Dr. Tom Gunning

Professor

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Biography

Tom Gunning is an Emeritus faculty member specializing in film style interpretation and film history. He has published around a hundred articles focusing on early cinema, exploring its origins and its relationship with modernity, photography, stage melodrama, and cultural concerns. His key work, 'D.W. Griffith: Origins of American Narrative Film,' examines how early film style interacted with new economic structures in the American film industry. Gunning's forthcoming book on Fritz Lang discusses the systematic nature of the director’s oeuvre and interpretation processes. He has written extensively about avant-garde film and Hollywood cinema, focusing on the interplay between genre, technology, and film culture. His work frequently addresses the historical factors affecting exhibition and the spectator's experience, highlighting recurrent themes in film history. Gunning was celebrated in a recent event, 'Attractions of the Moving Image,' with presentations by numerous scholars and filmmakers, which marked significant contributions to the field of moving images and historical aesthetic inquiries.

Research Interests

Courses

Post-War American Avant-Garde (CMST 21810 / 31810) Films of Josef von Sternberg (CMST 26000 / 46000) Contemporary Theory (CMST 67203) History of International Cinema, Part: Silent Era (CMST 28500 / 48500) Framing, Reframing, Unframing Cinema (CMST 27805 / 37805) Detective Film (CMST 25505) Special Effects (CMST 67810)

Requirements for University of Chicago

Doctorate Program
Requirements
TOEFL
Listening
Required:26
Reading
Required:26
Writing
Required:26
Speaking
Required:26
Total
Required:104
IELTS
Listening
Required:7
Reading
Required:7
Writing
Required:7
Speaking
Required:7
Overall
Required:7
Prerequisites
Bachelor's degree Writing sample Candidate statement
Application Checklist
  • Candidate Statement
  • Transcripts
  • Letters of Recommendation (3)
  • Writing Sample
  • Application Fee
Specialization Notes

Department of Philosophy