Dr. Christopher Weedman
Associate Professor and Director of General Education English | Faculty Advisor of Film Studies Minor
Fall 2026
Mondays – Thursdays 9:00-10:00 a.m., Fridays 1:00-2:00 p.m., and by appointment
Global Expertise
Countries and/or Territories of Expertise
- Great Britain
Languages Spoken
Areas of Global Specialization
- Post-1945 British film, literature, and popular culture, particularly representations of 1960s Swinging London and the permissive society.
Departments / Programs
- Department of English
- English
- English Graduate Programs
- Women's and Gender Studies
Degree Information
- PHD, Southern Illinois University (2011)
- MA, Eastern Illinois University (2005)
- BA, Eastern Illinois University (2000)
Areas of Expertise
- British, American, and European film history, theory, and aesthetics
- Film authorship and collaboration
- Film censorship
- Film genres (notably film noir, gangster film, horror, melodrama, and thriller)
- Film representations of class, gender, and sexuality
- Post-1945 British literature and drama
Biography
Dr. Christopher Weedman's primary research and teaching focus is Film Studies, particularly post-1945 British, American, and European film history and theory. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate Film Studies courses, he serves as both the director of the General Education English Program (overseeing one of the largest general education programs in the state of Tennessee) and the faculty advisor of the interdis...
Read More »Dr. Christopher Weedman's primary research and teaching focus is Film Studies, particularly post-1945 British, American, and European film history and theory. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate Film Studies courses, he serves as both the director of the General Education English Program (overseeing one of the largest general education programs in the state of Tennessee) and the faculty advisor of the interdisciplinary Film Studies Minor. He also holds affiliate faculty status in both the University Honors College and the Women's and Gender Studies Program.
As a B.A. student at Eastern Illinois University in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he won an award from the Illinois College Press Association and The Chicago Tribune for his weekly student film criticism for The Daily Eastern News, and created and operated the popular website The Man with the Hypnotic Eye, which celebrated the career of the acclaimed British stage and screen actor Donald Pleasence. Reviewed by the prominent horror, science fiction, and fantasy film magazine Video Watchdog in February 2000, the website featured invited contributions from several of Pleasence's colleagues, including playwright Simon Gray and fellow actors Adrienne Barbeau, Alan Bates, Julie Harris, Charlton Heston, and Peter Falk. This early, independent research is chronicled in Dr. Weedman's academic book chapter "Reflections on The Man with the Hypnotic Eye: Donald Pleasence and Fan Websites at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century," which will be published in the forthcoming edited collection Dark and Lonely Waters: Donald Pleasence and His Career in Horror (eds. Steven Gerrard and Renée Middlemost, Liverpool University Press, expected 2027).
After graduating with a M.A. from EIU in 2005 and a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2011, Dr. Weedman taught film, literature, and first-year writing at both the Georgia Institute of Technology (where he was a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Director of the Communication Center) and Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He has been a faculty member in MTSU's Department of English since 2017.
Dr. Weedman is co-editor of the collections Adult Themes: British Cinema and the X Certificate in the Long 1960s (Bloomsbury, 2023 with Anne Etienne and Benjamin Halligan) and Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2023 with Elyce Rae Helford). His academic and popular writing on international film history and genre cinema (including multiple articles and chapters on the films of American expat director Joseph Losey) has appeared or is forthcoming in Cine-Excess, Cinema Retro, Fangoria, Film International, Jewish Film and New Media, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Senses of Cinema, as well as The Film Noir Encyclopedia (upcoming 5th edition, eds. Alain Silver and James Ursini) and multiple edited collections.
His most recent scholarship includes an invited preface honoring the late international film scholar Tony Williams (1946-2026) for an upcoming special issue of the journal Cine-Excess (expected 2026). He also co-organized (along with Brian Wilson of Northern Virginia Community College and Matthew Sorrento of Rutgers University) an additional tribute to Williams for the journal Film International Online (expected 2026), which features nearly forty contributions from the scholar's friends, students, and colleagues in the field of Film Studies.
A card-carrying member of the "Die-Hard Cub Fan Club," Dr. Weedman lives in Murfreesboro with his wife and daughter and, in his spare time, enjoys baseball, true crime television, and mid-twentieth-century jazz and popular music.
Publications
Books (Edited)
- Adult Themes: British Cinema and the X Certificate in the Long 1960s. Co-edited with Anne Etienne and Benjamin Halligan. Bloomsbury, 2023.
My chapter: "The Commercial Idealism of Controversial Cinema: Raymond Stross and the Censorship of The Flesh Is Weak" (pp. 37-54).
Reviewed in Hi...
Books (Edited)
- Adult Themes: British Cinema and the X Certificate in the Long 1960s. Co-edited with Anne Etienne and Benjamin Halligan. Bloomsbury, 2023.
My chapter: "The Commercial Idealism of Controversial Cinema: Raymond Stross and the Censorship of The Flesh Is Weak" (pp. 37-54).
Reviewed in Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television. 28 Nov. 2024. - Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema. Co-edited with Elyce Rae Helford. Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
My chapter: "The Deadly Seduction of a Rake: British Costume Melodrama, Noir, and the 'Othered' Woman in The Gypsy and the Gentleman" (pp. 105-130).
Reviewed in Film International (online edition). 26 Dec. 2023.
Articles and Book Chapters
- Reflections on The Man with the Hypnotic Eye: Donald Pleasence and Fan Websites at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century" in Dark and Lonely Waters: Donald Pleasence and His Career in Horror. Eds. Steven Gerrard and Renée Middlemost (in press, Liverpool University Press, expected 2027).
- "Farewell to Tony Williams (1946-2026)." Cine-Excess (invited preface to special issue; in press, expected 2026).
- "Fear and Exploiting in the Age of Aquarius: Early Representations of the Zodiac Killer in 1970s Film and Television" in David Fincher's Zodiac: Cinema of Investigation and (Mis)Interpretation. Eds. Matthew Sorrento and David C. Ryan. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2022, pp. 31-51.
- "A Dark Exilic Vision of 1960s Britain: Gothic Horror and Film Noir Pervading Losey and Pinter's The Servant." Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 58, no. 3, Spring 2019, pp. 93-117.
- "Joseph Losey" in Fifty Hollywood Film Directors. Eds. Suzanne Leonard and Yvonne Tasker. Routledge, 2015, pp. 143-151.
- "From the Ground Up: Shaping Community, Collaboration, and Multiliteracies at Georgia Tech" (co-written with Rebecca Burnett, Karen Head, Brandy Ball Blake, Andy Frazee, Diane Jakacki, Christopher Ritter, and Nirmal Trivedi) in Making Space: Writing Instruction, Infrastructure, and Multiliteracies. Eds. Jim Purdy and Danielle Nicole DeVoss. University of Michigan Press/Sweetland, 2014.
Short Articles
- "Remembering Tony Williams: The Last of the Independents." Co-authored and edited with Brian Wilson (including thirty-plus contributions). Film International Online (in-press expected 2026)
- "Melodramatic Postwar Confessions: Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini's La Paura (1954)." Senses of Cinema, no. 75, 2015.
- "Jean-Pierre Melville's Quand tu liras cette lettre: The Novice and the Homme Fatale Amidst Moral Decay in Postwar France." Senses of Cinema, no. 74, 2015.
- "Realism Painted with Darkness: T-Men and the Docu-noir Aesthetic of Anthony Mann and John Alton." Senses of Cinema, no. 67, 2013.
- "Notre Musique: Godard's Shot/Reverse Shot Ruminations on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Senses of Cinema, no. 66, 2013.
- "The Prowler." Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 27, no. 5, 2010, pp. 365-367.
- "Mr. Klein." Senses of Cinema, no. 55, 2010.
- "Optimism Unfulfilled: Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End and the Swinging Sixties." Senses of Cinema, no. 51, 2009.
- "Under the Cover of Darkness: Expressionistic Experimentation in Howard Hawks' The Criminal Code." Senses of Cinema, no. 49, 2009.
- "Cul-de-Sac." Senses of Cinema, no. 34, 2005.
Film/Blu-ray/DVD Reviews
- "The Restoration of 'Der Rote Pabst': Westfront 1918 and Kameradschaft on Eureka and Criterion." Blu-ray/DVD rev. of Westfront 1918 and Kameradschaft (1930 and 1931, dir. G.W. Pabst). Film International (print edition), vol. 16, no. 2, 2018, pp. 115-119.
- "Marcel Pagnol's 'Marseille Trilogy': An Essential Reemerges on Criterion." Blu-ray/DVD rev. of Marius (1931, dir. Alexander Korda), Fanny (1932, dir. Marc Allégret), and César (1936, dir. Marcel Pagnol). Film International (online edition), 12 Feb. 2018.
- "The Charming 'Lithuanian Cary Grant': Walter Matthau in Hopscotch on Criterion." Blu-ray/DVD rev. of Hopscotch (1980, dir. Ronald Neame). Film International (online edition), 10 Oct. 2017.
- "The Sublime Beauty of Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg on Criterion." Blu-ray/DVD rev. of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, dir. Jacques Demy). Film International (online edition), 15 Sept. 2017.
- "The Roots of Social Change: Ermanno Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs on Criterion.” Blu-ray/DVD rev. of The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, dir. Ermanno Olmi). Film International (online edition), 30 May 2017.
- "More Than Plays on Film: Marcel Pagnol's 'Marseille Trilogy' Restored by Janus Films." Rev. of Marius (1931, dir. Alexander Korda), Fanny (1932, dir. Marc Allégret), and César (1936, dir. Marcel Pagnol). Film International (online edition), 27 Mar. 2017.
- "The Resurrection of Abel Gance's J'accuse (1938) on Olive Films." Blu-ray/DVD rev. of J’accuse (1938, dir. Abel Gance). Film International (online edition), 25 Jan. 2017.
- "Mifune: The Last Samurai—Overshadowing His Tribute." Rev. of Mifune: The Last Samurai (2016, dir. Steven Okazaki). Film International (online edition), 28 Nov. 2016.
- "A Fun Swansong: The Last Film Festival." Rev. of The Last Film Festival (2016, dir. Linda Yellen). Film International (online edition), 5 Oct. 2016.
- "Japan’s Modernist Enigma: Woman in the Dunes on Criterion." Blu-ray/DVD rev. of The Woman in the Dunes (1964, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara). Film International (online edition), 25 Sep. 2016.
Book Reviews
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"Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures by Adina Hoffman." Jewish Film & New Media, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 122-125.
- "Mutating War Traumas: Monsters in the Machine by Steffen Hantke." Film International (online edition), 29 Jun. 2017.
Interviews
- "Making Cinema for Television: An Interview with Linda Yellen." Film International (print edition), vol. 15, no. 2, 2017, pp. 131-138.
Film Journalism
- "Anne Heywood: Britain's Daring Beauty." Cinema Retro, vol. 13, no. 36, Jan. 2017, pp. 56-59.
- "Pleasence's Passing." Fangoria, no. 144, Jul. 1995, p. 6.
Presentations
Conference Paper Presentations
- "An Auteur Held Hostage: Commercial Pursuits and Career Confliction in the Later Films of Michael Cimino." Film Studies 2: Genre and Style panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Summer Salon (regional conference). Virtual. 27 Jun. 2025.
- "The Changeling, Prestige Horror, and the Specter of America's 'Long National Nightmare.'" Revisiting Horror Tropes panel. Southwest Popula...
Conference Paper Presentations
- "An Auteur Held Hostage: Commercial Pursuits and Career Confliction in the Later Films of Michael Cimino." Film Studies 2: Genre and Style panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Summer Salon (regional conference). Virtual. 27 Jun. 2025.
- "The Changeling, Prestige Horror, and the Specter of America's 'Long National Nightmare.'" Revisiting Horror Tropes panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Summer Salon (regional conference). Virtual. 21 Jun. 2024.
- "Outfoxing the Production Code: The Censorship and Distribution Battles Over The Fox (1967)." The Sixties area. Popular Culture Association Conference (national conference). Virtual. 14 Apr. 2022.
- "'We’re Not All Called Fifi in My Country!': Leslie Caron and the Xenophobic Sexual Landscape of The L-Shaped Room." Popular Culture/American Culture Association in the South Conference (regional conference). Wilmington, NC. 26 Sept. 2019.
- "Raymond Stross and Film Censorship: British Cinema of Social and Sexual Provocation." Film area. Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference (national conference). Indianapolis, IN. 28 Mar. 2018.
- "A Cinema of Terrible Beauty: Gender and Sexual Identity in the Films of Anne Heywood and Raymond Stross." Film History panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference (regional conference). Albuquerque, NM. 11 Feb. 2016.
- "Does Tutoring Influence Teaching? – A Case Study of Georgia Tech." Co-presented with Karen Head, Malavika Shetty, and Brandy Ball Blake. Southeastern Writing Centers Association Conference (regional conference). Nova Southeastern University. Fort Lauderdale, FL. 22 Feb. 2013.
- "The Last Summer of Innocence: Narrative Intrusion and National Trauma in Losey and Pinter's The Go-Between." British Cinema panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference (regional conference). Albuquerque, NM. 15 Feb. 2013.
- "No Freedom from Fear: Noir Shrouding Rockwellian America in Losey's The Boy with Green Hair." Politics and Film/Television Aesthetics panel. Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference (regional conference). Albuquerque, NM. 26 Feb. 2009.
- "Distorting the Story: The Complexities of Authorship in the Kazan/Pinter/Spiegel Film of Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon." AEGIS Conference (local conference). Southern Illinois University. Carbondale, IL. 5 Apr. 2008.
- "The Combination to the Gates of Hell: Gothic Influence in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter." AEGIS Symposium (local symposium). Southern Illinois University. Carbondale, IL. 7 Apr. 2007.
- "Our Man in Havana: Reed-ing [Graham] Greene's Atomic Pile." Embarass Valley Film Festival: Burl Ives Symposium (local symposium). Eastern Illinois University. Charleston, IL. 22 Sept. 2006.
- "These Three: Toland's Gaze among Hellman's Schoolgirls." Citizen Gregg: A Retrospective on Gregg Toland and His Career Symposium (local symposium). Eastern Illinois University. Charleston, IL. 24 Sept. 2004.
Invited Guest Lectures (campus)
- "For Adult's Only: Censorship and British Film." MTSU English Department and Virginia Peck Trust Fund Committee. English Faculty Lecture Series. Middle Tennessee State University. Murfreesboro, TN. Forthcoming, 27 Mar. 2024.
- "Social Isolation and Non-Traditional Friendships in 1960s British Cinema." University Honors College. Fall 2022 Honors Lecture Series: "Friendship." Middle Tennessee State University. Murfreesboro, TN. 8 Nov. 2022.
Invited Guest Lectures (international)
- "The 'Wind of Change' Blows Home: The Servant, Genre Hybridity, and Sixties Social Upheaval." Autumn Semester Lecture Series (online). Centre for Film, Media, Discourse, and Culture. University of Wolverhampton, England. 2 December 2020. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-wind-of-change-blows-home-tickets-122377844427
- "Exilic Vision and the Cinematic Interrogation of Britain: The Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter Collaboration." School of Liberal Arts. Tianjin University. Tianjin, China. 31 May 2012.
Awards
- Cited four times as “A Person at MTSU Who Makes a Real Difference to Our Students” in annual survey conducted by the Division of Student Affairs at Middle Tennessee State University (Spring 2019, Fall 2020, and twice in Spring 2021).
- Nomination for Alan Cohn Research Award. Southern Illinois University. 2008.
- Nomination for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year Award. Southern Illinois University. 2006-2007.
- Cited four times as “A Person at MTSU Who Makes a Real Difference to Our Students” in annual survey conducted by the Division of Student Affairs at Middle Tennessee State University (Spring 2019, Fall 2020, and twice in Spring 2021).
- Nomination for Alan Cohn Research Award. Southern Illinois University. 2008.
- Nomination for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year Award. Southern Illinois University. 2006-2007.
- Outstanding M.A. Thesis (first place). English Department Awards. Eastern Illinois University. 2006.
- Master’s Thesis Honorable Mention (third place, university wide). Graduate School Thesis Awards. Eastern Illinois University. 2006.
- Third place, Critical Review (Film) Open Category. 2000 Awards for Excellence in Illinois College Newspapers. Illinois College Press Association and The Chicago Tribune. 2001.
Research / Scholarly Activity
Currently, Dr. Weedman is writing the monograph Anne Heywood: Beauty, Sex, and the Controversial Film (under advance contract to University Press of Mississippi), a critical biography of the groundbreaking British actress of the films The Fox and I Want What I Want. Excerpts from his extensive personal interviews with the late Heywood appeared in the popular film magazine Cinema Retro in January 2017.
Moreover, he is contibuting multiple e...
Read More »Currently, Dr. Weedman is writing the monograph Anne Heywood: Beauty, Sex, and the Controversial Film (under advance contract to University Press of Mississippi), a critical biography of the groundbreaking British actress of the films The Fox and I Want What I Want. Excerpts from his extensive personal interviews with the late Heywood appeared in the popular film magazine Cinema Retro in January 2017.
Moreover, he is contibuting multiple encyclopedia entries on the American, British, and Continental European film noirs of director Joseph Losey to the forthcoming 5th edition of The Film Noir Encyclopedia (eds. Alain Silver and James Ursini) and co-editing ReFocus: The Films of Michael Cimino with Benjamin Halligan (University of Wolverhampton) and Karla Oeler (Stanford University). The latter edited collection is under advance contract to Edinburgh University Press as part of its "ReFocus: The American Directors" series and will represent the first, full critical engagement with the work of the Oscar-winning director behind The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate.
In the Media
- "MTSU’s English Department Hosts Annual Celebration of Student Writing." MTSU News. 17 Apr. 2024.
- Introduction to the 1949 film White Heat (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 25 Jan. 2020) mentioned in this
- "MTSU’s English Department Hosts Annual Celebration of Student Writing." MTSU News. 17 Apr. 2024.
- Introduction to the 1949 film White Heat (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 25 Jan. 2020) mentioned in this Belcourt Theatre press release. Belcourt.org. Jan. 2020.
- Introduction to the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 19 Jan. 2020) mentioned in this Belcourt Theatre press release. Belcourt.org. Jan. 2020.
- Introduction to the 1972 film Ulzana's Raid (The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. 5 Sept. 2018) discussed in the press article "MTSU Brings 'Western Movies Alive." WGNSRadio.com 29 Jul. 2018.
Courses
Graduate courses
- ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British Cinema--Social Upheaval, Censorship, and Moral Panic
- ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British New Wave Films of the 1950s and 1960s
- ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Horror Films
- ENGL 6561/7561 -- Film Studies (tentatively scheduled for Spring 2027)
Undergraduate courses
- ENGL 48...
Graduate courses
- ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British Cinema--Social Upheaval, Censorship, and Moral Panic
- ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: British New Wave Films of the 1950s and 1960s
- ENGL 6565/7565 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Horror Films
- ENGL 6561/7561 -- Film Studies (tentatively scheduled for Spring 2027)
Undergraduate courses
- ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: The Gangster Film
- ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Global Filmmakers in Hollywood
- ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Global Hitchcock--World Cinema in the Tradition of Alfred Hitchcock
- ENGL 4860 -- Special Topics in Film Studies: Horror Films
- ENGL 4855 -- Film Theory and Criticism
- ENGL 3885 -- Topics in Gender and Film: Women Film Pioneers
- ENGL 3885 -- Topics in Gender and Film: Women in British Film
- ENGL 3870 -- Film History
- ENGL 3860 -- Film Genre
- ENGL 3007 -- Writing and the Literary Imagination
True Blue Core (General Education) courses
- ENGL 2020 -- Themes in Literature and Culture: Detective Fiction
- ENGL 2020 -- Themes in Literature and Culture: The Swinging Sixties
- ENGL 1020 -- Research and Argumentative Writing
- ENGL 1010 -- Expository Writing


