Samuel Smucker
Ph.D. Student
Contact Information
Research and Creative Interests
- Melvin Van Peebles
- France in the 1960s
- American Film History
- African American cinema
- Media Theory
- Aesthetics
- screenwriting
- narrative theory
- Social Theory
Biography
Samuel Smucker’s dissertation, Expatriate Cinema: Melvin Van Peebles’s Paris, examines Van Peebles’s life and transnational creative works. He situates Van Peebles’s transnational cinema in the context of Cedric Robinson’s Black Radical Tradition and “fugitive” aesthetics. He received a Chateaubriand Fellowship, which supported a semester-long residency in Paris to do archival research. His research interests include African-American and U.S. film history, Media Theory and Research, and the political economy of media representation. At IU, he has taught Scriptwriting, Screening Race and Ethnicity, and From Harlem to Paris: Transnational Cinema and Culture.
M.A. THESES
“The Baadasssss and The Avant-Garde: The Radical Politics and Aesthetics of Melvin Van Peebles.” Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. May 2019.
“The Class Consciousness of Union Organizers.” The University of Illinois at Chicago. May 1994.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Best Master’s Thesis Award. Southern Illinois University Carbondale. 2019.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Cushman Memorial Fellowship, The Media School, Indiana University. Spring 2024.
The Hawkins Cinema and Media Studies Fellowship, The Media School, Indiana University. Fall 2023.
Chateaubriand Fellowship. French Embassy in the United States. Service de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle. Spring 2023.
Graduate and Professional School Government Research Award, Indiana University. Fall 2023.
Center for Research for Race and Ethnicity in Society Graduate Student Research Award. Indiana University. Spring 2022.
Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant. Office of the Vice-Provost for Research, Indiana University. Summer 2021.
Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant. Black Camera: An International Film Journal. Summer 2021.
PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Journal Article
“Moral Choices and Social Mobility in Lady Bird and The Graduation,” Film Criticism Journal, Volume 42, Issue 3, 2018. Journal Link.
Book Reviews
“Representations of Labor in Cinema: Skvirsky’s The Process Genre reveals that which was always there,” JumpCut 61. Summer 2022. Link.
“News War Shapes Political Rhetoric Evolution: Sid Bedingfield’s Newspaper Wars: Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935-1965,” Gateway Journalism Review. Winter 2018. Link.
Manuscripts Under Review
“Pivotal Encounters: Melvin Van Peebles, Amos Vogel, and the Shaping of a Black Radical Aesthetic.” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.
“A Black Radical Cinema before Sweetback: Fugitive Aesthetics and ‘Everyday Realism’ in Melvin Van Peebles’s Early Films.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video.
“May 1968 in France and the ‘Fragile Wall:’ Revisiting Resumption of Work at the Wonder Factory (1968),” in Wounded Galaxies 1968. Volume 1. Film and Media. Hawkins, Joan. Ed. Book Chapter.
Manuscripts in Preparation
Close-up Editor: “Melvin Van Peebles: A Wide Shot,” Black Camera: An International Film Journal, Publication expected Fall 2024.
Invited Talks
“Melvin Van Peebles’s Three Pick-Up Men for Herrick: Political Aesthetics and Transatlantic Film Distribution.” SEARCH Research Laboratory. University of Strasbourg. May 2023.
“Melvin Van Peebles and his French Years.” Le laboratoire 3L.AM – Langues, Littératures, Linguistique des Universités d’Angers et du Mans. February 2023.
Presentations
“Melvin Van Peebles at the Cinémathèque Algerienne: Transnational Cinema and International Solidarity.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. March 2024. Panelist. Proposal Under Review.
“Funding and Organizing Your Research Abroad.” Media School Graduate Colloquium. Indiana University. September 2023. Department Talk.
“Legacy, the Archive, and an Account of Whiteness in Les Cinq Cent Balles.” Melvin Van Peebles Symposium. Ohio Wesleyan University. April 2023. Panelist.
“Melvin Van Peebles and the Two Avant-Grades: The Political Aesthetics of Distribution and Exhibition of Three Pick-Up Men for Herrick.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Conference Online. April 2022. Panel Organizer.
“Why No Genres? Industry Cycles in Films with Black Lead Actors in the 1970s.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Conference Online. March 2021. Panelist.
“From Steelworkers to Ironman: The Disappearing Working Class Hero in Wide Release Films.” Media School Colloquium. October 2020. Department Talk.
“Melvin Van Peebles’s Lumpenproletarian Folk Hero.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. (Accepted. Conference Cancelled). April 2020. Panelist.
“Le Baadasssss: Melvin Van Peebles and the French New Wave.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Seattle, WA. March 2019. Panelist.
“The Meanings of Production: The Ideological Effects of Private Ownership.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Seattle, WA. March 2019. Seminar Participant.
“The Guy Who Knows What He’s Talking About: Melvin Van Peebles in France.” Film and History Conference. Madison, WI. November 2018. Panelist.
“Union Organizing among Film and Television Production Workers in Los Angeles.” Union for Democratic Communications Conference. Chicago, IL. May 2018. Panelist.
“Expanded Time: Time-Setting Variation in Wide Release Films in the U.S.” Popular Culture Conference, Indianapolis, IN. March 2018. Chair.
TEACHING
Instructor of Record
Indiana University
300-Level: Scriptwriting. Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021
200-Level: From Harlem to Paris: Transatlantic Cinema and Culture, Fall 2023
Screening Race and Ethnicity. Summer 2020, Summer 2021, Spring 2022
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
400-Level: Film Styles and Genres: French Cinema, Spring 2019
Danville Area Community College
200-Level: Race and Ethnic Relations, Fall 2006
Teaching Assistant
Indiana University
200-Level: Screening Race and Ethnicity, Fall 2019
100-Level: Introduction to Media, Fall 2020
100-Level: Introduction to Production and Development, Spring 2024
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
400-Level: Cinema Production Spring 2018, Fall 2018