Graduate Student Coordinators

Merve Şen, PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature and Visual Studies

Adam DeCaulp, PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature and Asian Studies

The Film Studies Working Group aims to bring together graduate students and early, mid-career, and senior faculty who work on film at Penn State. Fostering a series of conversations across departments about the filmic medium, this project will create a vibrant network for scholars to meet each other, share their research, receive constructive input, and develop collaborative work. 

Toward this end, the group will host a series of seven symposia in the Spring 2026 semester. Each symposium will feature joint presentations by a faculty member and a graduate student on films central to their research. The format will include film screenings, presentations, and moderated discussions. We present this model to animate an ongoing dialogue across career stages and to demonstrate the possibilities of collaborative engagement. 

First Symposium

Julia Alekseyeva (Assistant Professor of English and Cinema and Media Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

• Friday, January 23, 2026, 6 pm in Carnegie

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969, 105 min.) by Matsumoto Toshio.

• Thursday, January 29, 2026, 6 pm in 102 Kern

Professor Alekseyeva will give a talk on the Japanese director Toshio Matsumoto and his avant-garde and anti-fascist filmmaking, focusing mainly on his film Funeral Parade of Roses.

• Friday, January 30, 2026, 6 pm in 113 Carnegie

Professor Alekseyeva will introduce a very rare copy of Matsumoto’s experimental short documentary ANPO (1959, 30 min.) on the contested Japanese-US security treaty Anpo. A moderated Q&A will follow.

Second Symposium

Sabine Doran (Associate Professor of German and Jewish Studies, Penn State)

Adam DeCaulp (PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature and Asian Studies, Penn State)

• Friday February 6, 2026, 6 pm in 113 Carnegie

Trouble Every Day (2001, 101min.) by Claire Denis. Presentations and moderated Q&A will follow.

Third Symposium

Christopher Reed (Distinguished Professor of English, Visual Culture, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Art History, Penn State)

Merve Şen (PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature and Visual Studies, Penn State)

• Wednesday March 4, 2026, 6 pm in Foster Auditorium

Ethnography of No Place (2008, 30 min.) by Sara Woolfalk and Rachel Lears & Sanctus (1990, 19 min.) and Evidentiary Bodies (2016, 10 min.) by Barbara Hammer. Presentations and moderated Q&A will follow.

Fourth Symposium

Pearl Gluck (Associate Professor of Film Production, Penn State)

•  Friday March 20, 2026, 6 pm in 113 Carnegie

Film (TBD). Presentation and moderated Q&A will follow.

Fifth Symposium

Dave Fresko (Associate Teaching Professor in Cinema Studies, Rutgers) 

• Friday April 3, 2026, 6 pm in 113 Carnegie

Film (TBD). Presentation and moderated Q&A will follow.

Sixth Symposium

Pedro Inock (PhD Candidate in Art Studies–Art and Mediations, NOVA University Lisbon)

• Friday, April 24, 2026, 5 pm in Foster Auditorium / 6 pm in 113 Carnegie

Selections from Untitled Ongoing Project. Filmmaker and Visual Arist Pedro Inock will screen selections from his repertoire. Interactive workshop will follow.

Seventh Symposium

Jooyeon Rhee (Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Penn State)

Rami Ghandour (PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature and Asian Studies, Penn State)

• Friday May 1, 2026, 6 pm – 113 Carnegie

Selections from The Housemaid (1960, 108 min.) and The Handmaiden (2016, 144 min). Presentations and moderated Q&A will follow.