Current and Future Projects
- Article on the history and function of museum exhibitions about filmmakers
- Book project on postwar French film culture
Expertise and Activities
My research explores the history of French film, filmmakers’ creative processes and concrete working conditions, the achievements and constraints of women in the film industry, 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 and shifting modes of production. With Eric Hoyt, I co-edited Global Movie Magazine Networks (University of California Press, forthcoming 2024) and served as co-director of the digital humanities project, Globalizing and Enhancing the Media History Digital Library. My published articles explore Francophone films and film culture, moving images in museums, and song in classical and contemporary French cinema. I am especially fond of the films of Agnès Varda, Claire Denis, Chantal Akerman, Wes Anderson, and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Film festivals are a scholarly and civic commitment. I served as the faculty advisor and director of the Wisconsin Film Festival from 2018 – 2023. I am also committed to innovative off-campus study. I founded a month-long study abroad seminar in Paris sponsored by UW-Madison International Academic Programs, launched an off-campus program for graduate students at the Telluride Film Festival, and served as resident director for The Academic Program in Aix-en-Provence, a consortium program offered by UW-Madison and Indiana University.
Education
- Ph.D. Film and Television, UCLA, 1999
- D.E.A. Etudes Cinématographiques et Audiovisuelles, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, (Paris III), 1992
- M.A. Communication Studies (Film Studies), University of Iowa, 1988
- B.A. English, Carleton College, 1986
Honors/Awards
- Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Faculty Development Grant, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2025
- ACLS Digital Extension Grant. Amount: $150,0000. Co-PI with Eric Hoyt. Duration: 2019—2021. Awarded for “Enhancing and Globalizing the Media History Digital Library.”
- Chevalier d’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2019
- UW-Madison Vilas Associate Award, 2018-2020
- Communication Arts Partners Professor, 2018-2022
- UW-Madison Center for European Studies Travel Grant, 2017
- UW-Madison Distinguished Teaching Award, 2008
- Center for European Studies Research Grant, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Summer 2006
- Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Faculty Development Grant, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006
- College of Letters & ScienceAnonymous Fund, University of Wisconsin-Madison, for “Landscape and Portrait: Agnès Varda’s Cinematic Geographies,” a film retrospective and international conference, 2002
- Wisconsin Humanities Council Mini-Grant for “Landscape and Portrait: Agnès Varda’s Cinematic Geographies,” a film retrospective and international conference, October 2002
- Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant, University of Liège, Belgium, October 2001
Selected Articles and Chapters
- 2026. “Making Sans toit ni loi: Varda on Her Own Terms.” The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agnès Varda. Edited by Ginette Vincendeau and Mary Harrod. Bloomsbury. Forthcoming.
- 2025. “Cinéma and the Vitality of Mid-Century French Film Culture.” Global Movie Magazine Networks, edited by Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway. University of California Press, 2025, pp. 163-183.
- “Une vie merveilleuse.”[Interview with film historian and ciné-club animateur Vincent Pinel.] 1895, no. 102, Spring 2024: 275-281.
- 2024. Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway, “Globalizing and Enhancing an Open Project: The Media History Digital Library in the 2020s,” NECSUS Journal, Special Issue on Open Access Media Studies.
- 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, edited by Renaud Lagabrielle and Timo Obergöker. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
- 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, edited by Ginette Vincendeau and Alastair Phillips. London: Blackwell, pp. 199-218.
- 2010. “Varda at Work: Les Plages d’Agnès.” Studies in French Cinema 10:2, 125-139.
- 2009. “L’Ile et elle: lieu, temps, écran, récit.” Agnès Varda: le cinema et au-delà, edited by Antony Fiant, Roxane Hamery and Eric Thouvenel. Rennes, pp. 209-219.
- 2008. “The New Wave in the Museum: Varda, Godard, and the Multi-Media Installation.” Contemporary French Civilization 32, no. 2: 195-217.
- 2007. “A New Wave of Spectators: Contemporary Responses to Cleo from 5 to 7,” Film Quarterly 61, no. 1: 38-47.
Books
- 2025. Global Movie Magazine Networks, co-edited with Eric Hoyt. University of California Press
- 2015. Agnès Varda. Champaign: University of Illinois Press
- 2004. Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film. Berkeley: University of California Press
Digital Humanities Projects
- 2018-2023. 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.
Courses
- CA 313 – Global Cinema History
- CA 313 – Romantic Comedy
- CA 350 – Introduction to Film
- CA 353 – Film History Since 1960
- CA 358 – Documentary
- CA 455 – French Film
- CA 461 – Global Art Cinema
- CA 613 – European New Waves
- CA 613 – Film Festivals
- CA 613 – Francophone Female Filmmakers: Varda, Akerman, Denis
- CA 613 – Women and Film
- CA 950 – Art Film: Theory and Practice
- CA 950 – The Agnès Varda Seminar
- CA 950 – Institutional Film History
- CA 950 – French Film & Globalization
- CA 950 – Globalization and National Cinema
Service
- 2018-2022 Chair, Department of Communication Arts
- 2020-2023 Director, Wisconsin Film Festival
- 2024-present Film Area Representative, Department of Communication Arts Graduate Committee