Dr. Rashna Richards of Rhodes College and Dr. Kristi McKim of Hendrix College organized the first Hendrix-Rhodes Film Studies Research Symposium with a grant from the Associated Colleges of the South. The symposium was held recently on the Hendrix campus in Conway, Ark.
Ten Rhodes students participated in the event—Sammi Bryan, Hayley Farmer, Timothy Garton, Lara Johnson, Anna Lockhart, Jacob Long, Shelby Lund, Julia Price, Maggie McGowan, and Chelsea Ortego.
The goals of the symposium were:
- To introduce undergraduate students to the collaborative experience of a professional film and media studies conference within the intimate scale of a two-college research symposium
- To offer undergraduate students the opportunity to prepare their film research for public presentation
- To expose students to areas and methods of film study beyond the parameters of their own institution through cross-institutional collaboration
- To encourage students to gain mastery over and confidence in their own presentation of research
Richards joined the Rhodes English department as assistant professor and director of film studies in 2008. Her research and teaching interests include American film history, critical theory, and transnational cultural studies. She is author of Cinematic Flashes: Cinephilia and Classical Hollywood.