Dr. Christopher Weedman

Assistant Professor | Director of General Education English | Faculty Advisor of Film Studies Minor

Dr. Christopher Weedman
(615) 898-5156
Room 324A, Peck Hall (PH)
MTSU Box 70, Murfreesboro, TN 37132
Office Hours

Spring 2024

M T W R F -- 9:00-10:00 a.m. and by appointment

Global Expertise

Countries and/or Territories of Expertise

  • Great Britain

Languages Spoken

    Areas of Global Specialization

    • Post-1945 British film, literature, and popular culture, particularly representations of 1960s Swinging London and the permissive society.

    Degree Information

    • PHD, Southern Illinois University (2011)
    • MA, Eastern Illinois University (2005)
    • BA, Eastern Illinois University (2000)

    Areas of Expertise

    • British, American, and European film history, theory, and criticism
    • Film aesthetics
    • Film censorship
    • Film genres (particulary costume melodrama, horror, noir, social drama, and thriller)
    • Film representations of class, gender, and sexual identity
    • Post-1945 British literature and drama

    Biography

    Dr. Christopher Weedman's primary research and teaching focus is Film Studies, particularly post-1945 British, American, and European film history and criticism. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate Film Studies courses, he serves as both the director of General Education English and the faculty advisor of the interdisciplinary Film Studies Minor. He also holds aff...

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    Dr. Christopher Weedman's primary research and teaching focus is Film Studies, particularly post-1945 British, American, and European film history and criticism. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate Film Studies courses, he serves as both the director of General Education English and the faculty advisor of the interdisciplinary Film Studies Minor. He also holds affiliate faculty status in both the University Honors College and the Women's and Gender Studies Program, as well as organizes the English Department's annual Oscar Derby. Before arriving at MTSU in 2017, Dr. Weedman taught at a variety of institutions, including Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

    He is co-editor of the scholarly collections Adult Themes: British Cinema and the X Certificate in the Long 1960s (Bloomsbury, 2023 with Anne Etienne and Benjamin Halligan) and Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2023 with Elyce Rae Helford). His scholarship has also appeared in such journals as Film International, Jewish Film and New MediaJournal of Cinema and Media Studies, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Senses of Cinema, as well as multiple edited collections.

    A native of central Illinois, Dr. Weedman lives in Murfreesboro with his wife Eudora, daughter Elenore, and cat Pip. A lifelong baseball fan, he is an official member of the "Die-Hard Cub Fan Club" and has a penchant for coffee, jazz, and midcentury kitsch.

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    Publications

    Books (Edited)

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    Books (Edited)

    Articles and Book Chapters

    • "Fear and Exploiting in the Age of Aquarius: Early Representations of the Zodiac Killer in 1970s Film and Television" in David Fincher's Zodiac: Cinema of Investigation and (Mis)Interpretation. Eds. Matthew Sorrento and David C. Ryan. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2022, pp. 31-51.

    • "A Dark Exilic Vision of 1960s Britain: Gothic Horror and Film Noir Pervading Losey and Pinter's The Servant." Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 58, no. 3, Spring 2019, pp. 93-117.

    Short Articles 

    Film/Blu-ray/DVD Reviews 

    Book Reviews 

    Interviews (Academic Publications) 

    • "Making Cinema for Television: An Interview with Linda Yellen." Film International (print edition), vol. 15, no. 2, 2017, pp. 131-138.

    Interviews (Film Journalism Publications) 

    • "Anne Heywood: Britain's Daring Beauty." Cinema Retro, vol. 13, no. 36, Jan. 2017, pp. 56-59.

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    Presentations

    Conference Paper Presentations

    • "The Changeling, Prestige Horror, and the Specter of America's 'Long National Nightmare.'" Horror (Literary and Cinematic) panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Summer Salon (regional conference). Virtual. Forthcoming, 20-22 Jun. 2024.

    • "Outfoxing the Production Code: The Censorship and Distribution Battles Over The Fox (1967)." The Sixties area. Popular Culture As...
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    Conference Paper Presentations

    • "The Changeling, Prestige Horror, and the Specter of America's 'Long National Nightmare.'" Horror (Literary and Cinematic) panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Summer Salon (regional conference). Virtual. Forthcoming, 20-22 Jun. 2024.

    • "Outfoxing the Production Code: The Censorship and Distribution Battles Over The Fox (1967)." The Sixties area. Popular Culture Association Conference (national conference). Virtual. 14 Apr. 2022.

    • "'We’re Not All Called Fifi in My Country!': Leslie Caron and the Xenophobic Sexual Landscape of The L-Shaped Room." Popular Culture/American Culture Association in the South Conference (regional conference). Wilmington, NC. 26 Sept. 2019.

    • "Raymond Stross and Film Censorship: British Cinema of Social and Sexual Provocation." Film area. Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference (national conference). Indianapolis, IN. 28 Mar. 2018.

    • "A Cinema of Terrible Beauty: Gender and Sexual Identity in the Films of Anne Heywood and Raymond Stross." Film History panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference (regional conference). Albuquerque, NM. 11 Feb. 2016.

    • "Does Tutoring Influence Teaching? – A Case Study of Georgia Tech." Co-presented with Karen Head, Malavika Shetty, and Brandy Ball Blake. Southeastern Writing Centers Association Conference (regional conference). Nova Southeastern University. Fort Lauderdale, FL. 22 Feb. 2013.

    • "The Last Summer of Innocence: Narrative Intrusion and National Trauma in Losey and Pinter's The Go-Between." British Cinema panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference (regional conference). Albuquerque, NM. 15 Feb. 2013.

    • "No Freedom from Fear: Noir Shrouding Rockwellian America in Losey's The Boy with Green Hair." Politics and Film/Television Aesthetics panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference (regional conference). Albuquerque, NM. 26 Feb. 2009.

    • "Distorting the Story: The Complexities of Authorship in the Kazan/Pinter/Spiegel Film of Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon." AEGIS Conference (local conference). Southern Illinois University. Carbondale, IL. 5 Apr. 2008.

    • "The Combination to the Gates of Hell: Gothic Influence in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter." AEGIS Symposium (local symposium). Southern Illinois University. Carbondale, IL. 7 Apr. 2007.

    • "Our Man in Havana: Reed-ing [Graham] Greene's Atomic Pile." Embarass Valley Film Festival: Burl Ives Symposium (local symposium). Eastern Illinois University. Charleston, IL. 22 Sept. 2006.

    • "These Three: Toland's Gaze among Hellman's Schoolgirls." Citizen Gregg: A Retrospective on Gregg Toland and His Career Symposium (local symposium). Eastern Illinois University. Charleston, IL. 24 Sept. 2004.

    Invited Guest Lectures (campus)

    • "For Adult's Only: Censorship and British Film." MTSU English Department and Virginia Peck Trust Fund Committee. English Faculty Lecture Series. Middle Tennessee State University. Murfreesboro, TN. Forthcoming, 27 Mar. 2024.

    • "Social Isolation and Non-Traditional Friendships in 1960s British Cinema." University Honors College. Fall 2022 Honors Lecture Series: "Friendship." Middle Tennessee State University. Murfreesboro, TN. 8 Nov. 2022.

    Invited Guest Lectures (international)

    • "The 'Wind of Change' Blows Home: The Servant, Genre Hybridity, and Sixties Social Upheaval." Autumn Semester Lecture Series (online). Centre for Film, Media, Discourse, and Culture. University of Wolverhampton, England. 2 December 2020. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-wind-of-change-blows-home-tickets-122377844427

    • "Exilic Vision and the Cinematic Interrogation of Britain: The Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter Collaboration." School of Liberal Arts. Tianjin University. Tianjin, China. 31 May 2012.

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    Research / Scholarly Activity

    Dr. Weedman is currently writing the monograph Anne Heywood: Beauty, Sex, and the Controversial Film (under advance contract to University Press of Mississippi), a critical biography of the groundbreaking British actress of the films The Fox (1967) and I Want What I Want (1972). Excerpts from his personal interviews with Heywood appeared in the film magazine Cinema Retro in January 2017.

    He is also co-editing a scholarly collection on the films of American director Michael Cimino with Benjamin Halligan (University of Wolverhampton).

    In the Media

    • Introduction to the 1949 film White Heat (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 25 Jan. 2020) mentioned in this Belcourt Theatre press release. Belcourt.org. Jan. 2020.

    • Introduction to the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 19 Jan. 2020) mentioned in this Belcourt Theatre press release. Belcourt.org. Jan. 2020.

    • Introduction to the 1972 film Ulzana's Raid (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 5 Sept. 2018) discussed in the press article "MTSU Brings 'Western Movies Alive." WGNSRadio.com 29 Jul. 2018.

    Courses

    • ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British Cinema--Social Upheaval, Censorship, and Moral Panic
    • ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British New Wave Films of the 1950s and 1960s
    • ENGL 6561/7561 -- Film Studies
    • ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Global Filmmakers in Hollywood
    • ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Global Hitchcock--World Cinema in the Tradition of Alfred Hitchcock
    • ENGL 4860 -- ...
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    • ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British Cinema--Social Upheaval, Censorship, and Moral Panic
    • ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British New Wave Films of the 1950s and 1960s
    • ENGL 6561/7561 -- Film Studies
    • ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Global Filmmakers in Hollywood
    • ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Global Hitchcock--World Cinema in the Tradition of Alfred Hitchcock
    • ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Horror Films
    • ENGL 4855 -- Film Theory and Criticism
    • ENGL 3885 -- Topics in Gender and Film: Women in British Film
    • ENGL 3870 -- Film History (scheduled for Fall 2024)
    • ENGL 3860 -- Film Genre
    • ENGL 3007 -- Writing and the Literary Imagination
    • ENGL 2020 -- Themes in Literature and Culture: Detective Fiction
    • ENGL 2020 -- Themes in Literature and Culture: The Swinging Sixties (scheduled for Fall 2024)
    • ENGL 1020 -- Research and Argumentative Writing
    • ENGL 1010 -- Expository Writing

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