Roy Grundmann

About Roy Grundmann

I am interested in film and media in various modernist and postmodernist contexts and across a spectrum of modes of production ranging from mainstream narrative cinema and art cinema to avant-garde film and experimental media. My work focuses on the distinctive and intersecting histories of these media forms and their political, cultural, and philosophical implications. I teach and I write on the history of avant-garde film and experimental media, on American cinema history from World War II to the present, on select European cinemas, as well as on film and media theory and minority representation (for details on teaching, see section on course offerings).

Because of my interest in aesthetics, intertextuality, and the relation between film and the other arts, I strongly encourage interdisciplinarity in the humanities and, indeed, between the humanities and the natural sciences. I believe that film and media studies must continue its dual approach of theory and criticism, renewing its commitment to theoretical rigor and philosophical complexity, while also remaining invested in its venerable tradition of intellectually informed, sophisticated film criticism that preceded academic film studies and continues to exert its vital influence within and without the academy. My own work seeks to partake in both these directions. I have a continued interest in intervening in academic debates on film and media theory and their relation to culture and society. At the same time, my writings regularly appear in a non-academic film quarterly, Cineaste magazine (cineaste@cineaste.com), for which I served as an Editor for ten years and for which I am now a Contributing Editor.

Education

  • Ph.D., New York University, 1998, Cinema Studies
  • M.A., New York University, 1992, Cinema Studies

Professional Affiliations

Contact Information

Department of Film and Television
Boston University
640 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston MA 02215
(617) 353-6185
roygr@bu.edu