Sam Hunter
Curriculum vitae
huntersl@g.ucla.edu
UCLA
Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media
School of Theater, Film & Television
EDUCATION
PhD, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA (A.T.C. March 2022, Anticipated Graduation 2025)
Dissertation: Digital Queerdom: Utopian Desire and the Early Queer Internet
Committee: Amy Villarejo (chair), Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, Veronica Paredes, Shaka McGlotten
Concentration certificate: Gender Studies
Qualifying exams (high pass): Queer Screen Culture, Revolutionary Cinema
Master of Arts, English Literature, Miami University (August 2019)
Thesis: Coming Out Cinema: Speech, Cinema and the Making of Queer Subjects
Committee: Katie Johnson (chair), Elisabeth Hodges, Anita Mannur
Bachelor of Arts: English Literature & Creative Writing, Miami University (May 2018)
Cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, English Honors
Minor: Rhetoric & Writing
PEER REVIWED PUBLICATIONS
“Revolutionary Uses of the Facial Weaponization Suite.” Submitted, Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies.
“Love, Victor and the Utopian Function of Networking Queer Identity Work.” In New Queer Television: From Marginalization to Mainstreamification. Edited by Danielle Girard, Thomas Brassington, Debra Ferreday. Intellect Press, December 2024.
OTHER SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Lady Bird,” “My Own Private Idaho” and “Wet Hot American Summer.” Summary & critical analysis. Encyclopedia of LGBTQIA+ Portrayals in American Film, edited by Erica Dymond and Salvador Jimenez Murguía. Rowan & Littlefield, October 2022. 218-222, 266-270, 392-395.
“Image Objects: An Archeology of Computer Graphics by Jacob Gaboury (review).” New Media & Society 24.4 (April 2022). 1028-1030.
“Making Sex Public, And Other Cinematic Fantasies by Damon R. Young (review).” Film & History 50.1 (Summer 2020). 101-102.
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
Dissertation Year Award, UCLA (2024)
Fellow, UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (2024)
Teshome Gabriel Memorial Award, UCLA (2024)
SCMS Caucus on Class Graduate Student and Precarious Scholar Essay Award (2024)
Awarded for “Utopian Desire & Digital Queers After the End of History”
Otis Ferguson Memorial Award in Critical Writing, UCLA (2023)
Awarded for “Dystopic State and Potential Revolution in Punishment Park and Born in Flames.”
Summer Mentored Research Fellowship, UCLA (2021)
With Professor Amy Villarejo
Georgia Frontiere Scholarship in Memory of the Humanitarian Efforts of Aaron Curtis Taylor, UCLA (2021, 2022)
Presidential Senior Service Leadership Award, Miami University (Spring 2018)
Recognition for Intellectual and Cultural Leadership at Miami University
Best Critical Essay, Oxford Writing Festival (Spring 2018)
Awarded for “Out of the Closet, Into the Mask: Pairing Queer & Superhero Origin Stories”
University Summer Scholars, Miami University (Summer 2017)
Funded. “Queers Look Back: An Analysis of Life, Looks and Power in Queer Film”
Geoffrion Family Fellowship, Miami University (Fall 2017-Spring 2018)
Program theme: “Urban Futures”
Craver-Overton Scholarship, Miami University (Spring 2017)
Awarded for “The Framing of the Shew: The Use of Frame as Distancing Construction in The Taming of the Shrew”
Robert F. Almy Award in Critical Writing, Miami University (Spring 2017)
Awarded for “The Framing of the Shew: The Use of Frame as Distancing Construction in The Taming of the Shrew”
INVITED TALKS
“Who wants to be a Kajillionaire?” UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center Annual Conference: Anonymous Labor in Film and Media. Santa Barbara, February 2025.
CONFERENCE PANELS, ROUNDTABLES, & WORKSHOPS
“PlanetOut’s Experiments with Queer Relations and Digital Subsumption.” UCLA Center for Performance Studies Experiment in Trouble Conference. Los Angeles, February 2025.
“Queer Activism & Techno-Utopia: The Electrifying Case of Digital Queers.” Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association. Baltimore, November 2024.
“PlanetOut: On the Queer Internet’s Uneven Development.” Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Arts Festival: (Un)linked. Virtual, July 2024.
“On Cyberqueers: New Media Activism & Queer Marxist Analysis.” U of Florida Critical Theory Reading Group Conference: Marxism and The Digital Public. Gainesville, April 2024.
“Desiring Networks: Queer Relations and Capitalist Accumulation on PlanetOut.com.” Society for Cinema & Media Studies. Boston, March 2024.
“Global Solidarity Town Hall: Across Regions, Social Identities, and Academic Ranks.” Organizer. Society for Cinema & Media Studies. Boston, March 2024.
“Utopian Desire & Digital Queers After the End of History.” Thinking Gender: Dystopian Realities, Feminist Utopias. Los Angeles, February 2024.
“Digital Queers: Evaluating the Silicon Solution to Gay Liberation.” Society for Cinema & Media Studies. Denver, April 2023.
“What Do We Want? Graduate Student Organizing and the Contemporary Academic Labor Movement.” Organizer and panelist. Society for Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Student Organization. Denver, April 2023.
“I Am Somebody (1970) Roundtable Discussion.” Organizer and panelist. Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Colloquium, UCLA. Los Angeles, October 2022.
“Reinventing Digital Materialism: Queer Art Towards Revolutionary Politics.” Console-ing Passions. Orlando/Virtual, June 2022.
“A Roundtable on Labor Actions at Academic Institutions.” Panelist. Society for Cinema and Media Studies Caucus on Class. Virtual, June 2022.
“Dystopic State and Potential Revolution in Punishment Park and Born in Flames.” UC Irvine Graduate Student Comp Lit Conference. Irvine, May 2022.
“Fag Face Mask: Digital Materialism and Revolutionary Queer Art.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Virtual, March-April 2022.
“Love, Victor and the Politics of Networking Queer Intimacy.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference. Virtual, June 2021.
“Whispers and Shouts: Coming Out and the Social in Mainstream American Film.” Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Symposium, Miami University. Oxford, February 2019.
“Representations of Queer Urbanity and Resistance of a Heterosexist Public.” Altman Symposium: Urban Futures, Miami University. Oxford, April 2018.
“Out of the Closet, Into the Mask: Pairing Queer & Superhero Origin Stories.” Marianne D. McComb Conference on Creative Writing, Miami University. Oxford, March 2018.
“Tangerine and the New Trans Look.” LitWorks: Student Panel on New Queer Media, Miami University. Oxford, November 2017.
GUEST LECTURES
“Todd Haynes & Safe (1995).” FTV 113: Film Authors, UCLA. Los Angeles, March 2024.
“Utopia’s Uploading: Cyberqueers, Techno-optimism, and Marxist Method.” Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Colloquium, UCLA. Los Angeles, March 2023.
“Queer American Television.” FTV 10A: History of American Television, UCLA. Los Angeles, April 2022.
“Digital Queers.” FTV 51: Digital Media Studies, UCLA. Los Angeles, February 2022.
“Love, Victor and the Politics of Networking Queer Intimacy.” Cinema & Media Studies Graduate Colloquium, UCLA. Los Angeles/Virtual, February 2021.
TEACHING
Teaching Fellow [as Instructor of Record]
UCLA, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media
FTV 10A: History of American Television, “Queer TV” (Spring 2023)
FTV 495A: Teaching Film & TV (Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024)
UCLA, Cluster Program “Data, Justice, and Society”
“Queer & Trans Digital Media” (Spring 2025)
Teaching Assistant/Associate/Fellow
UCLA, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media
FTV 4: Introduction to Art and Technique of Filmmaking (Summer, Fall 2020)
FTV 6A: History of the American Motion Picture (Spring 2020, Winter 2023)
FTV 10A: History of American Television (Spring 2022)
FTV 51: Digital Media Studies (Winter 2021, Winter 2022)
FTV 113: Film Authors (Winter 2024)
Voices of Discovery Co-facilitator
Miami University, Center for American and World Cultures
BWS 250A: Voices of Discovery: Intergroup Dialogue (Spring 2019)
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Graduate Student Researcher, UCLA (Summer 2023)
Support drafting proposal for new Self-Supporting Graduate Degree Program (Master’s in Media Transformation Analysis) in UCLA’s Department of Film, Television and Digital Media.
Summer Research Institute, UCLA Luskin Center for History & Policy (Summer 2021)
3-day intensive program on historical study’s intersection with public policymaking
SERVICE
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Co-chair, Precarious Labor Organization (2023-present)
UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television Faculty Executive Board
Student Representative, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media (2021-2022)
Ad hoc reviewer
New Media & Society