Talitha Espiritu

Professor of Film and New Media

Contact

Phone: 508-286-5485

Education

Ph.D., Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts New York University (2007 Jay Leyda Awardee)
M.A., The John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Program in Humanities and Social Thought, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University
A.B., Ateneo De Manila University

About

I am a film scholar specializing in World Cinema.  My key research interests include colonialism and race, Third Cinema and transnationalism, and globalization and cultural policy.

Main Interests

I have just completed my manuscript, Passionate Revolutions: the Media and the Rise and Fall of the Marcos Regime.  It is a study of the press and the cinema in the Philippines (my country of origin) during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. I explore how the media figured in the development initiatives of the Marcos regime, as well as the role of the media in the long popular struggle that culminated in the 1986 “people power” revolt.

Publications

Academic Publications

“The Marcos Romance and the Cultural Center of the Philippines: The Melodrama of a Therapeutic Cultural Policy,” Journal of Narrative Theory 45 no. 1 (Fall 2015).

“Performing Native Identities: Human Displays and Indigenous Activism in Marcos’ Philippines,” in The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture, edited by Toby Miller, 417-425. London and New York: Routledge. 2015.

“Native Subjects on Display: Reviving the Colonial Expositions in Marcos’ Philippines,” Social Identities 18 no. 6 (Fall 2012): 729-744.

“Multiculturalism, Dictatorship and Cinema Vanguards: Philippine and Brazilian Analogies,” in Multiculturalism, Poscoloniality and Transnational Media, edited by Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, 279-298. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 2003.

“National Allegory, Modernization and the Cinematic Patrimony of the Marcos Regime,” in John Lent and Lorna Fitzsimmons eds. Popular Culture in Asia: Memory, City, Celebrity(Forthcoming from Palgrave, 2013).

Journalism (selected)

“Asian Americans Protest Anti-Immigrant Legislation.” Filipino Reporter. September 23-30, 1996.

“Legal Immigrants Fear INS Under New Law,” Filipino Reporter. August 9-15, 1996.

“Medical Strike Affects Filipino Workers.” Filipino Reporter. July 12-18, 1996.

“2,000 Filipino Workers Walk Out.” Filipino Reporter. June 28 to July 4, 1996.

“Reclaiming a Genre: Two Female Artists Offer a Peek into an Age-old Phenomenon.” The Manila Chronicle. 26 December 1993.

“Painting the Town: Mark Justiniani Tells Bizarre Stories Rooted in Everyday Experiences.” The Manila Chronicle. 7 November 1993.

“High Repro: Excavated Pre-Hispanic Jewelry Reproduced as Anthropological Take-Out.” The Manila Chronicle. 7 November 1993.

“Aids Test.” The Manila Chronicle. 24 October 1993.

“Fear and Desire: Aspects of Recent Abstraction.” The Manila Chronicle. 10 October 1993.

“The Galleries in the Manila Art Scene.” Asian Arts News. September 1993.

“Master Faker: The Man Who Has Fooled the Art World for the Last 30 Years.” The Manila Chronicle. 11 April 1993.

“Rita at the Helm: Art Mover has Ambitious Plans for the Metropolitan—To Have at least One Good Museum in all the Major Provinces.” The Manila Chronicle. 7 March 1993.

“Post-modern Blues.” The Manila Chronicle. 20 February, 1993.

“Supermarket for Art: Putting Art in the Mall.” The National Weekly Chronicle. 5 December, 1992.

“Photographic Somersault.” Business World. 29 January 1993.

“The Triumphant Return of an Artist and Hero: Venancio Igarta Sailed to the U.S. in the Thirties and Now Comes Back Home, Armed with a Lifetime of Works.” Business World.  24 July 1992.

“Beyond Oil on Canvas.” Business World. 30 August 1992.

“Humanity in the Eyes of a Humanities Major.” Business World. 18 March 1992.

Teaching Interests

FNMS 401 Working in the Creative Industries

Eng 356 Third Cinema

Eng 251 Introduction to World Cinema

Eng 258 Introduction to Film Studies

Eng 285 Literary Journalism

Eng 101 Writing About the Journalistic Tradition