Social Problem Film in Postwar America”) examines two independently produced American Social Problem films, Ida Lupino’s Not Wanted (1949) and Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd (1957), and situates them in a discussion of the ways in which American society was articulated in the postwar period as an imagined, yet figurable, community. In so doing, I considered the film’s representational strategy of metonymic narrative – the telling of a local, individual story as paradigmatic and symptomatic of a systemic societal issue – as a method of constructing a form of popular sociology where American society is rendered intelligible as an amorphous whole.

My research now centers around the production of historical knowledge and the representation of history through cinema, particularly as it relates to the films of DEFA, the East German film studio. I wish to explore how the representation of history is experimented with in various DEFA films and how they articulate the possibility of alternatives to a capitalist mode of production.

Areas of interest:

  • Marxist/materialist critique
  • Globalization and local cultural production
  • Critical Theory and The Frankfurt School
    • Theodor Adorno, negative dialetics and non-identity
    • Walter Benjamin and the critique of imperialism
  • Organizations of resistance and technologies of communication

Related News

  • DocTalk: Cole Nelson on ‘LA 92’
  • Leadership
  • Faculty Directory
  • Staff Directory
  • Graduate Student Directory
  • Student Ambassador Directory

The Media School resources and social media channels

  • Faculty & Staff Intranet
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Indiana University

Accessibility | Privacy Notice | Copyright © 2021 The Trustees of Indiana University