Ethan R. de Seife
curriculum vitae
| 191 Maple Shade Road Middletown, CT 06457 Home: 860-343-7253 Mobile: 914-434-1958 ethan.deseife@gmail.com |
Education
| Ph.D., Film Studies | Communication Arts Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed June 2005. Dissertation: Cheerful Nihilism: The Films of Frank Tashlin, under the direction of Professor Lea Jacobs. |
| M.A., Film Studies | Communication Arts Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Spring 2000. |
| B.A., Art & Film Studies | Department of Art and Film Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1995. |
Teaching Experience
Wesleyan University
Fall 2006: Visiting Instructor, Graduate Seminar in Film Comedy
Designed and taught, within Wesleyan’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program, a
seminar on international film comedy. Planned entire course, including the
selection of all films and readings; directed class meetings; evaluated
students’ written work.
Spring 2006: Visiting Assistant Professor,
Undergraduate Seminar in Animation
Designed and taught a seminar course, “Topics in Animation History,” for
upper-level film majors. Planned entire course, including the selection of all
films and readings; directed class meetings; evaluated students’ written work.
Spring 2006: Instructor, Film Archives Class
Designed a continuing-education course based on the Wesleyan Cinema
Archives’ Elia Kazan Collection. Taught students some film history, as well as
the basics of film archival research.
Quinnipiac University
Fall 2006: Visiting Assistant Professor, Seminar in Hong Kong Cinema
Designed and taught an undergraduate course on Hong Kong cinema since the
1970s. Planned entire course, including the selection of all films and readings;
directed class meetings; evaluated students’ written work. As the students had
little formal film education, the course was designed to use Hong Kong films to
introduce and study central concepts in film analysis and history.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Fall 2002 & Fall 2004: Lecturer, Introduction to Film Studies
Designed and taught an introductory-level film studies course to about 170
college students. Planned course, including all films and readings; wrote and
delivered two 50-minute lectures per week; designed tests, paper assignments,
and lesson plans for the course’s ten sections. Duties also included supervising
two teaching assistants and teaching one of the course’s sections.
•Teaching evaluation scores (out of 7 points): 5.62 (lecture) / 6.04
(section)
Spring 2003; Fall 1999-Spring 2000: Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Video
Production
Taught student labs in remote field production and live studio production.
Instructed students in use of cameras, video lighting, screenplay writing, and
video editing on both Avid and FinalCut Pro software; evaluated and graded
written and videotaped work.
•Teaching evaluation scores (out of 7 points): 6.32 / 6.52 / 6.55 / 6.57 /
6.26 / 6.61
Fall 1998-Spring 1999: Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Public Speaking
Instructed students in the basics of writing and presenting speeches of
various types; graded written and spoken student work.
•Teaching evaluation scores (out of 7 points): 4.94 / 6.06 / 6.11 / 6.24
Summer 2001 & 2002: Instructor, Grandparents’ University
Designed and taught a course on Hollywood animation for a university
extension program for grandparents and their grandchildren.
Minneapolis Public School District
1997: Assistant, Minneapolis Adult Education Program, GED class
Assisted students in studying for their GEDs; tutored students and evaluated
their work.
Film Programming Experience
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Fall 2000-Spring 2002: Programmer, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cinematheque
Duties included assisting in budget management; supervising print traffic;
commissioning and writing film program notes; writing, designing, proofreading,
and delivering biannual film calendar; promoting films in local press; and
supervising film exhibition every Friday and Saturday night.
Red Eye Cinema, Minneapolis
1997-1998: Co-curator, Red Eye Collaborative Film Program
Duties included selecting and programming films, promoting films in local
media, introducing and projecting films, and supervising film traffic.
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
1993-1995: Member, Film Board
Duties included selecting and programming films, writing film descriptions
for campus publications, supervising staff of student house managers, and
assisting projectionists in maintaining machinery.
Academic Work
Publications
Cheerful Nihilism: The Films of Frank Tashlin, forthcoming from Wesleyan
University Press, 2008. A revised and expanded edition of my Ph.D. dissertation.
This Is Spinal Tap, forthcoming from Wallflower Press, 2007. (Series
editors: Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton.) One of the first six volumes in an
upcoming series of books on cult films. The book offers a textual analysis of
This Is Spinal Tap, places the film in the context of its critical and
popular reception, and examines its lasting “cult” legacy.
“Tish-Tash in Cartoonland,” forthcoming. To be published in a book-length
anthology, co-edited by Charlie Keil and Daniel Goldmark, on the relationship
between animation and comedy.
“From Monkey to Maudlin: Jerry Lewis in the Films of Frank Tashlin”;
forthcoming. To be published in a book-length anthology of papers from the 2005
Media Stardom Conference.
“Tashlinesquerie.” 16:9, #16 (April 2006). Published online at
http://www.16-9.dk/2006-04/side11_inenglish.htm (cached)
Book review: Reinventing China: A Generation and Its Films by Paul Clark.
Film International, #22 (2006: 4).
Book review: Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese
Filmmakers by Michael Berry. Film International, #21 (2006: 3), pp.
94-95.
Book review: New Punk Cinema, ed. Nicholas Rombes. Film International,
#20 (2006: 2), pp. 68-70.
Book review: A Hard Day’s Night by Stephen Glynn. Film International,
#18 (2005: 6), pp. 46-47.
Short essays on fourteen films, including Play Time, Weekend, The Ladies Man,
Ugetsu, Ikiru, The Spider’s Stratagem, Up in Smoke, and several others, in
1001 Films You Must See before You Die (Steven Schneider, ed., Barron’s
Educational Series, 2004).
“Chang Cheh” entry in the “Great Directors” series on the Senses of Cinema
website. Published online at
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/chang.html. (cached)
“Frank Tashlin” entry in the “Great Directors” series on the Senses of Cinema
website. Published online at
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/tashlin.html. (cached)
“Big Trouble on the Magic Mountain,” published online at
http://www.wingkong.net/articles/paper/paper.html (cached). Analysis and comparison of Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain and John Carpenter’s
Big Trouble in Little China.
“The Treachery of Images,” published online (as “The Treachery of Images: A
History of the Mockumentary”) at
http://www.spinaltapfan.com/articles/seife/seife1.html, (cached) et. seq. A study of
trends in the “mock documentary” subgenre, with particular emphasis on Man
Bites Dog and Forgotten Silver.
“What’s Sarong with this Picture? The Development of the Star Image of Dorothy
Lamour,” published online at
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/22/lamour.html. (cached) A historical
approach to the creation of the star persona of one of the most popular leading
ladies of Hollywood’s studio era. The paper considers how studio economic policy
shaped stars’ images, and vice versa.
Conference Presentations
“Focus on and in the Films of the Brothers Quay.” Society for Animation Studies
Conference, San Antonio, Texas, July 7, 2006.
“The Director and the Bombshell: Jayne Mansfield in the Films of Frank Tashlin.”
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Vancouver, B.C., March 2, 2006.
“From Monkey to Maudlin: Jerry Lewis in the Films of Frank Tashlin.” Media
Stardom Conference, Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, October 8, 2005.
“Reëvaluating Frank Tashlin’s Animation.” Society for Animation Studies
Conference, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, September 30, 2004.
“Brutal Mathematics: Narrative Structure in the Films of Chang Cheh.” Society
for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 9, 2003.
“What’s Sarong with this Picture? The Development of the Star Image of Dorothy
Lamour.” Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Denver, Colorado, May 23, 2002.
“Cheerful Nihilism: Cahiers du Cinema on the Films of Frank Tashlin,
1956-1966.” Midwestern Conference on Film, Language, and Literature, Northern
Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, April 5, 2002.
Languages
Spanish (intermediate), French (intermediate).
Activities
Member, Editorial Board of Animation Studies, the journal of the Society for Animation Studies, 2006-present.
Member, Society for Animation Studies, 2004-present.
Member, Society for Cinema Studies, 2001-present.
Member, Teaching Assistants’ Association, 1998-2005.
Programmer, Wisconsin Film Festival, 2001-2002. Duties included selecting films, supervising print traffic, coördinating filmmaker visits, writing program notes and promotional copy, and supervising film screenings.
Member, Madison Film Forum, 1998-2000. Duties included programming films and writing program notes.
Awards
2003: McCarty Dissertation Award
2001: Helen K. Herman Academic Award
1998: McCarty First-Year Scholarship Award
References
| Lea Jacobs (advisor) Professor, Film Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison 6152 Vilas Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262-1750 jacobs@wisc.edu |
David Bordwell Professor Emeritus, Film Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison 4045 Vilas Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262-7723 bordwell@wisc.edu |
| Jeanine Basinger Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Wesleyan University Wesleyan Cinema Archives 301 Washington Terrace Middletown, CT 06459 (860) 685-2220 jbasinger@wesleyan.edu |
Vance Kepley Professor and Department Chair, Film Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison 6110 Vilas Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, WI 53706 (608) 263-3921 vikepley@wisc.edu |