My approach to teaching is grounded in two convictions: that deep, careful reading is the foundation of all critical thinking, and that the best questions are the ones we are not afraid to ask out loud. These convictions were shaped by studying with Peter Wollen and Carlo Ginzburg at UCLA and attending Sam Weber's Programme in Critical Theory in Paris — where a small group of doctoral students from different countries and disciplines would gather each week to read a single text slowly together, with no syllabus and no shame in saying: can you explain that further? I have tried to model that same patience and intellectual generosity in every classroom since.
My teaching career has been defined by a series of inaugural appointments. At the University of Manchester I was the inaugural Lecturer in Screen Studies in the 4* Department of Drama, at a time when screen studies was not yet taught in red brick universities in the UK. At the Università Cattolica in Milan I led the development of the Masters in Film Studies. At the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) I developed the inaugural Research Methods classes and the first cross-disciplinary HDR units in the creative arts. At Deakin, I co-founded and directed the Bachelor of Entertainment Production, the university's first industry-focused degree in the creative industries.
I have also taught internationally — for example, at the Iuav University of Venice, Manipal University (India), and through DFAT-supported masterclasses across Indonesia.
In all of these contexts, my teaching is driven by the same question that drives my research: whose stories have not yet been told — and what do we need to learn in order to tell them?
Thanks to Tony Ayres (Clickbait, most recently; we were exploring his Home Song Stories) and Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) for visiting our class, making teaching in lockdown an opening up rather than a shutting down, and building connections with students across Melbourne, Australia, and internationally.
I really like teaching. Honestly. It is fun. You have to hook students in, the way you do a whole lot of (older and wiser) people. But then you get them and say: well, in order to speak about this, I first have to talk about that. And so it begins. Film history becomes less linear. ideally really overlapping...
With my colleague Liz Baulch I wrote a piece during coronavirus lockdown for the New York-based journal, Millenium Film Journal. This is the longest-running publication devoted to artists' moving image. What motivated the article was our experience in teaching film online. We were delivering classes in filmmaking, TV production and criticism online...
In May, 2020 I was invited by a variety of people and platforms to speak about Australian films and their accessibility (or not!!) online. My concern (and interest) was piqued by the discussions I was having with archivists across the globe about the shifts they had made in order to make films available to people in lockdown. What I...
With Frank Schepisi (and wearing his hat!), 2018
This year, I introduced and launched a new unit at Deakin University: Film Festivals. It came on the heels of the teaching I was invited to undertake in Italy in 2017 and 2017, where I led professional Master's workshops on Festivals for ALMED at the Università Cattolica, Milan.
