Jason Mittell

American Studies and Film & Media Culture

208 Axinn Center, Middlebury College

Middlebury, Vermont 05753

office: (802) 443-3435 / fax: (802) 443-5123

email: jmittell@middlebury.edu

Education

University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of Communication Arts

Ph.D., August 2000, Media & Cultural Studies Program

M.A., Spring 1996, Media & Cultural Studies Program

Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

B.A. Spring 1992, English and Theater major

Teaching Experience

Middlebury College, Middlebury Vermont

Associate Professor of American Studies and Film & Media Culture,

Chair of Film & Media Culture Department

Fall 2008 – present

Assistant Professor of American Studies and Film & Media Culture

Fall 2002 – Spring 2008

Courses taught include:

American Media Industries

Georgia State University, Atlanta

Assistant Professor of Communication, Fall 2000 – Spring 2002

Film/Video undergraduate program, Moving Image Studies Ph.D. program.

University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of Communication Arts, 1994-2000.

Lecturer and Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Radio-TV-Film, Video Production.

Publications

Books

Television and American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture (Routledge, 2004).

Book Chapters

“TiVoing Childhood: Time Shifting a Generation’s Concept of Television,” in The Flow Anthology (Routledge, forthcoming).

“All in the Game: The Wire, Serial Storytelling and Procedural Logic,” in Third Person, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan (MIT Press, 2009).

“Lost in a Great Story: Evaluation in Narrative Television (and Television Studies),” in Reading LOST, edited by Roberta Pearson (I.B. Tauris, 2009).

“Film and Television Narrative,” invited contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, edited by David Herman (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 156-71.

“Cartoon Realism: Genre Mixing and the Cultural Life of The Simpsons,” article reprinted in Television: The Critical View, 7^th Edition, edited by Horace Newcomb (Oxford University Press, 2007), 272-91.

“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory,” article reprinted in Thinking Outside the Box, edited by Gary R. Edgerton and Brian Rose (University of Kentucky Press, 2005), 37-64.

“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory,” article reprinted in The Television Studies Reader, edited by Robert C. Allen and Annette Hill (Routledge, 2003).

“Classic Network System” and “Generic Cycles: Innovation, Imitation, Saturation,” in The Television History Book, edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Jacobs (British Film Institute, 2003), 44-49.

“The Great Saturday Morning Exile: Scheduling Cartoons on Television’s Periphery in the 1960s,” in Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture, edited by Carol Stabile and Mark Harrison (Routledge, 2003). 33-54.

“Before the Scandals: The Radio Precedents of the Quiz Show Genre,” in The Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of US Radio Broadcasting, edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio, (Routledge, 2002), 319-42.

Refereed Journal Articles

“Sites of Participation: Wiki Fandom and the Case of Lostpedia,” Transformative Works & Culture vol. 3, 2009.

Speculation on Spoilers: Lost Fandom, Narrative Consumption, and Rethinking Textuality,” co-authored with Jonathan Gray, Particip@tions 4:1, May 2007.

“Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television,” The Velvet Light Trap #58, Fall 2006, 29-40.

“Audiences Talking Genre: Television Talk Shows and Cultural Hierarchies,” Journal of Popular Film and Television, 31:1, Spring 2003, 36-46.

“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory,” Cinema Journal, 40:3, Spring 2001, 3-24.

“Cartoon Realism: Genre Mixing and the Cultural Life of The Simpsons,” The Velvet Light Trap #47, Spring 2001, 15-28.

“The Cultural Power of an Anti-Television Metaphor: Questioning the ‘Plug-In Drug’ and a TV-Free America,” Television and New Media, 1:2, May 2000, 215-238.

“Invisible Footage: Industry on Parade and Television Historiography,” Film History, 9:2, Fall 1997, 200-218.

Non-Refereed Articles

“The Best of Television,” Flow 4:12 (2006).

“Lost in an Alternate Reality,” Flow 4:7 (2006).

“TiVoing Childhood,” Flow 3:12 (2006).

“An Arresting Development,” Flow 3:8 (2005).

“Exchanges of Value,” Flow 3:4 (2005).

“The Value of Lost,” Flow 2:10 (2005).

“The Loss of Value (or the Value of Lost),” Flow 2: 5 (2005).

Reviews & Encyclopedia Articles

“Innovation and Imitation in Commercial Media” and “TiVo: Timeshifting America,” Battleground: The Media, edited by Robin Andersen and Jonathan Gray (Westport CT: Greenwood, 2008), 190-95, 509-13.

Review essay of Pikachu’s Global Adventure, edited by Joseph Tobin (Duke University Press, 2004), and Nickelodeon Nation, edited by Heather Hendershot (New York University Press, 2004), in Popular Communication 3:3, 2005, 209-12.

“Genre” and “South Park,” entries in The Encyclopedia of Television, 2^nd edition, edited by Horace Newcomb, (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004).

“Quiz and Audience Participation Programs,” entry in The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio, edited by Christopher H. Sterling (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003).

Review of Refiguring American Film Genres, edited by Nick Browne (University of California Press, 1998) and Film/Genre, Rick Altman (British Film Institute, 1999), in The Velvet Light Trap #46, Fall 2000, 88-91.

Review of Spaces of Identity, David Morley & Kevin Robins (Routledge, 1995), in The Velvet Light Trap #40, Fall 1997, 67-69.

“Glen and Les Charles” (341-2), “Taxi” (1626-9), and “Jack Webb” (1815-7), entries in The Encyclopedia of Television, edited by Horace Newcomb, (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997).

Invited Presentations

“Serial Boxes: The Cultural Value of Long-Form Television.” Keynote speaker at Serial Forms Conference, University of Zurich, June 2009.

“Media Studies as a Liberal Art: The Case of Television Storytelling in the Digital Era.” Keynote speaker at Claremont Colleges Media Studies Symposium, March 2008.

Panelist at Futures of Entertainment conference and Unboxing Television symposium, both at MIT, November 2007.

“Gaming Across the Curriculum: Some Roles for Videogames in the Liberal Arts.” Presentation for Middlebury College Library and Information Services, June 2007.

“What is the Role of Wikipedia in Higher Education?” Presenter in forum sponsored by Ross Commons, Middlebury College, February 2007.

“The Pleasures of Complexity in Contemporary Television Narrative,” University of Texas at Austin, Department of Radio-Television-Film, April 2006.

Presenter at MIT Communications Forum, “Is Popular Culture Good for You?”, October 2005.

Plenary Speaker, concluding summary session of The Work of Stories: Media in Transition 4 Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2005.

Participating Faculty, delivering guest lectures and meeting independently with students, Center for Educational Technology, Advanced Summer Technology Program, Summers 2003-05.

Invited panelist on Vermont Society for the Study of Education’s annual meeting, discussing Education, Media and the First Amendment, December 2003.

“Saturday Morning Genres: How the Television Industry Transformed Cartoons.” Invited presentation to Middlebury College Alumni Leadership Council, September 2003.

“Blurring Boundaries: Philosophy, Popular Culture, and The Matrix.” Invited paper presented at Georgia State University Department of Philosophy Colloquium, November 2001.

Selected Presentations & Workshops

“Talking Through The Wire,” roundtable participant at Flow Conference 2008, Austin, Texas, October 2008.

“Previously On: Prime Time Serials & the Poetics of Memory.” Paper presented at Society for Cognitive Study of the Moving Image, Madison, WI, June 2008.

“Architectures of Participation: Wiki Fandom and the Case of LostPedia.” Paper presented at Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Philadelphia, March 2008.

“Scholarly Writing in the Digital Age.” Workshop participant, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Philadelphia, March 2008.

“Speculation on Spoilers: Lost Fandom, Narrative Consumption, and Rethinking Textuality.” Paper presented at Media in Transition 5 Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 2007.

“SCMS and the Future of Fair Use.” Workshop assembled and coordinated (unable to chair as planned due to health emergency), Society of Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, March 2007.

“Taste and Television” roundtable, coordinator and presenter; “Watching Television Off-Television” roundtable, presenter. Flow Conference, University of Texas – Austin, October 2006.

“Serial Narratives and Tie-In Games: Problems, Possibilities and Pleasures.” Paper presented at Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Vancouver, Canada, March 2006. Chair of panel “Rethinking Serial Form: Television and Beyond.”

Coordinator and Speaker, Faculty Seminar on Digital Gaming in the Liberal Arts Curriculum, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, July 2005.

“Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television, part 2.” Paper presented at The Work of Stories: Media in Transition 4 Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2005.

“Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television.” Paper presented at Society for Cinema and Media Studies, London, UK, April 2005.

“Mixed Media, Pure Genres?: Practicing Genres Across Music and Television.” Paper presented at International Association for the Study of Popular Music Conference, Montreal, Canada, July 2003.

“Interfacing Television: TiVo, Technology Convergence, and Everyday Life.” Paper presented at Media in Transition 3 Conference: Television in Transition, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2003.

“Syndicated and Serialized Irony: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the Cultural Politics of 1970s Television.” Paper presented at Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2003.

“Cultural Approaches to Media Industries.” Workshop organized, chaired, and participated in, at Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2003.

“Stylized Authenticity / Authentic Style: Dragnet’s Aesthetic & Generic Legacy.” Paper presented at Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Denver, Colorado, May 2002. Chair of panel, “Rethinking Television Aesthetics.”

“Targeting a Taste Culture: Cartoon Network and 1990s Television.” Paper presented at National Communication Association Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2001. Chair of panel, “Cultural Analysis of the Television Industry.”

“Media History, Cultural Historiography.” Paper presented at National Communication Association Convention, Seattle, Washington, November 2000.

“Saturday Morning Genres: Constructing the Children’s Audience in 1960s Television.” Paper presented at Console-ing Passions Conference, South Bend, Indiana, May 2000. Chair of panel, “Television’s Genres.”

“Making Fun of Genre: Soap and the Cultural Politics of Parody.” Paper presented at Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 2000. Co-chair of panel, “The Politics of Parody: New Media Forms and Cultural Transformation.”

“Rethinking Television Genre Theory.” Paper presented at National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar, Mass Communication Division, Urbana, Illinois, Summer 1999.

Grants and Awards

Co-coordinator of Mellon 23 Symposium on Media Studies in the Liberal Arts, Pomona College, January 2009.

Middlebury College Long Term Professional Development Grant, Fall 2008. To support book-project on television narrative.

Selected to participate in Forum on Excellence & Innovation in Higher Education, Harvard University, 2005-09. Five-year program exploring innovative practices in higher education, approximately 45 faculty and administrators from 14 colleges and universities nationwide invited to participate.  Funded by Spencer Foundation, providing financial support for projects directly to participating campus projects.

Mellon Foundation Research Award for course release, Middlebury College, Fall 2006.

Coordinated Symposium for Cinema & Media Studies in the Liberal Arts Context, a Mellon-funded workshop for 30 faculty from 8 college campuses in October 2004 at Middlebury College. Proposed & received grant for $48,000 to fund symposium; coordinated and hosted event.

Selected to participate in Vassar Summer Media Studies Institute, 2003, to create Gallery of Meta-Media Objects, sponsored by Center for Educational Technology. Provides funding for student and faculty to collaborate on project to benefit research and pedagogy in new media studies.

Middlebury College Undergraduate Collaborative Research Funding, Spring 2003 – Spring 2004.

University of Wisconsin Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, Fall 1999.

Selected through competitive application to participate in National Communication Association’s Doctoral Honors Seminar, Mass Communication Division, Summer 1999.

Professional and Community Service

Consulting and Reviews

Outside reader for Louisa Stein’s dissertation in Cinema Studies, New York University, Fall 2005.

Member of Convergence Cultures Consortium, a MIT-centered consulting group applying humanistic scholarship to contemporary media strategies, 2004 – present.

Consultant to Initiative Media on understanding television micro-genres, 2004.

Editorial

Editorial Advisory Board, The Velvet Light Trap, 2004 – present.

Editorial Advisory Board, Popular Communication, 2006 – present.

Editorial Advisory Board, Cinema Journal, 2008 – present.

Editorial Board, MediaCommons, 2006 – present.

Manuscript reviewer for Columbia University Press, New York University Press, Oxford University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Routledge, Blackwell Publishing, and Polity Press.

Article reviewer for Cinema Journal, Convergence, New Review of Film and Television Studies, and Feminist Media Studies.

Quoted as expert commentator for journalistic articles on media and popular culture in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Newsday, New York Daily News, Toronto Globe & Mail, Orlando Sentinel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Patriot Ledger, Burlington Free Press, The Capitol Times, Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, Rutland Herald, American Way Magazine, NPR Morning Edition, Vermont Public Radio, WAMC radio, Washington Post Radio, WCAX-TV and FoxNews.com.

Organizational Service

Founding Member of Society for Cinema and Media Studies Public Policy Committee, 2005 – present. Contributing author on SCMS Policy Statements on Fair Use.

Member of Steering Committee, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Television Interest Group, 2002-05.

Member of Middlebury College Information Services Committee, Fall 2003-05, 2006 – present; chair, 2004-05; 2006 – present; participant in Middlebury Copyright Policy working group; member of Website Makeover Taskforce, 2008 – present.

Middlebury Community Television board member, 2002 – present; Treasurer, 2003-05; President 2005 – present.

Co-Chair, Hospitality/Information Committee, Local Arrangements for National Communication Association Convention, Atlanta, Fall 2001.

Coordinating Editor, The Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film and Television, 1998-99; Editor, 1995–2000.

Archiving Assistant, National Museum of American History Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution, Summer 1995. Learned and practiced moving-image archival techniques under supervision of Moving Image Archivist Wendy Shay; participated in Smithsonian-wide conferences and seminars on museum practices and planning exhibitions.