ReFocus: A Series of Film/American Studies Anthologies

Full name / name of organization:
Edinburgh University Press

contact email:
Dr. Robert Singer, rlsngr99@gmail.com

In 2015, the University of Edinburgh Press launched a multivolume series of scholarly, refereed anthologies entitled ReFocus. Edited by Robert Singer (CUNY) Gary D. Rhodes (University of Central Florida), and Frances Smith (University of Sussex), each book focuses on a critically overlooked American film director who worked in the studio system, independent cinema, experimental filmmaking, or documentary tradition. Volumes published so far in this series include: Preston Sturges, Amy Heckerling, Delmer Daves, Kelly Reichardt, Elaine May, Spike Jonze, William Castle, Barbara Kopple, and Budd Boetticher, among others.

ReFocus features a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of the work of these American directors, from the once-famous to the ignored, in direct relationship to American culture --its myths, values, and historical precepts. This series will consider any director who created a historical space, either in or out of the studio system, beginning with the origins of American cinema and continuing up to the present. This research may include work in other media such as television.
We are now soliciting on-line proposals by potential editors/authors for new ReFocus editions. We are especially interested in proposals for the following filmmakers:

• Julie Dash
• Ava DuVernay
• Antoine Fuqua
• Maya Deren
• Tyler Perry
• Julie Taymor
• Martha Coolidge
• Joe Sarno
• Penelope Spheeris
• Barbara Hammer
• Lionel Rogosin
• Archie Mayo
• Sydney Pollack
• Irvin Kershner
• Stuart Rosenberg
• Franklin Schaffner
• Sydney Lumet
• Frederick Wiseman
• Steven Soderbergh
• Darren Aronofsky
• David Fincher
• The Coen Bros.
• Spencer Williams
• Mervyn LeRoy
• Rouben Mamoulian
• Robert Florey
• Woody Van Dyke
• Joseph Mankiewicz
• Roger Corman
• Jerry Lewis
• Penelope Spheeris
• Nancy Meyers
• Mimi Leder
• Charles Burnett
• Barbra Streisand
• Warren Beatty
• Dorothy Arzner
• Hal Hartley
• Richard Kelly
• Joe Dante
• Tim Hunter
• Penny Marshall
• Ben Stiller
• John G. Avildsen
• Lloyd Bacon
• William Beaudine
• Clarence Brow
• Nancy Savoca
• Jules Dassin
• Stanley Donen
• Richard Fleischer
• Karl Freund
• Henry Hathaway
• Henry King
• Stanley Kramer
Leo McCarey
• Lewis Milestone
• Robert Mulligan
• Alan J. Pakula
• Arthur Penn
• Martin Ritt
• Roy Del Ruth
• George Stevens
• Norman Taurog
• King Vidor
• Raoul Walsh
• William Wellman
• Gordon Parks
• Roland West
• Robert Wise
• Frank Borzage
• James Cruze
• William Dickson
• Wallace McCutcheon
• Sidney Olcott
• Edwin Porter
• Edward Sloman
• James Young Deer
• Wallace Worsley
• Nancy Savoca
• Suggest a director

If you are interested in editing/authoring such a volume, or have any related questions, please attach a curriculum vitae to your abstract/proposal and email to all three editors:

Gary D. Rhodes, gdrhodes@gmail.com

Frances Smith, Frances.Smith@sussex.ac.uk 

Robert Singer, rlsngr99@gmail.com