Mercator Fellows

Elaine Roth is Professor of Film Studies and Chair of the English Department at Indiana University South Bend. In the winter term 2024 and spring term 2025 she is Mercator Fellow at the research training group “The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics” at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. She is currently engaged in research projects on “Sentimentality in Fictional Pandemic Media,” “Early Screenwriters and Directors,” and a project on Patricia Highsmith. Her research interests include Genre Studies, Popular Culture, and Sentimentality.

Fellowships and Grants                                                                            

2024-2025:  Mercator Fellow, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

2023:  Fulbright-García Robles Chair of U.S. Studies, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City

2015:  IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Exploratory Traveling Fellowship to conduct research at the Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles, CA

2011:  Fulbright Senior Lecturer award, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

2008:  IUSB Faculty Research Award, “After the Film is Before the Film:  The Cinema of Tom Tykwer.”

2008:  IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Exploratory Traveling Fellowship to interview director Tom Tykwer in Berlin, Germany.

2003:  IUSB Faculty Research Award, “An Analysis of Gender and Race in Steven Soderbergh’s Films.”

Publications

Edited Volume

2009: Motherhood Misconceived: Representing the Maternal in U.S. Films, co-edited with Heather Addison and Mary Kate Goodwin-Kelly.  (SUNY Press)

Book Contributions

“The Power of Sentimental Cinema and Sentimental Politics:  Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014),” in Sentimental States, eds. Heike Paul and Sarah Pritz, forthcoming.

“’This is America’:  Race, Gender and the Gothic in Get Out (2017),” in Gothic Film, eds. Jay McRoy and Richard Hand.  (Edinburgh University Press, 2020):  206-217.

“’Who’s Your Favorite Indian?’: Sherman Alexie’s Adaptations,” in Authorship in Film Adaptation, ed. Jack Boozer.  (University of Texas Press) 2008:  305-324.

Journal Articles 

“More Momophobia:  Incapacitated Mothers in Twenty-First Century U.S. Cinema.”  Journal of Popular Film and Television (Routledge), 45.4, 2017:  180-189.

“Black and White Masculinity in Three Steven Soderbergh Films,” Genders 43 spring 2006 (www.genders.org).

“Momophobia:  Incapacitated Mothers and their Adult Children in 1990’s Films,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video (Routledge) 22.2, 2005:  189-202.

“’I Just Want to be a Decent Citizen’:  Melodrama as Political Appeal in Erin Brockovich,” Feminist Media Studies (Routledge) 4.1, 2004:  51-66.

Interviews

“Two Very Different Brains”:  An Interview with Nora Zuckerman. Currently under review at Quarterly Review of Film and Video

“The Wonders of Editing:  An Interview with Mathilde Bonnefoy and Tom Tykwer.”  Co-author Heather Addison.  The Journal of Film and Video (University of Illinois Press) 64.2, 2011:  45-55.

“In Pursuit of Subjectivity:  An Interview with Tom Tykwer.”  Co-author Heather Addison.  Quarterly Review of Film and Video (Routledge) 27.3, 2010:  169-177.

Reviews

Review of Sitcom Mom:  The Evolution of a Class Television Character by Judy Kutulas.  Journal of American History (Oxford University Press), forthcoming.

Review of Soldiers‘ Stories: Military Women in Cinema and Television since World War II by Yvonne Tasker.  Journal of American History (Oxford University Press) 99.  2012: 644-645.

Review of Dogtown and Z Boys, directed by Stacy Peralta.  Journal of American Folklore (University of Illinois Press) 117. 464, 2004:  197-198.

Encyclopedia entries

“Olive Higgins Prouty,” American Authors, Supplement XXVIII, ed. Jay Parini (Scribner’s, 2018):  177-194.

“Miranda July,” American Authors, Supplement XXIV, ed. Jay Parini (Scribner’s, 2014):  199-211.

“Elisabeth Sanxay Holding,” American Authors, Supplement XXII, ed. Jay Parini (Scribner’s, 2012):  119-137.

“Sissy Spacek,” New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, vol. 16, Media, eds. Allison Graham and Sharon Monteith (University of North Carolina Press, 2011):  pp. 359-361.

Selected Conference Presentations

“The Use of Sentimentality in Epidemic Media, from Contagion (2011) to The Last of Us (2023-), University Film and Video Association (UFVA), Cleveland, OH.  July 2024.

“Wonder Woman Looks Back.”  Spanish Association for American Studies. Salamanca, Spain.  April 2019.

“The Talented Ms. Highsmith:  Consuming or Consumed?”  Midwest Modern Languages Association (MMLA).  Kansas City, KS.  November 2018.

“Early Women Screenwriters.”  Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900.  Louisville, KY.  February 2018.

“Momophobia for the Twenty-First Century:  Adaptations of Incapacitated Mothers.” Literature / Film Association Conference.  Lawrence, KS.  October 2013.

“Debt in Sub-Saharan African Cinema:  Bamako as a Case Study.”MMLA. Cincinnati, OH.  November 2012.

“Going off The Deep End:  Film Adaptations of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding’s WWII novel The Blank Wall.” MMLA.  St. Louis, MO.  November 2011.

“Tom Tykwer as International Auteur.”  Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900. Louisville, KY.  February 2009.

“Sentimental and Experimental Filmmaking.”  (Also moderator, “Adversarial Aesthetics: Experimental and Alternative Cinema” panel.)  UFVA.  Los Angeles, CA.  August 2006.

“’You Just Hate Men!’:  Postmaternal Sexuality in Gas, Food, Lodging.”  (Also chair, “Postmaternal Hollywood” panel.) SCMS. London, England.  March 2005.

“Motherhood, Connection, and Alienation in Blue.”  SCMS and Association Française de Recherche sur l’histoire du Cinema. Lyon, France.  July 2004.

“Formal Experimentation and Viewing Pleasure in Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis.”  (Also chair, “Cinematic Experimentation: Form, Nation, Genre, Representation” panel.) SCMS. Atlanta, GA. March 2004.

“Affect in the Workplace:  Sentimental Professionalism in Erin Brockovich.”  MMLA.  Chicago, IL.  November 2003.

“’Does That Mean I’m Black?’:  White Fantasies in 1990’s Films and Novels.”  SCMS.  Denver, CO.  May 2002.

“Back to the Future:  The Legacy of White Supremacy in U.S. Science Fiction    Films.”  SCMS.  Chicago, IL.  March 2000.

“Totally Toxic:  Melodramatic Resistance in Safe.”  Articulating Conflicts in Cultural Studies:  Agency, Resistance, and Social Change. University of Arizona.  Tucson, AZ.  February 1998.

Selected Academic Presentations  

“The Power of Sentimental Cinema and Sentimental Politics:  Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014).”  Civil Sentimentalism in the Americas:  an International Workshop.  Amerika Institute, Munich, Germany.  November 2022.

“Women in and of Film,” Feminist Media Studies Symposium, in honor of Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, University of Oregon Cinema Studies, Portland, OR.  February 2017.

“Sex, Lies, and Celluloid:  The Politics of Nudity in U.S. Cinema.”  Seminar on Erotics in Literature and the Arts.  Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.  April 2011.

“The Politics of U.S. filmmaking:  Director Steven Soderbergh as a Case
Study.” American Thought and Culture Seminar:  Literature and Politics.  Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.  April 2011.

“International Auteurs as the Future of Film Studies:  A Case Study of Tom Tykwer,” Université du Sud Toulon-Var, Toulon, France, May 2010.

Invited keynote co-speaker (with Heather Addison and Mary Kate Goodwin-Kelly), “Hollywood Motherhood,” Women’s Caucus, Rocky Mountain Modern Languages Association.  Boulder, CO.  October 2004.

Invited speaker, “Odyssey:  A Daily Talk Show of Ideas,” Film Forum:  The Movies and Maternity, Chicago Public Radio, May 28, 2004.