
Theory Today w/ Eugenie Brinkema
Professor Eugenie Brinkema’s research in film and critical theory focuses on violence, affect, sexuality, aesthetics, and ethics in texts ranging from the horror film to gonzo pornography, from the body of films dubbed “New European Extremism” to works of literature and continental philosophy. Her first book, The Forms of the Affects, published with Duke University Press in 2014, won honorable mention for the Modern Language Association First Book Prize. Her 2022 book, Life-Destroying Diagrams (also with Duke), explores the potential of radical formalism in relation to horror and love. Her articles have appeared in the journals “Angelaki,” “Camera Obscura,” “Criticism,” “differences,” “Discourse,” “The Journal of Speculative Philosophy,” “The Journal of Visual Culture,” “LIT,” “Qui Parle,” and “World Picture.” Professor Brinkema received her Ph.D. in 2010 from Brown University’s Department of Modern Culture and Media; while at Brown, she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Albert Spaulding Cook Prize in Comparative Literature, and the Joukowsky Outstanding Dissertation Award. In 2012, Professor Brinkema was awarded the James A. and Ruth Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching at MIT. From 2012-2013, she was a fellow at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College. In 2018-2019, she was a visiting scholar in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. In Spring 2022, she was a visiting professor at the University of Toronto. From 2022-2024 she will be a fellow at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis.