Megan Minarich
Research Areas:
American Literature 1865-present, Modernism, Modernist Visual Cultures, Early through Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Studies, Film Censorship, Contraception and Women's Reproductive Rights, Eugenics, Aesthetics of Labor/Industry and (Cultural) Production, Infrastructuralism, Narrative Theory, The Frankfurt School
Current Research:
Dissertation Title: “Hollywood's Reproduction Code: Regulating Contraception and Abortion in American Cinema, 1915-1952”
Advisors: Paul Young, Jennifer Fay, Kelly Oliver, Shelley Stamp
Abstract: “Hollywood's Reproduction Code: Regulating Contraception and Abortion in American Cinema, 1915-1952”examines the roles representations of contraception, abortion, and the reproductive female body play in reexamining the relationship between didacticism and entertainment in narrative Hollywood films. My project draws upon films such asWhere Are My Children? (1916), Christopher Strong (1933), Gambling With Souls (1936), and Leave Her to Heaven (1945), which I consider alongside censorship practices and the Production Code, reproductive rights history, legal and eugenics discourses, and narrative concerns. I argue that during the interwar period, the inclusion of morally didactic elements in narrative film diminishes the efficacy of the objectively educational aim, yet also reveals new ways of challenging, redefining, and understanding the role of the reproductive woman within the classical Hollywood narrative mode.
Current Positions:
-College of Arts and Science Graduate Writing Fellow, Writing Studio, Vanderbilt University. August 2012-present.
-Editor to Andrea Mirabile, Assistant Professor of Italian, Department of French and Italian and Affiliated Faculty in Film
Studies, Vanderbilt University. January 2010-present.
-Edit and proofread scholarly articles, manuscript drafts, and professional materials.
-Edited book manuscript, Multimedia Archaeologies: D’Annunzio, Belle Époque Paris, and the Total Artwork,
Expected Fall 2013 from University of Toronto Press. January 2010-September 2012.
-Senior Honors Thesis Group Consultant. Vanderbilt Writing Studio, Vanderbilt University. 2009-present.
-FLiCX (Faculty-Led interactive Cinematic eXplorations) Discussion Leader. November 2009-present. I have presented on
the following films: Laura (1944), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Mildred Pierce (1945), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953),
On the Waterfront (1954), River of No Return (1954), East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Giant (1956),
Tomorrow (1972)
Previous Positions:
Employment
-Dissertation Year Fellow, Department of English, Vanderbilt University. August 2011-July 2012.
-Graduate Instructor, Department of English, Vanderbilt University. August 2008-July 2011.
-Research Assistant to Paul Young, Associate Professor of English and Director of Film Studies, Vanderbilt University. January 2009-August 2009.
-Research Assistant to Dana Nelson, Gertrude Conway Vanderbilt Professor of English, Vanderbilt University. Summer
2009.
-Graduate Writing Consultant. Vanderbilt Writing Studio, Vanderbilt University. January 2008-August 2009.
-Instructor, Department of English and World Languages, Joliet Junior College. Spring 2007.
-Graduate Tutor. Hume Writing Center, Stanford University. September 2005-June 2006.
-Staff and LINKS Tutor. UIC Writing Center, University of Illinois at Chicago. August 2003-May 2005.
Service
-President. English Graduate Student Association. Vanderbilt University. 2010-2011.
-Co-Founder and Co-Facilitator. Interrogating Modernism Reading Group. Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University. 2010-2011.
-Rheney Speaker Coordinator. Department of English, Vanderbilt University. Fall 2011.
-Co-Founder and Co-Facilitator. Twentieth Century Literature and Culture Reading Group. Department of English, Vanderbilt Univeristy. 2009-2010.
-Teaching and Professionalization Liaison. English Graduate Student Association, Vanderbilt University. 2009-2010.
-Treasurer. English Graduate Student Association, Vanderbilt University. 2008-2009.
-English Department First-Year Graduate Student Conference Coordinator. Vanderbilt University. Spring 2008.
-Academic Committee Representative. English Graduate Student Association, Vanderbilt University. 2007-2008.
-102W Sub-Committee Member. English Graduate Student Association, Vanderbilt University. 2007-2008.
-Graduate Peer Mentor. Department of English, Vanderbilt University. 2008-2012.
-Volunteer. Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee. January 2012-present.
-Tutor. Start Now Program, Nashville Adult Literacy Council. January 2008 – May 2008.
Honors and Awards:
-College of Arts and Science Graduate Writing Fellowship, Writing Studio, Vanderbilt University, 2012-2013
-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University, 2012-2013 (declined)
-Dissertation Year Fellowship, Department of English, Vanderbilt University, 2011-2012: competitive service-free fellowship for dissertation completion
-Rose Alley Press Achievement Award, 2010-2011
-Teaching Gender and Sexuality Seminar Participant, Vanderbilt University, 2011
-Dissertation Enhancement Grant, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 2010
-Summer Research Award, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 2010
-Summer Research Award, Department of English, Vanderbilt University, 2009
-University Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, 2007- 2012.
-Phi Beta Kappa, Iota of Illinois, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2005
-Undergraduate English Award for Creative Writing, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2005
-Undergraduate English Award for Critical Writing, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2005 and 2003
-Robert and Corrinne Silver Scholarship, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2003
Courses Taught:
Vanderbilt University
ENGL 104W "The American Modernist Novel: Time, Perception, Identity." Introduction to Prose
ENGL 100W. “Advertising Fictions: The Rhetoric of Aesthetics and Consumption.” Introductory Writing Seminar. Fall 2010.
FILM 125. “Introduction to the Study of Film.” Introductory Seminar in Film Studies. Spring 2010.
ENGL 102W. “Fictions of (Re)Production.” Introductory Writing Seminar. Fall 2009.
ENGL 102W. “Family Matters: Dysfunctional Family Narratives.” Introductory Writing Seminar. Spring 2009.
ENGL 102W. “The Fun in Dysfunctional: Temporality, Narrative, and the Family.” Introductory Writing Seminar. Fall 2008.
Joliet Junior College
ENGL 101. “Rhetoric.” Cultural Criticism-Based Composition Course. Spring 2006.
ENGL 102. “Rhetoric.” Literature-Based Composition Course. Spring 2006