Profile picture of Allison McGuffie

Allison McGuffie

Instructor
African Studies, Cinema Studies
mcguffie@uoregon.edu
Office: 321 Villard Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1286
Office Hours: Email for current hours and appointments
Research Interests: Film Theory and History, African Cinemas, Gender on Film, Trans* and Cinema, International Non-Profit Media Industries, Health Communication Media, Political Economy of International Aid, Transnational Feminist Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Ethnographic Film, Third World Cinema, Ideology and Cinema

Education

PhD/MA, Film Studies, University of Iowa, 2013
BA, Film, Television, and Theatre, University of Notre Dame, 2004

Statement

My research focuses on how the specificity of the cinematic medium interfaces with marginalized subject positions, mobilizing the form a time-based audio-visual medium can uniquely create to amplify voices and communicate knowledge of vulnerable people usually excluded from dominant conversations. I do this work through analysis of Sub-Saharan African cinemas, especially politically engaged cinemas, and media that intersects with trans* experiences. In my teaching, I seek to expose students to alternative ways of using the cinematic medium to open their minds to the creativity possible with the art form while also building important habits of media literacy and critical thinking. I want my students to leave my classes inspired to critically analyze the media that surrounds them in their everyday lives. I have served on the Film Prize committee for the African Studies Association. I am the proud recipient of the student-led Sigma Tau Delta Teacher of the Year award, University of Oregon, 2019.

Research

WORKS IN PROGRESS

“Trans Cinema from South Africa,” and “Trans Cinema from Lesotho,” The Handbook of Global Trans Cinema, edited by Doug Vakoch, chapters

“More than Just the iPhone Movie: The Trans Epistemology of Tangerine,” article

“Aid-for-Development Capital in Zimbabwe Film Culture: Consequences, Yellow Card, and Media for Development,” article

Wholesome Entertainment: The Political Economy and Aesthetics of Non-Profit Educational Filmmaking in Sub-Saharan Africa, book manuscript

Publications

“Falling into ‘Pam’s World’: Transgender Fantasy, Pleasure, and the Figure of the Queer Child in Ma vie en rose.” TSQ (2022) 9 (4): 563-586. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-10133789

“The Industries of African Cinema.” Directory of World Cinema: Africa. Edited by Blandine Stefanson and Sheila Petty. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2015.

“Educating African Sexuality: Processes of Gendering in African HIV/AIDS Instructional Films.” Intersections: Women’s and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines: “Gender and Health,” No. 8 (Fall 2010): 103-133.

“Mimicking the Supersexual: A Search for Efficacy in the Performance of Ambiguous Sexualities.” The Newsletter for the LGBTQ Study Group of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Fall 2006): 11-20.

Teaching

CINE/ENG 381M Film, Media, and Culture
CINE 360 Film Theory
CINE 440/540 Third Cinema
CINE 399 African Cinema
CINE 112 How to Watch Movies
HC 222H Trans* and Cinema