Office: Keezell 201 
Phone: (540) 568-1640 

Spring 2024 Office Hours:
Tu/Th 10:30-11:30am on Zoom; in person by appointment

Website: https://www.dennishlo.com

Specialization: 
cultural geographies of global film and new media, Chinese-language cinemas and location shooting practices, critical theories of VR/AR cinema, (post)-cinematic representations of spaces and places, media ecocriticism, transnational film aesthetics and industries, film and media production cultures

Education:
Ph.D., Film and Television (Cinema Studies), School of Theater, Film, and Television,  University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2015
M.S., Applied Physics, Columbia University, 2009
Dual B.A.S. (with distinction and departmental honors), Film and Media Studies & Physics, Stanford University, 2008

Bio:

Dennis Lo is an Associate Professor of Global Cinemas in the English Department at James Madison University. He received a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies at UCLA in 2015, and currently teaches histories of global cinema, new media theories, media industries, and transnational authors and genres, with a specific focus on Chinese-language cinemas. His research explores the intersections of Chinese-language film aesthetics, cultural geography, cinematic ecocriticism, media anthropology, and critical theories of extended reality (XR) media.

His first monograph, The Authorship of Place: A Cultural Geography of the New Chinese Cinemas (2020), explores the politics and aesthetics of rural location shooting in Chinese-language cinemas. His work has also been published as a chapter in Production Studies, The Sequel!, as well as in numerous refereed journals, including New Cinemas, Film-Philosophy, and Asian Cinema.

He is currently shooting a series of experimental, location-shot XR video essays that combine emerging technologies of AR capture, 360 VR, and photogrammetric 3D scans. The research findings from these experimental video essay shorts will directly inform his second book project, which investigates the impact of XR media on perceptions of place.

Books:
The Authorship of Place: A Cultural Geography of the New Chinese Cinemas (Hong Kong University Press, 2020)

Book Chapters:
“From Experiencing Life to Life Experiences: Location Shooting Practices in Chinese and Taiwanese New Wave Cinemas.” Chap. 15 in Production Studies, the Sequel:  Cultural Studies of Global Media Industries, edited by Miranda Banks, Bridget Conor,  and Vicki Mayer, 187-195. New York, NY: Routledge, 2016.

Peer-Reviewed Essays:
"Rural geographies and the New Chinese Cinemas: Imaging progressive places in Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Dust in the Wind and Jia Zhangke’s Platform." New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film 17(2) (2020). 

“A Blueprint for (Im)possible Places: Narrative Crisis in Antonioni's L'Eclisse (1962).” Film-Philosophy 19 (2015).

“Grounded Flights: Managing Migrant Movement in Jia Zhangke’s The World.” Studies in  the Humanities 39, no. 1-2 (January 2014): 163-192.

“The Generation Without Homesickness: An Interview with Director Zhang Teng-Yuan on Crossing the Sentimental Desert (2011).” Mediafields 5 (2012).

“Marginalized Sexuality in Tsai Ming Liang’s Cinema.” Amerasia 37, no. 2 (2011): 96-102.

“Emergent National Discourses: Mythmaking and the National Story in Taiwanese Roadtrip Films.” Asian Cinema 21, no. 1 (2010): 86-112.

“The Politics and Aesthetics of ‘Asian American’ Sexuality in Ang Lee’s Cross-Cultural Family Dramas.” Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies 1 (2008).

Translations:
“Interview with Tsai Ming Liang,” Amerasia 37, no. 2 (2011): 103-117.

“Paving the Way for a Film City: Roundtable Discussion between Olivier Assayas, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Wong Yeh Ming, and Lee Yung Ping,” Taiwanese Film Notes (2008).

Other Publications:
“Coming of Age in Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches.” Mediascape  (Winter 2010).

“Music and Sound in Taiwanese Youth Films.” Featured Article on Taiwan Film Festival 2008 Pamphlet. Stanford Dept. of Art History and Center for East Asian Studies.