Kelley Conway

Film

Professor

she/her/hers

 

kelleyconway@wisc.edu

608-263-3921

6170 Vilas Hall

Professor Kelley Conway

Expertise and Activities

I am interested in French film of all eras, filmmakers’ creative processes and their concrete working conditions, the relationships between film and other arts, and the theoretical and practical issues relating to national and transnational cinema. My first book, Chanteuse in the City (University of California, 2004), examines the intersections between popular song and 1930s French cinema through the figure of the realist singer. My second book, Agnès Varda (University of Illinois Press, 2015), explores Varda’s key films and installations, focusing on her aesthetic commitments, working methods, and shifting modes of production. I have published articles on popular music in classical and contemporary French cinema, installation art created by filmmakers, and the links between genre and gender in contemporary French film. Among the courses I teach are French Film, European Art Cinema, and Women and Film. I also teach a month-long study abroad seminar in Paris sponsored by the UW-Madison International Academic Programs.

Education

  • Ph.D. Film and Television, UCLA, 1999
  • D.E.A. Etudes Cinematographiques et Audiovisuelles, Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, (Paris III), 1992
  • B.A. English, Carleton College, 1986
  • M.A. Communication Studies (Film Studies), University of Iowa, 1988

Honors/Awards

  • Chevalier d’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2020
  • Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2008
  • Grant, Wisconsin Humanities Council, 2002
  • Senior Specialist Grant, Fulbright, 2001

Articles

  • 2021. “Agnès Varda, Producer.” Camera Obscura 106, vol. 36, no. 1: 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-8838565.
  • 2019. “Lyrical Akerman.” Camera Obscura 100, vol. 34, no. 1: 139-161. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-7264154.
  • 2019. “Visages Villages: Documenting Collaboration.” Studies in French Cinema 19, no. 1: 22-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2018.1545199.
  • 2016. “Demy et au-delà: Expérimentation esthétique dans les films musicaux français récents.” La Chanson dans le film français et francophone depuis la Nouvelle Vague.
  • 2015. “Sexually Explicit French Cinema: Genre, Gender and Sex.” The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary French Cinema, 461-480.
  • 2014. “Responding to Globalization: The Evolution of Agnès Varda.” Substance, 43: 109-122.
  • 2013. “Popular Song in the Films of Jean Renoir.” The Blackwell Companion to Jean Renoir, 199-218.
  • 2012. “Brigitte Bardot: From International Star to Fashion Icon.” New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s, 183-201.

Books

  • 2004. Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • 2015. Agnès Varda. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Digital Humanities Projects

  • 2018-present. Co-Principal Investigator (with Eric Hoyt), Global Cinema History Task Force, Media History Digital Library http://mediahistoryproject.org). Leading a group of scholars, archivists, and copyright experts to extend the MHDL’s global scope by digitizing publications to serve users who can read in English, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Hindi.

Chapters

  • 2012. “France.” The International Film Musical, Corey K Creekmur and Linda Y Mokdad Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 29-44.

Courses

  • CA 350 – Introduction to Film
  • CA 353 – Film History Since 1960
  • CA 455 – French Film
  • CA 613 – European New Waves
  • CA 613 – Film Festivals
  • CA 613 – Women and Film
  • CA 956 – The French New Wave
  • CA 956 – Globalization and National Cinema

Service

  • 2018-present Chair, Department of Communication Arts
  • 2020-present Director, Wisconsin Film Festival