Degrees: PHD, 2005, Univ Wisc Madison; MA, 2000, Univ Wisc Madison; BA, 1995, Wesleyan Univ

Bio:

I received my B.A. in Art and Film Studies from Wesleyan University, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Wisconsin Madison. At Wesleyan, I was fortunate enough to study under Jeanine Basinger; at the University of Wisconsin, I was privileged to work with David Bordwell and Lea Jacobs , among other great teachers. While in graduate school, I also programmed Madison's excellent Cinematheque for a couple of years.

Some of my major areas of interest include American cinema, with a particular emphasis on Hollywood comedy; animation history and aesthetics; Japanese, Hong Kong, and Chinese cinemas; and detailed stylistic analysis of film form and narrative structure.

My first book, published by Wallflower Press, is on the great film This Is Spinal Tap, and was one of the first entries into the successful and acclaimed "Cultographies" series.

My second book, on which I am currently working, is a revision of my dissertation, Cheerful Nihilism: The Films of Frank Tashlin. (You can read a short, badly-in-need-of-revision piece that I wrote on Tashlin here, in Senses of Cinema's "Great Directors" series; and another Tashlin piece here, in the online film journal 16:9.) This book will be published under Wesleyan University Press's "Wesleyan Film" imprint.

I have a few essays floating around online; here are a couple of them: "What's Sarong with this Picture?: The Development of the Star Image of Dorothy Lamour"; "The Treachery of Images"; "Big Trouble on the Magic Mountain".

I teach and have taught an array of courses on film history, film theory, genre studies, national cinemas, individual directors, and animation.

Visit my blog: http://ethandeseife.wordpress.com/