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Cinema Faculty
Our faculty are a unique blend of researchers, educators and professionals who are proven experts in their fields.
Cade Bursell, Professor
Cinema
Cade Bursell’s creative work engages both experimental processes and a socially engaged media arts practice with a focus on human rights and environmental issues, and grounded in an understanding of the relationship between medium and meaning. Her interests include queer studies, women’s studies, environmental and animal studies and Buddhist philosophy. Her creative practice is guided by a set of ethical principles that involves a deep regard, concern and recognition of the complex interdependence of all forms of life.
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Office: Northwest Annex B212
cbursell@siu.edu
Pirooz Kalayeh, Assistant Professor of Screenwriting and Film Production
Cinema
Pirooz Kalayeh loves combining his multifaceted experiences as an artist, musician, writer, actor, and director to create innovations in storytelling. His films have been featured in national publications and screened theatrically via distributors, streaming providers, and festivals and museums around the world, including Beloit International, L.A. Weekly, Indiewire, New Faces New Voices, Village Voice, Buddhist Film Festival Europe, Vice, The Johann Jacobs Museum, and many others.
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Office: Comm Room 1050C
Phone: 618-453-2208
pirooz.kalayeh@siu.edu
Jyotsna Kapur, Professor, Director Honors Program
Cinema
Jyotsna Kapur is a Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, who is also cross-appointed with Sociology. Her research and teaching interests include: Marxist-feminist theory of media arts and culture; The politics of labor, class, race, and sexuality in neoliberalism; contemporary Indian media culture; History and theory of the documentary idea especially its redefinations in contemporary practices and digital culture; Third Cinema; and Global children's media culture.
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Office: COMM 1121G
jkapur@siu.edu
CV
Walter Metz, Professor
Cinema
Walter Metz is a Professor of Film Studies who teaches film, television, theatre, and photography history, theory and criticism. As a researcher, Walter is interested in the relationship between popular media forms, such as the television sitcom and the Hollywood blockbuster film, and high, canonical literature. His book on Gilligan's Island was published by Wayne State University Press in March 2012. He is currently writing a manuscript about Dr. Seuss and the animated films made at Pixar Studios.
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Heather M. O'Brien, Assistant Professor
Cinema
Heather M. O'Brien is an artist, filmmaker, and writer. Her work builds encounters with familial archives, constructs of nationhood, and the illusion of accurate memory. Interests include expanded cinema, photographic histories, and the contemporary essay film.
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Office: Northwest Annex B 214
heather.obrien@siu.edu
Mike Phillips, Clinical Assistant Professor
Cinema
Mike Phillips studies and teaches American and transnational popular culture, specializing in film genre, historical fiction, African American cinema, and intermediality. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, with Certificates in Film Studies and American Studies, from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). His work has appeared in Film & History Alphaville Journal of Film & Media Studies Orbit: A Journal of American Literature, and the anthology Documenting the Black Experience. He previously taught film and media studies at Brooklyn College, Purchase College, and the College of Staten Island, as well as in CUNY's entry-to-college program for members of the SEIU labor union.
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Phone: 618-453-2223
Office: COMM 2221
michael.d.phillips@siu.edu
Robert Spahr, Interim Director of the School of Media Arts, Associate Professor
Robert Spahr is a visual artist and educator who produces computational art using generative processes and genetic algorithms; digital and analog images; objects; live art and time-based media.
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Office: Northwest Annex 213B
rspahr@siu.edu
Hong Zhou, Associate Professor
Cinema
Hong is interested in fictional narrative filmmaking. His recent work includes "Night Train", a story about two strangers' encounters in a subway, "She Wears Yellow", a study of fictional characters, and "Sarah and Liz", a story about two sisters' adventures into the wildness. Initially influenced by surrealist painting and early experimental films, Hong's work explores the conflict and interplay between conscious and subconscious as narrative force in storytelling. Having recently worked as cinematographer on a new HD feature film, Hong is excited about the new creative possibilities of HD as a compelling narrative medium, and is planning on shooting his next project using the latest digital cinema technology.
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Office: COMM 1121H
hzhou@siu.edu