Amy Villarejo

Chair at the Department of (FTVDM)
Amy Villarejo
Born
Los Angeles and Davis, California
OccupationsChair and Professor, Film, Television, and Digital Media
Academic work
Disciplinefeminist, queer media, critical theory, and television studies

Amy Villarejo is an American scholar in cinema and media studies, specializing in feminist and queer media, critical theory, and television studies. She is currently chair of the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media (FTVDM) and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Previously, she was the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Humanities at Cornell University, where she taught in the Department of Performing and Media Arts and the Department of Comparative Literature.[1][2]

Her notable works include Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Duke University Press, 2003), which won the Katherine Singer Kovács Prize from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.[3]

Early life and education

Villarejo was born and raised in Los Angeles and Davis, California. She earned her A.B. degree from Bryn Mawr College and later received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Cinema Studies with distinction from the University of Pittsburgh.[2][4]

Career

Villarejo joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1997, where she taught for more than two decades.[5] During her tenure at Cornell, she held several leadership roles, including Director of the Women’s Studies Program (later Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies), Chair of the Department of Performing and Media Arts, and Inaugural Director of the Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity. She also held a joint appointment in the Department of Comparative Literature.[6]

In 2020, Villarejo joined UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television as a Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media.[2] She served as Chair of the department from 2022 to 2025.[7] In addition to her primary appointments, she has held visiting positions at institutions including the University of São Paulo, the University of Sydney, Northwestern University, and Justus Liebig University Giessen.[1]

Villarejo has participated extensively in international academic collaboration, including faculty roles in summer seminars and research programs in China, Germany, and Australia. She is currently Professor Emerita at Cornell University.[6]

Research and scholarly work

Amy Villarejo’s scholarship encompasses a wide range of topics within cinema and media studies[8], including queer theory[9], feminist media studies[10], critical theory[11], and television studies.[12] Her work is recognized for its historical depth, theoretical sophistication, and interdisciplinary approach, addressing both the cultural politics of media representation and the institutional contexts that shape media forms and practices.[13] Villarejo’s research spans film, television, documentary media, and global cinema, with particular attention to how gender, sexuality, and historicity intersect with media production, distribution, and reception. Her work also engages with Third Cinema, Brazilian and Indian cinema, and American television, reflecting her broad critical interests.[14][15][16]

Her book Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire (2013) offers a historically engaged analysis of queer representations on television, challenging assumptions about the timeline and social significance of queer visibility in broadcast and digital media.[17] The work draws on archival research and theoretical insights to trace queer television’s evolution from early broadcast eras to contemporary streaming cultures, demonstrating the medium’s persistent engagement with diverse forms of queer life.[18]

Villarejo co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema (2021)with Ron Gregg, that maps the field of queer cinema globally, across silent, classical, and contemporary film histories, and explores methodologies, archives, and pedagogical frameworks in queer film studies.[19]

Her earlier monograph Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (2003)[20] received the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, highlighting its impact in feminist and queer critical theory.[21]

Other book publications include a co-authored study (with Marcia Landy) in the BFI Film Classics series on Greta Garbo’s 1933 film Queen Christina[22], a co-edited volume (with Jordy Rosenberg) on Marxism and queer studies[23], a co-edited collection (with Matthew Tinkcom) of essays on film and cultural studies[24], and two widely-used textbooks:  Film Studies, The Basics, now in its third edition[25], and (with Glyn Davis, Kay Dickinson, and Lisa Patti) Film Studies:  A Global Introduction, contracted for a second edition in 2026.[26]

Editorial and professional contributions

Villarejo’s research articles and essays have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Film Quarterly, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Social Text, New German Critique, and Cinema Journal (now Journal of Cinema and Media Studies). She has also contributed chapters to edited collections and has served on editorial boards for Film Quarterly and JCMS, reflecting her ongoing influence in shaping scholarly conversations in media studies.[27]Villarejo also serves on the editorial boards of Film Quarterly and the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS). Her editorial work continues to influence the field of media studies.[28]

Publications

  • Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Duke University Press, 2003) – Winner of the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award.[29]
  • Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire (Duke University Press, 2013).[30]
  • Film Studies: The Basics (Routledge, 2013; 3rd edition, 2021).
  • Co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2021) with Ron Gregg.

Villarejo has authored more than 50 essays published in peer-reviewed journals and anthologies, including New German Critique, Social Text, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Film Quarterly, and Cinema Journal (now Journal of Cinema and Media Studies).[31]

Awards and honors

  • Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award for Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (2003).[32]

Villarejo has also received numerous awards and fellowships recognizing her contributions to scholarship and teaching. These include the Morgan Chia-Wen Sze and Bobbi Josephine Hernandez Distinguished Teaching Prize[33], multiple grants from the Society for the Humanities at Cornell, and international research fellowships.[34] In 2025, she received the Astar Award for Inclusive Perspectives in Cinema and Television[35] and was named a Fellow of the International Institute of Film Science and Art.[36]

References

  1. ^ a b "Amy Villarejo". Cornell University. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  2. ^ a b c "Amy Villarejo – Faculty". UCLA. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  3. ^ "Amy Villarejo - Lesbian Rule". Lesbian Looks. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  4. ^ "Amy Villarejo: Associate Professor of Film, Cornell University". Out of Bounds Radio. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  5. ^ "Amy Villarejo". Cornell University Urbanism Seminars. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  6. ^ a b "The James Naremore Lecture with Amy Villarejo". Indiana University Cinema. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  7. ^ "Amy Villarejo, Chair and Professor of the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has joined the International Institute of Film Science and Art (IIFSA)". iifsa.org. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  8. ^ Villarejo, Amy (2013-07-18). Film Studies: The Basics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-01177-2.
  9. ^ Villarejo, Amy (2003). Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire. Duke University Press.
  10. ^ Moore, Candace (2025-10-01). "Intermittent Interest and Low-Grade Archival Fevers". Feminist Media Histories. 11 (4): 47–67. doi:10.1525/fmh.2025.11.4.47. ISSN 2373-7492.
  11. ^ Hoang, Nguyen Tan (2015). "Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire by Amy Villarejo (review)". philoSOPHIA. 5 (2): 321–325. ISSN 2155-0905.
  12. ^ "Villarejo says TV distorts our perception of time | Cornell Chronicle". news.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  13. ^ "Amy Villarejo, Chair and Professor of the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has joined the International Institute of Film Science and Art (IIFSA)". iifsa.org. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  14. ^ "Amy Villarejo, behind the scenes in Theatre, Film and Dance | Cornell Chronicle". news.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  15. ^ "Amy Villarejo's new book offers wide-ranging survey of queer cinema". UCLA. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  16. ^ "Media matters | Cornell Chronicle". news.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  17. ^ Smith, Kate McNicholas (2016). "Ethereal queer: Television, historicity, desire , Amy Villarejo". Feminist Theory. 17 (1): 131–132. doi:10.1177/1464700115621252b. ISSN 1464-7001.
  18. ^ Admin, Lambda (2014-06-04). "'Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire' by Amy Villarejo". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  19. ^ "Review of "The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema" by Kevin Bozelka". www.ejumpcut.org. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  20. ^ "Mobile States: Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire by Amy Villarejo – Senses of Cinema". 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  21. ^ "Amy Villarejo to lead Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity | Cornell Chronicle". news.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  22. ^ Landy, Marcia; Villarejo, Amy (2019-07-25). Queen Christina. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83871-768-1.
  23. ^ "Queer Studies and the Crises of Capitalism". dukeupress.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  24. ^ Villarejo, Amy; Tinkcom, Matthew, eds. (2001). Keyframes: popular cinema and cultural studies. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-20282-4.
  25. ^ Villarejo, Amy (2022). Film studies: the basics. The basics (3rd ed.). Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-13502-7.
  26. ^ Davis, Glyn; Dickinson, Kay; Patti, Lisa; Villarejo, Amy (2015). Film studies: a global introduction. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-73434-9.
  27. ^ "Amy Villarejo – Faculty". UCLA. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  28. ^ "Amy Villarejo – Executive Board". UCLA. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  29. ^ Carrigy, Megan (13 February 2007). "Mobile States: Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire by Amy Villarejo – Senses of Cinema". Senses of Cinema.
  30. ^ "A Review of Villarejo's Ethereal Queer | enculturation". enculturation.net.
  31. ^ "Amy Villarejo to lead Milstein Program". Cornell University News. 2017-11-17. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  32. ^ "Amy Villarejo - Lesbian Rule". Lesbian Looks. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  33. ^ "Morgan Chia-Wen Sze and Bobbi Josephine Hernandez Distinguished Teaching Prize". as.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  34. ^ "Amy Villarejo to lead Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity | Cornell Chronicle". news.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  35. ^ "IIFSA Astar Award 2025 International Jury | Full lineup introduction". www.iifsa.org. Retrieved 2026-02-18.
  36. ^ "Amy Villarejo – Faculty". UCLA. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.