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Contact 
Barbara Jane Brickman
The University of Alabama
Box 870229
Tuscaloosa, AL  35487-0229
(205) 348-0418
bjbrickman@ua.edu

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Curriculum Vitae

Employment

Associate Professor,  New College,  University of Alabama – 2013-present   
Core Faculty in New College and cross-appointed in the Department of Gender and Race Studies

Full-time Instructor,  New College,  University of Alabama – 2011-2013​

Associate Professor, Dept. of English and Philosophy, University of West Georgia -2005-2011

Director of Film Studies Program

Lecturer,  Film & Media Studies Program, University of Rochester, 2004
Instructor,  Susan B. Anthony Institute, University of Rochester, 2003
Instructor,  College Writing Program, University of Rochester, 2000-2004
Instructor,  Department of English, University of Georgia, 1998-1999

Education

Ph.D.   English with concentration in Film Studies, University of Rochester, August 2005
            Dissertation:    Looking For My Heart’s Desire: Popular Cinema and the Post-War Adolescent Imaginary
            Committee:     Sharon Willis (chair), Karen Redrobe, and John Michael

M.A.   English, University of Georgia, May 1999
            Master’s Thesis: “Seamus Heaney in the Field of Vision: From Artful Voyeurism to the Gaze’s Returns”

B.A.     English, summa cum laude, James Madison University, May 1995

Books

Suffering Sappho! Lesbian Camp in American Popular Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2024.

Love Across the Atlantic: US-UK Romance in Popular Culture (co-edited collection). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020.

Grease: Gender, Nostalgia and Youth Consumption in the Blockbuster Era. London: Routledge Publishing, 2017.

New American Teenagers: The Lost Generation of Youth in 1970s Film. New York: Continuum Press, 2012.

Works in Progress

The Oxford Handbook of Camp and Screen Cultures. Co-edited with Katrin Horn. Under contract with Oxford University Press.

Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Articles, Introductions, and Book Chapters

“Queering the All-American Girl: Cheerleading, Same-Sex Desire, and the (not-so) Good Girl.” Cheer Matters, edited by Natalie Adams. Under review at University of Texas Press, February 2025.

​“A Way Out: Community-Engaged Learning in the Pandemic Era.” Under review at Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, May 2024.

“Grease (1978): The Word on Musical Blockbusters.” Screening American Cinema, edited by Gray Needham, Routledge, forthcoming.
 
“Halloween (1978): The Slasher Is Born.” Screening American Cinema, edited by Gray Needham, Routledge, forthcoming.

“‘When Cameron Was in Egypt’s Land’: The Queer Child of Neglect in John Hughes’ Films.” Refocus: The Films of John Hughes, edited by Timothy Shary & Frances Smith, Edinburgh University Press, 2021, pp. 102-117.

“Queering Girlhood.” Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12.1 (March 2019): xi-xv.

“Voyage to Camp Lesbos: Pulp Fiction and the Shameful Lesbian ‘Sicko’.” Sontag and the Camp Aesthetic: Advancing New Perspectives, edited by Bruce Drushel and Brian Peters, Lexington Books, 2017, pp. 3-28.

“This Charming Butch: The Male Pop Idol, Girl Fans, and Lesbian (in)Visibility.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 28.4 (December 2016): 443-459.

“‘A Strange Desire That Never Dies’: Monstrous Lesbian Camp in the Age of Conformity.” Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture 38.3 (Fall 2016). 356-389.

“Brothers, Sisters, and Chainsaws: The Slasher Film as Locus for Sibling Rivalry.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 28.2 (Winter 2011): 135-154.

“Portrait of an Artist as a Young Fan: Consumption and Queer Inspiration in Six Feet Under.” Teen Television: Essays on Programming and Fandom, edited by Sharon Ross and Louisa Stein, McFarland, 2008, pp. 150-69.

“Coming of Age in the 70s: Revision, Fantasy, and Rage in the Teen-Girl Badlands.” Camera Obscura 66
(Dec 2007): 25-58.

“Riot in Girls Town: Remaking, Revising, and Redressing the Teenpic.” Journal of Film and Video 59.4 (Winter 2007): 20-36.

“‘Delicate’ Cutters: Gendered Self-Mutilation and Attractive Flesh in Medical Discourse.” Body and Society 10.4 (Dec.2004): 87-111.

“Imposition and Resistance in Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper.” The Southern Quarterly 38.2 (Winter 2000): 123-34.
       •  Reprinted in  Myth, Legend, Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy.  Ed. Rick Wallach. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2000.

Reviews and On-line Articles

Review of Sorority Girl (Corman, 1957), London School of Economics Higher Education Blog. December 2024.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/12/12/academic-life-on-the-big-screen/
​
Review of Wojcik, Pamela Robertson, Fantasies of Neglect: Imagining the Urban Child in American Film and Fiction. H-Childhood, H-Net Reviews. June, 2017. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=49455

Creative Work/Film

“Field Song” (short film), co-director and producer, New Alabama Studio, 2024. Official selection, Leda’s Monologues Film Festival and International Poetry Film Festival (Los Angeles), 2025.

“Lesbians Behaving Badly” (video essay), writer and co-producer, in collaboration with Annabeth Olivia Mellon, director/editor and co-producer, 2025.

Recent Conferences, Presentations, and Invited Talks

“Lesbians Behaving Badly: Bottoms, Deadly Duos, and Dolls.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, April 2025.

“Arts-Research at the Intersection of Racial and Gender Justice: Field Song, a Docu-poem.” Narrative Justice and the Arts: A Symposium at the University of Alabama, in partnership with Stillman College, March 2025.

“Golden Girls to Watch Out For: Lesbian Camp After Stonewall.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, March 2024

“Lesbos R We: The Multi-hyphenate Performer as Lesbian Camp Star,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, March 2024.

“Tallulah Bankhead: The Big (Lesbian) Show in Postwar American Culture.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, April 2023

“Turning the Dissertation Into a Book.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, pre-conference virtual session, March 2023

“Youth Beyond the Binaries: Working From a Transgender Studies Frame.” (respondent) Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, on-line, April 2022.

“Teaching and Community: Druid City Girls Media.” Consortium For Innovative Environments in Learning Conference, Tuscaloosa, AL, October 2021

“Private (Queer) Secretary: Ann Sothern and Career Gals as Lesbian Camp in 1950s Television.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, on-line, June 2021

“The Apparitional Queer Girl.” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, November 2019

“Our Miss Brooks: Career Girls, Old Maids, and Lesbian Camp in 1950s Television.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, Washington, D.C., April 2019

“‘When Cameron Was in Egypt’s Land’: The Queer Child of Neglect in John Hughes’s Films.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Seattle, March 2019.

“Amazon Princesses and Jungle Queens: A Lesbian Camp Manual for Girls.” International Girls’ Studies Association Conference, South Bend, IN, February 2019.

“Designing and Facilitating Media Camps for Youth,” co-chair and presenter. Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Toronto (ON), March 2018.

“Roundtable: Sontag and The Camp Aesthetic.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, Indianapolis, March 2018.

“‘We Go Together’: Blockbuster Synergy and Grease’s ‘Special Relationship’ with Its UK Fans.” Love Across the Atlantic: An Interdisciplinary Conference on US-UK Romance, University of Roehampton, London, June 2017.

“Queerly Devoted to You, Or a Multiplicity of Grease Fandoms.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, San Diego, April 2017.

“Teaching While Female: Embodied Pedagogy from Feminist Perspectives.” Console-ing Passions: International Conference on TV, Video, Audio, New Media, & Feminism. South Bend, IN, June 2016.

“There Are Worse Things I Could Do: The Queer Girl, Bedroom Culture, and Grease‘s Sexual Retrospection.” International Girls’ Studies Association Inaugural Conference, Norwich (UK), April 2016.

Co-chair of panel, “Cinema Landmarks in American Youth Culture.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Atlanta, March/April 2016.

“Suffering Sappho!: The Amazon Princess as Lesbian Camp.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, New Orleans, April 2015.

“A Child Went Forth Every Day: Sideways Growth, Gender, and Wartime Childhoods.” Fun With Dick and Jane: Gender and Childhood Conference. South Bend, IN, December 2014.

“New American Teenagers: Adolescence, Representation, and Revision.” Invited talk. Marshall University, Huntington, WV, April 2014.

“Hand in Glove: From Morrissey to Bieber, the Male Pop Idol as Lesbian Camp.” Console-ing Passions: International Conference on TV, Video, Audio, New Media, & Feminism. Columbia, MO, April 2014.

“Girls in Chains: Beating Fantasies and Queer Girlhoods in 1950s Film.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Seattle, March 2014.

“From Swamp Women to Sorority Girls: Roger Corman’s Lesbian Camp Classics.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, Washington, D.C., March 2013

Fellowships and Awards

Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction, Publishing Triangle, 2024
John Leo and Dana Heller Award for Best Single Work, Anthology, Multi-Authored, or Edited Book, PCA, 2024
Distinguished Teaching Fellow, College of Arts and Sciences, 2020-2023
College Academy for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Grant, 2021
Faculty Leadership Innovation Program Grant, Levitetz Leadership Program, 2020
Faculty Fellow in Service Learning, 2018-2019
Learning in Action Mini-Grant, University of Alabama, 2015
Institutional Effectiveness Mini-Grant, University of Alabama, 2012
Robert Reynolds Excellence in Teaching English Award, University of West Georgia, 2007
William H. Gilman Memorial Prize, University of Rochester, 2005
Ball Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of Rochester, 2004-2005
Susan B. Anthony Institute Teaching Fellowship, University of Rochester, 2003-2004
University of Rochester Graduate Fellowship, 1999-2003

Teaching Experience

New College & Dept. of Gender and Race Studies,  University of Alabama     –     2011-present   
            “Creativity”
            “Cultural Studies: Understanding Popular Culture”
            “Girls’ Studies”/“Girls’ Culture”
            “Girls Film School” 
            “Humans and Technology: Cyborgs, Social Networks, and the Human Machine”
            “Introduction to the Fine Arts: Experiencing the Arts”  (both on-line and in traditional classroom)
            “Monsters in Popular Culture”  
            “Perspectives in the Humanities”
            “Social Justice on Film”
            “Women on Screen”
            “Youth Culture and Cultural Studies”
            “Youth Media Makers” (service learning course)

Department of English and Philosophy,  University of West Georgia   –    2005-2011       
            “American Literature – Honors”
            “American Independent Cinema”
            “English Composition II”
            “Film Theory – Honors”
            “Gender and Genre in American Popular Film” (graduate seminar)
            “History and Theory of Film”
            “Horror Film”
            “Introduction to the Art of Film”
            “New American Cinema of the 1970s”
            “Practical Criticism: Research and Methodologies”
            “Teen Film and Youth Culture”
            “Theories of Popular Culture” (graduate seminar)
            “What Do You Really Know About Film?”

Departments of English, Gender Studies, Film and Media,  University of Rochester      –      2000-2004
            “Introduction to Media Studies”  (lecturer)
            “Introduction to Women’s Studies: Fandom and Gender”
            “Writing:  Do Androids Dream?: Humans, Technology, and the Ethics of Their Union”
            “Writing Youth: The (Re)Making of Youth Identity in American Culture”
            “Introduction to the Art of Film” (teaching assistant)

Department of English, University of Georgia        –       1998-1999
            “English Composition 1101”
            “British Literature II”  (teaching assistant)

Professional Experience and Service

Druid City Girls Media Program, Director, City of Tuscaloosa, 2017-
Children’s and Youth Media Scholarly Interest Group, co-chair, Society of Cinema and Media Studies, 2024-
Advisory Board, Screening American Cinema series, Routledge, 2024-
Editorial Board, Queer Studies in Media, Intellect Books, 2014-
General Education Task Force, Assessment Sub-Committee, University of Alabama, 2022-2024
Information Technology Committee, Standing Committee, University of Alabama, 2021-2024
Research Grants Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama, 2021-2023
​Distinguished Teaching Fellow, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama, 2020-2023
Assessment Coordinator, New College, University of Alabama, 2012-
Curriculum Committee, New College, University of Alabama, 2019-
Levitetz Advisory Committee, New College, University of Alabama, 2018-2023
New College 50th Anniversary Committee, New College, University of Alabama, 2021-2022
Community-Engaged Learning Committee, University of Alabama, 2021-2022
Women in Media, University of Alabama student group, Faculty Advisor, 2018-2019
Design for America, University of Alabama Chapter, Faculty Advisor, 2014-2018
Inclusive Campus Culture Task Force, University of Alabama, 2015-2019
On-Line Course Assessment, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama 2013-2014
Diversity Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama, 2012-2014
On-line Course Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama, 2012-2014
Graduate Faculty, University of Alabama, 2008-
Director, Film Studies Minor, University of West Georgia, 2005-2011
Coordinator, Film Learning Community, University of West Georgia, 2007-2008
Film Studies Minor Committee, Chair, University of West Georgia, 2005-2011
Film Society, Faculty Advisor, 2006-2011
Executive Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, University of West Georgia, 2010
Technology Planning Committee, Faculty Senate Subcommittee, University of West Georgia, 2007-2010
Advisory Committee, Chair, Department of English, University of West Georgia, 2010
Graduate Program Committee, Chair, Department of English, University of West Georgia, 2007-2009
Assessment Committee, Chair, Department of English, University of West Georgia, 2007-2010
“Screen on the Green” Committee, Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, 2007
First Year Writing Committee, Chair, University of West Georgia, 2006-2007
International Film Committee, University of West Georgia, 2005-2007

References

Professor Natalie Adams, New College, The University of Alabama   (nadams@.ua.edu)
Professor Karen Beckman, Department of Art and Art History, University of Pennsylvania (redkaren@sas.upenn.edu)
Professor Pamela Wojcik, Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, University of Notre Dame (pamela.wojcik.5@nd.edu)