Biography

My Ph.D is in Comparative Literature and I was a 19th century French and English lit student before I started working on Film.  Feminist theory drew me to Film Studies; the Gothic drew me to Horror,and the rest is history.  I wrote my dissertation with Carol Clover and have been working at the intersection of horror, European art cinema, and the avant-garde ever since.  My sub-discipline is generally known as taste politics and taste cultures, and it interrogates the way notions of taste (good and bad) are constructed.
My research interests are: Film Theory and History; taste politics; horror cinema; European art cinema; film subcultures; the avant-garde
My teaching interests are Film Theory and History; taste politics; horror cinema; European art cinema; film subcultures; the avant-garde; experimental film, theater and performance art; gender politics and theory; panic culture; French cinema; women directors; Fascism and Psychoanalysis; genre theory; the body in cinema; the event; site-specific art; and sex.

My book publications are:

Edited Anthology in Progress:

The Burroughs Century, co-edited with Charles Cannon and Alex Wermer-Colan.

Brings together the scholarly and creative work presented at The Burroughs Century in Bloomington and The Burroughs Symposia in New York—the two major events commemorating

The 100th birthday of William S. Burroughs.

Indiana University Press; plan to submit ms by Jan 2016.

Published Anthology.:

 Downtown Film and TV Culture 1975-2001. ( 2015:  Intellect Press, U.K; U.S. Distributor University of Chicago Press)

Monograph:

Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant-garde  (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).

plus numerous articles and book chapters on horror and the avant-garde

In the community, I am a spoken word performer and a member of the Writer’s Guild at Bloomington.  I like spicy Thai food; Miles Davis; avant-jazz, theater and punk music.  I’m a devoted patron of the IU Cinema.  I live in Bloomington with my cat, Izzy Isou.