I am a writer, film critic, and higher education communications specialist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Formerly an academic, I hold a PhD in Film Studies and a BA in Journalism.My scholarly writing has appeared in Cinema Journal, Cinephile, and The New Review of Film & Television Studies, among others. I publish longform film criticism and personal essays at Material Ghosts, my Substack newsletter. I am open to freelance writing opportunities in film, television, and culture.You can reach me via email at the address below or find me on Letterboxd.

Film Criticism

Reckoning with River's Edge (Material Ghosts)

On the moral framework of one of the 80s' best and bleakest films.

Three Shots, and Oh So Many Echoes: Paranoid Park (Material Ghosts)

How Gus Van Sant packs decades of cinematic allusions and obsessions into one deceptively simple scene.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Revisited (Material Ghosts)

On the occasion of a recent repertory screening.

Scholarly Writing

The Unheard Voice in the Sound Film (Cinema Journal)

Much has been written on the "disembodied voice" in film. But what about the inverse?

Mental Landscapes: Bazin, Deleuze, and Neorealism (Cinema Journal)

Teasing out the "supernatural" realism in André Bazin's thought by way of David Gordon Green's George Washington.

The Sound of Uncertain Voices: Mumblecore and the Interrogation of Realism (Cinephile)

One of the very first academic considerations of Mumblecore, from way back in 2011.

Book Review: The Off-Screen by Eyal Peretz (New Review of Film & Television Studies)

Personal Essays

On Escaping: Dazed and Confused (Material Ghosts)

How is that Richard Linklater's 1976 Austin reminds me so much of 1995 rural Georgia?

Good Taste or Bad Parenting? (Material Ghosts)

Should I let my 10-year-old watch Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

With a VCR and The HBO Guide, I Built a Middle-School Empire on Bootlegged Boobs (Material Ghosts)

How I, in the pre-internet days, built a thriving black-market business dubbing softcore movies for schoolmates.

Higher Ed Content

CREATE-X: A Decade of Success (Campaign Quarterly)

A retrospective on a wildly successful student entrepreneurship initiative at Georgia Tech.

Donors Step Up for Full Steam Ahead (Campaign Quarterly)

News story on the launch of the Full Steam Ahead fundraising initiative.