Brief Biography
My Ph.D. is in Cinema Studies from New York University, conferred in 1986. Prior to that, I graduated with a baccalaureate, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1978. I was born and raised in the Minneapolis area with my five brothers and sisters, and have resided, over the course of my career, in New York, Detroit, St Andrews, Odense, and Berlin. My wife Tova is an attorney in Detroit. My two sons, Brian and Alex, are both psychologists; Brian owns a psychology practice, Minding My Own, operating out of Littleton, Colorado; Alex is a Senior Scientist at the psychological research firm HumRRO, in Alexandria, Virginia.
My scholarly endeavors have expanded recently in a very exciting way. In December, 2023, I began a podcast on history and film, with two co-hosts, Kim Nelson of the University of Windsor, and John Trafton, of Occidental College. Our podcast is called Moving Histories, and it has received a good deal of international attention, and much praise for its friendly, approachable, yet scholarly discussions of current films such as Oppenheimer, The Zone of Interest, Killers of the Flower Moon, and A Complete Unknown. This has been a welcome expansion of my scholarship, and provides great venue for trying out some new ideas.