JOHNSON CITY, TN – A research fellowship awarded to an East Tennessee State University faculty member will allow her to spend the summer traveling through Europe gathering information for a new film book.
Dr. Jennifer Barker is one of the 2011 recipients of the Summer Research Fellowship in Arts and Sciences, funded by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Administration and presented annually to one or two faculty members in the college. The fellowships provide up to $7,500 to support specific research projects.
Barker, an assistant professor of Literature and Language and director of the Film Studies Program, will visit archival sites in Paris, Berlin, London, and Bloomington, Ind., where she will collect research for a manuscript now in progress.
The manuscript is for her upcoming book, Radical Projection: The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film, currently under contract with Routledge Press. Barker said the book will explore film depictions of antifascism, which opposed the fascist-type philosophy of an authoritative, anti-democratic government.
"I'll be looking at pictures dating back to the 1930s and 1940s when there was a large presence of German and Jewish directors in Hollywood, but also moving forward through the years looking at some 21st- century films and studying current ideals about government that resemble those antifascist beliefs," Barker said. "Getting to visit these national archival sites is a phenomenal opportunity and a great boost for my work."
