Sam Hunter

Curriculum vitae 

Updated: 6.22.2023

UCLA  

School of Theater, Film & Television

EDUCATION

PhD, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA (Expected 2025)

Proposed Diss.: Digital Queerdom: A Materialist History of the Early Queer Internet

Committee: Amy Villarejo (chair), Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, Veronica Paredes, Shaka McGlotten

Concentration certificate: Gender Studies

Qualifying exams (high pass): Queer Screen Culture, Revolutionary Cinema

Master of Arts, English Literature, Miami University (Ohio) (August 2019)

Thesis: Coming Out Cinema: Speech, Cinema and the Making of Queer Subjects

Bachelor of Arts: English Literature & Creative Writing, Miami University (Ohio) (May 2018)

Cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, English Honors

Minor: Rhetoric & Writing

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Love, Victor and the Utopian Function of Networking Queer Identity Work.” Edited collection on New Queer Television, ed. Danielle Girard, Thomas Brassington, Debra Ferreday. Forthcoming from Intellect Press. 

“Lady Bird,” “My Own Private Idaho” and “Wet Hot American Summer.” Summary & critical analysis. Encyclopedia of LGBTQIA+ Portrayals in American Film, edited by Erica Dymond and Salvador Jimenez Murguía. Rowan & Littlefield, October 2022. 218-222, 266-270, 392-395.

“Image Objects: An Archeology of Computer Graphics by Jacob Gaboury (review).” New Media & Society 24.4 (April 2022). 1028-1030.

“Making Sex Public, And Other Cinematic Fantasies by Damon R. Young (review).” Film & History 50.1 (Summer 2020). 101-102.

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

Otis Ferguson Memorial Award in Critical Writing, UCLA (2023)

Awarded for “Dystopic State and Potential Revolution in Punishment Park and Born in Flames.”

Summer Mentored Research Fellowship, UCLA (2021)

With Professor Amy Villarejo

Georgia Frontiere Scholarship in Memory of the Humanitarian Efforts of Aaron Curtis Taylor, UCLA (2021, 2022)

Presidential Senior Service Leadership Award (Spring 2018)

Recognition for Intellectual and Cultural Leadership at Miami University

Best Critical Essay, Oxford Writing Festival (Spring 2018)

Awarded for “Out of the Closet, Into the Mask: Pairing Queer & Superhero Origin Stories”

University Summer Scholars, Miami University (Summer 2017)

Funded. “Queers Look Back: An Analysis of Life, Looks and Power in Queer Film”

Geoffrion Family Fellowship, Miami University (Fall 2017-Spring 2018)

Craver-Overton Scholarship, Miami University (Spring 2017)

Awarded for “The Framing of the Shew: The Use of Frame as Distancing Construction in The Taming of the Shrew

Robert F. Almy Award in Critical Writing, Miami University (Spring 2017)

Awarded for “The Framing of the Shew: The Use of Frame as Distancing Construction in The Taming of the Shrew

PRESENTATIONS

“Digital Queers: Evaluating the Silicon Solution to Gay Liberation.” Society for Cinema & Media Studies. April 2023.

“What Do We Want? Graduate Student Organizing and the Contemporary Academic Labor Movement.” Workshop panelist. Society for Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Student Organization. April 2023.

“Utopia’s Uploading: Cyberqueers, Techno-optimism, and Marxist Method.” Invited talk. Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Colloquium, UCLA. March 2023.

I Am Somebody (1970) Roundtable Discussion.” Organizer and panelist. Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Colloquium, UCLA. October 2022.  

“Reinventing Digital Materialism: Queer Art Towards Revolutionary Politics.” Console-ing Passions. June 2022.

“A Roundtable on Labor Actions at Academic Institutions.” Panelist. Society for Cinema and Media Studies Caucus on Class. June 2022. 

“Dystopic State and Potential Revolution in Punishment Park and Born in Flames.” UC Irvine Graduate Student Comp Lit Conference. May 2022. 

“Fag Face Mask: Digital Materialism and Revolutionary Queer Art.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies. March-April 2022. 

Love, Victor and the Politics of Networking Queer Intimacy.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference. June 2021. 

Love, Victor and the Politics of Networking Queer Intimacy.” Invited talk. Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Colloquium, UCLA. February 2021.

“Whispers and Shouts: Coming Out and the Social in Mainstream American Film.” Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Symposium, Miami University. February 2019. 

“Out of the Closet, Into the Mask: Pairing Queer & Superhero Origin Stories.” Marianne D. McComb Conference on Creative Writing, Miami University.  March 2018.

“Representations of Queer Urbanity and Resistance of a Heterosexist Public.” Altman Symposium: Urban Futures, Miami University. April 2018

Tangerine and the New Trans Look.” Invited Talk. LitWorks: Student Panel on New Queer Media, Miami University. November 2017.

TEACHING

Teaching Fellow [as Instructor of Record] (Spring 2023)

UCLA, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

FTV 10A: History of American Television, “Queer TV”

Teaching Assistant Consultant (Fall 2022, Fall 2023)

UCLA, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

FTV 495A: Teaching Film & TV

Teaching Assistant/Associate/Fellow (Spring 2020-Winter 2021, Winter 2022-present)

UCLA, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

FTV 4: Introduction to Art and Technique of Filmmaking (Summer, Fall 2020)

FTV 6A: History of the American Motion Picture (Spring 2020, Winter 2023)

FTV 10A: History of American Television (Spring 2022)

FTV 51: Digital Media Studies (Winter 2021, Winter 2022)

Voices of Discovery Co-facilitator (Spring 2019)

Miami University, Center for American and World Cultures

Undergraduate course on race and ethnicity based on intergroup dialogue pedagogy 

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 

Graduate Student Researcher, UCLA (Summer 2023)

Support drafting proposal for new Self-Supporting Graduate Degree Program in UCLA’s Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. 

SERVICE

Society for Cinema and Media Studies

Co-chair, Precarious Labor Organization (2023-present)

UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television Faculty Executive Board (2021-2022)

Student Representative, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

UAW Local 2865 (2019-present)

Head Steward (2022-present)

Bargaining Team, Alternate (2022)

Co-Chair, UCLA Organizing Committee (2022-2023)

UCLA FTVDM Department Steward (2021-2022)

UCLA Bylaws Committee Representative (2021-2022)


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