Profile

Jeffrey Middents

Associate Professor
Department of Literature

  • Additional Positions at AU

    Advisor, <a href="http://american.edu/cas/literature/Minor-LTCS.cfm">Cinema Studies Minor</a>
  • Professor Middents studies and teaches film and world literature, specifically focusing on Latin American narratives from the 1960s to the 1980s, and serves as the advisor to the Cinema Studies minor. His film-oriented courses cover a wide range of concepts, including national cinemas, genre, the auteur, stardom, film criticism, and short film. His book, Writing National Cinema: Film Journals and Film Culture in Peru (UPNE, 2009) investigates the historical place of cultural writing within a national discourse by tracing how Peruvian cinema was shaped by local film criticism. Professor Middents has also published essays on a variety of other topics, including documentary aesthetics in the work of Chilean filmmaker Particio Guzman, Peruvian director Luis Llosa’s films made under producer Roger Corman, the theoretical perspective espoused by Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, and the racial complexities of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

  • Degrees

    PhD, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
    MA, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
    BA, English and Psychology, Dartmouth College

  • Languages Spoken:

    English, Spanish
  • DOWNLOAD CV (PDF)

  • OFFICE

  • CAS - Literature
  • Battelle Tompkins - 221

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Teaching

  • Spring 2013

    • LIT-446 Advanced Studies in Film: Auteur Study: Alfonso Cuaron
    • Description
    • UCOL-101 University College Research Lab: Critical Approach to Cinema
    • Description

  • Fall 2013

    • LIT-346 Topics in Film: National Cinema Study: Mexico
    • Description
    • UCOL-100 Univ College Washington Lab: Critical Appr to Cinema
    • Description

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

       
  • Latin American Cinema
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  • Transnational Cinema
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  • Short Films
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  • Auteur and star studies
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  • Metafiction/Metafilm
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  • 20th Century Latin American fiction

Professional Presentations

       
  • "In Lima, Like You: Confronting Peruvian National Cinema with Claudia Llosa's Madeinusa." Part of a panel entitled "What Remains: Contemporary Latin American Cinema," American Comparative Literature Association 2009. Cambridge, MA. March 26-29, 2009. Also proposed, organized and co-chaired panel (with Silvia Spitta).
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  • "Ibermediating National Cinemas." Part of a panel entitled "Programa Ibermedia and Contemporary Latin American Cinema," Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2008. Philadelphia, PA. March 8, 2008. Also proposed, organized and chaired panel.
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  • "Hablemos de cine(filia) peruana: Film Journals and National Cinema in Peru, Then and Now." Part of panel entitled "Trans/National Cinephilias," American Comparative Literature Association 2007. Puebla, Mexico. April 22, 2007.
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  • "It's Not Easy Being Brown: Rita, Lena and The Muppet Show." Part of a panel entitled "Race on Television." Society of Cinema and Media Studies 2007. Chicago, IL. March 9, 2007.
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  • "Babes in the Amazon, Ponch in the Andes: Roger Corman and Peruvian Cinema." Part of a panel entitled "Hollywood Business Practices and Latin American Cinema" at Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2006. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 4, 2006. Also proposed, organized and chaired panel.
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  • "Peru Vs. the New Latin American Cinema: Hablemos de cine and the Viña del Mar Film Festivals of 1967 and 1969." Part of a panel entitled "Beyond La boca del lobo: Peruvian Cinema, Past, Present and Future" at Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2005. London, England, April 3, 2005. Also proposed, organized and chaired panel.
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  • "Hablemos de Minnelli: A Peruvian Look at Some Came Running." Part of panel entitled "Hollywood por otros ojos: Film Spectatorship in Post-Revolutionary Mexico, Pre-Revolutionary Cuba and 1960s Peru" for ASA (American Studies Association) 2004, Atlanta, GA, November 12, 2004.
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  • "A Sweet Vamp: Critiquing the Treatment of Race in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the American Musical Once More (with Feeling)." The Slayage Conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Nashville, TN, May 28, 2004. Nominated for "Mr. Pointy" Award for Best Conference Paper.
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  • "'Me moría': Aesthetics, Documentary and the Creation of Nostalgia in Patricio Guzmán's Chile, Obstinate Memory. "Thirty Years After Chile's 9/11", SUNY-Albany, October 10, 2003.
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  • "Teaching Cinephilia." Society for Cinema Studies 2003, Minneapolis, MN. March 9, 2003.
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  • "Este país es una basura: Cultural Politics and the Adaptation of Mario Vargas Llosa's La ciudad y los perros." Literature/Film Association Conference 2002. Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, November 18, 2002.
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  • "The Enigma of The Hire (www.bmwfilms.com)." Society for Cinema Studies 2002. Denver, CO, May 24, 2002.

Selected Publications

Books

Chapters in Collected Editions

Journal Articles

Other Writing

       
  • Various rticles and reviews for Worldview, Vértigo (elcine, Lima Film Festival),and Tribeca Film Festival

Work In Progress

       
  • Edited volume (with Tamara Falicov) of Jounral of Hispanic Cinemas of translations of contemporary critical work on Latin American cinemas.
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  • Monograph on director Alfonso Cuarón
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  • Monograph on short films as cinematic form vs. genre
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  • "Exotic, Political and Buried Alive: Cahiers du cinéma and Latin American Cinema in 1974"
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  • "vengAncha: How Mexican Filmmakers Accent the Margins of Dominant Cinema." Video essay completed in conjunction with Pamela Fernández, ACL(x) 2011.

AU Expert

Area of Expertise: Cinema, Latin American cinema, film journals, film genres, auteurs/directors, short films

Additional Information: Jeffrey Middents studies and teaches film and world literature, specifically focusing on Latin American narratives from the 1960s to the 1980s, and serves as the advisor to the cinema studies minor. His film-oriented courses cover a wide range of concepts, including national cinemas, genre, the auteur, stardom, film criticism, and short film. His book, Writing National Cinema: Film Journals and Film Culture in Peru (UPNE, 2009), investigates the historical place of cultural writing within a national discourse by tracing how Peruvian cinema was shaped by local film criticism. Middents has also published essays on a variety of other topics, including documentary aesthetics in the work of Chilean filmmaker Particio Guzmán, Peruvian director Luis Llosa’s films made under producer Roger Corman, the theoretical perspective espoused by Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, and the racial complexities of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His current project examines transnational cinema and the work of Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.
 

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