New Books in Film Creators & Guests

Marko Dumancic is an author.

Stephen Benedict Dyson is an associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The Blair Identity: Leadership and Foreign Policy and Leaders in Conflict: Bush and Rumsfeld in Iraq.

Isaac Butler is a writer and theater director, most recently of The Trump Card, a meditation on the peculiar rise of Donald Trump with the solo performer Mike Daisey. Butler also wrote and directed Real Enemies, a collaboration with the composer Darcy James Argue and the video artist Peter Nigrini, which was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and named one of the top ten live events of 2015 by the New York Times. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Minnesota, and his writing has appeared in the Guardian, Slate, American Theatre, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications.

Rebecca Weaver-Hightower is a Professor of English at Virginia Tech University.

Stephen Lee Naish is a writer, independent researcher, and cultural critic.

Jocelyn Szczepaniak Gillece is an Associate Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Martin Sulzer Reichel is the Director of Arabic at the University of Richmond.

Morton Schoolman is a professor in the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the State University of New York, writer, researcher, and author of the book, A Democratic Enlightenment: The Reconciliation Image, Aesthetic Education, Possible Politics.

Robert P. Kolker is an author.

Chenshu Zhou is an author of Cinema Off Screen and Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies in the History of Art Department and Cinema & Media Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Stephen Pimpare is Professor of Public Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School. He is also the host of the New Books Network’s Public Policy Channel and a Consulting Editor for the journal Social Work.Previously, Pimpare was an administrator of not-for-profit organizations addressing issues of poverty, hunger, and homelessness throughout New York City. One of the programs he helped to create was One City Café, New York’s first non-profit restaurant.Pimpare's first book, "The New Victorians: Poverty, Politics, and Propaganda in Two Gilded Ages," was published in 2004. He has published four nonfiction books.

Emily Strand is author, podcaster, teacher, speaker, singer-songwriter and musician. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor at the Mount Carmel College of Nursing, where she teaches courses on comparative religions and cultural competence. She co-hosts the podcast "Potterversity." She also created and co-hosts the podcast "Meet Father Rivers."Strand's work on the religious, symbolic and spiritual themes in popular fiction has appeared in religious journals. Her first book, "Mass 101: Liturgy and Life," was published in 2013. Her second book, "Your Baby's Baptism," was published in 2014. She co-edited the books "Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier," and "Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away," both published in 2023.Strand is also a lector, cantor and accompanist for her Catholic parish, Immaculate Conception.Strand received her M.A. in theology from the University of Dayton.

Rebecca Harrison is a lecturer in the Theatre, Film and Television Studies Department at the University of Glasgow, writer, and author of the book The Empire Strikes Back.

Frances Galt is a writer, and author of the book Women’s Activism Behind the Screens: Trade Unions and Gender Inequality in the British Film and Television Industries.

Leslie Barnes is a Senior Lecturer in French Studies in the School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics at the Australian National University.

Bruce Isaacs is an associate professor of Film Studies, director of the Film Studies Program at the University of Sydney, and author of the book The Art of Pure Cinema.

Patrick Ffrench is a professor of French at Kings College, and author of the book Roland Barthes and Film.

Debashree Mukherjee is an assistant professor in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University.

Woojeong Joo is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Humanities, writer, and author of the book Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro: Histories of the Everyday.