Cinema Studies Department Hero image
Cinema Studies
Profile picture of Peter Alilunas

Peter Alilunas

Associate Professor
Cinema Studies
pka@uoregon.edu
Office: 105 PLC, 6223 University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-6223
Office Hours: By appointment
Research Interests: Technology, regulation, censorship, exhibition, spectatorship, cinema history, adult film

Biography

Peter Alilunas is a cinema historian with particular interest in technology, regulation, and adult film. He received the University of Oregon Ersted Award for Specialized Pedagogy in 2017.

Education

BA, English, University of Oregon, 2006
MA, Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
PhD, Screen Arts & Cultures, University of Michigan, 2013

Statement

How, when, and where film has been regulated, and on what technologies, forms the basis of my research. My book Smutty Little Movies: The Creation and Regulation of Adult Video (2016) explores the history of adult video in North America and argues that it is a key part of the broader home video revolution in the 1970s and 1980s that changed how we understand media and culture. I am also interested in histories of exhibition and general media histories of all kinds. I'm passionate about movie theaters and encourage everyone to visit their locally-owned and operated theaters as often as possible, to celebrate the theatrical exhibition experience, and to preserve local theater histories as a vital part of civic memory. 

Publications

“’All Together With Some Style’: Addison Verrill’s Chronicle of the Groin Grind,” in Gimme Some Lovin’: Case Studies in Hollywood’s Sexual Revolution, Jon Lewis and Jonathan Kirshner, eds. New York: SUNY Press. Coming in 2026.

The Intellect Handbook of Adult Film and Media. Co-editor with Patrick Keilty and Darshana Mini. Intellect Press. Coming in 2026.

“Going Up the Country: Adult Film History in Eugene, Oregon,” in Screening Sex: The Sex Scene. Darren Kerr and Donna Peberdy, eds. Edinburgh University Press. Coming in 2025.

“Constance Penley and the Lagoon,” Media Fields: Critical Explorations in Media and Space (Special isue: Media Inside Out; September 2025).

Screening Adult Cinema. Co-editor with Desirae Embree and Farrah Freibert. Routledge, 2025.

“What We Must Be: AI and the Future of Porn Studies,” Porn Studies 11.1 (2024). DOI: 10.1080/23268743.2024.2312181

ReFocus: The Films of Roberta Findlay. Co-editor with Whitney Strub. Edinburgh University Press, 2023. 

“Contemporaneous Mundanity and Regulation by Indifference,” Porn Studies 9.1 (2022). DOI: 10.1080/23268743.2020.1865191

“Playboy TV: Contradictions, Confusion, and Post-network Pornography,” in From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels. Derek Johnson, ed. Routledge (2022).

“The King is Dead, Long Live the Algorithm: MindGeek and the Digital Distribution of Adult Film,” in Digital Media Distribution: Portals, Platforms, Pipelines. Courtney Brannon Donoghue, Paul McDonald, and Timothy Havens, eds. New York University Press (2021).

“Far Away, So Close: Technology, Spectatorship, and the Pasts and Futures of Pornography Studies,” Porn Studies 6.2 (2019). DOI: 10.1080/23268743.2018.1435405

Smutty Little Movies: The Creation and Regulation of Adult Video. University of California Press, 2016.