Communication faculty profile: Scott Curtis

Name/Title
Scott Curtis, associate professor

Hometown
John Day, Oregon

School
School of Communication

Department
Radio-Television-Film

Current project
A study of the debates in Germany about motion pictures, dating from around 1894 to 1914. (The title is Managing Modernity: Art, Science, and Early Cinema in Germany.)

Recent/notable publications, awards, honors, exhibits
"Still/Moving: Digital Imaging and Medical Hermeneutics," in Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Culture, edited by Lauren Rabinovitz and Abraham Geil (Duke University Press, 2004), 218-254.

"The Making of Rear Window." In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, edited by John Belton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Why did you choose Northwestern?
I liked that it was a smaller, private, liberal-arts university with equal emphasis on teaching and research.

What is the best thing about being a teacher at Northwestern?
Teaching at Northwestern means having the space and support to do what I like to do and being appreciated for my efforts. It also means interacting daily with some of the best students I've ever met and learning something new every day for and from them.

Do you have a favorite teacher-student experience you'd like to share?
At the end of my first year here, I wasn't quite sure how I was doing, but I received an email out of the blue over the summer from a freshman, who wrote to tell me that my Analyzing Media Texts course had changed the way she looked at movies and at life in general. Then I knew I was on the right track.

What truth have you pursued or discovered at Northwestern?
I am always interested in pursuing or rediscovering the vital importance of moving images for our daily lives.

Scott Curtis

Scott Curtis