Gwendolyn Audrey Foster

Education

Foster received a B.A. Degree in English from Douglass College, Rutgers University in 1983, and earned a master's degree in 1992 and her doctorate (in English) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in 1995.

Career

Foster taught a broad variety of courses that reflect her diverse interests: Experimental Filmmakers, Queer theory and LGBTQ+ film, Apoco-tainment, Eco-Horror and Environmentalism in TV and Film, Italian Postwar Cinema, Challenging, Difficult and Disruptive Films, Spectators as co-authors, Women Filmmakers in Film History, the films of Luis Buñuel, Chantal Akerman, Lucrecia Martel, and Kelly Reichardt, Gender and Film Censorship, Feminist and Marxist Approaches to Film, "Woman's Pictures" and Melodrama, Female Spectatorship, Queer Spectatorship, Race & Post/colonialism in Film, Social Class and Social Mobility in Film, Moms, Maids, & Sex Workers – Redefining Female Heroes in Film, Masculinity in Media, Ozu, Bresson and Dreyer, Japanese and Asian Cinema, Latin American cinema, French Film Directors, Atomic anti-communist hysteria films, screenwriting, and many other courses.

She has written about film-related topics such as eco-feminism, underground film, avant garde film, cultural studies, feminist and Marxist critical theory, and women directors. Foster has made films including the 1991 documentary Women Who Made the Movies as well as the 1994 feature film Squatters, and more recently, a number of short films including the Gaia Triptych (2016) a series of short eco-horror and eco-feminist experimental films including Waste, Not, and Want Not. Foster's other short films include such Earth TV, Echo and Narcissus, Tenderness, Eros and Psyche, Pre-Raphaelite Falls, The Passenger, Pop. 1280 For Jim Thompson, Mirror, Amphitrite, and many other titles. Foster publishes in many journals such as Choice, Senses of Cinema, Film International, and Quarterly Review of Film and Video. She writes and publishes extensively on film studies and cultural studies, along with her filmmaking and installation art projects.

Foster and Wheeler Winston Dixon are coauthors of the popular film history textbook, A Short History of Film. They are Series Editors of "Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture," a series of books offering fresh perspectives on film and popular culture published by Rutgers University Press; and "New Perspectives on World Cinema Series" a collection of monographs on global studies in international cinema published by Anthem in the UK.

Her films have been screened at Outfest LA, Bi+ Arts Festival, The Nederlands Filmmuseum, Rice Museum, Collective for Living Cinema, Swedish Cinemateket, National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC, International Film Festival of Kerala, India, Films de Femmes, Créteil, Women's Film Festival of Madrid, Kyobo Center, Korea, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Université Laval, Quebec, Forum Yokohama, Anthology Film Archives, Amos Eno Gallery, NY, SLA 307 Art Space, NY, Maryland Institute College of Art, NETV, Studio 44 Stockholm, X-12 Festival, UK, and other museums and festivals around the world.

In March and April 2018, the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, Poland, presented a month long retrospective of Foster's new video work. In May 2018, she presented a screening of her videos, along with the work of Bill Domonkos and Wheeler Winston Dixon at The Museum of Human Achievement in Austin, Texas. In the summer of 2018, she had a one woman show at Filmhuis Cavia in Amsterdam, and her film Self Portrait [Détournement] was screened as part of NewFilmmakers at Anthology Film Archives on September 11, 2018. Her one woman show, Queer Experimental Films was screened July/August 2018 on Salto Netherlands International TV, and she had a one woman show at The Museum of The Future in Berlin, Germany on October 28, 2017. In October 2025, the fourth edition of her book A Short History of Film, co-written with Wheeler Winston Dixon, was published by Rutgers University Press.

Personal life

Foster's life partner is Wheeler Winston Dixon.

Books

), including ISBN.--

• Disruptive Feminisms: Raced, Gendered, and Classed Bodies in Film (Palgrave Pivot, 2016)
• Hoarders, Doomsday Preppers, and the Culture of Apocalypse (Palgrave Pivot, 2014)
• 21st Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation, co-written with Wheeler Winston Dixon, Rutgers University Press, 2011
• A Short History of Film, co-written with Wheeler Winston Dixon (Rutgers, 2008), 2nd edition 2013, 3rd Edition, 2018, 4th Edition, 2025.
• Class-Passing: Performing Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture (Southern Illinois, 2005)
• Performing Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions (SUNY, 2003)
• Experimental Cinema: the Film Reader, co-edited with Wheeler Winston Dixon, London: Routledge, 2002
• Troping the Body: Etiquette, Conduct and Dialogic Performance (Southern Illinois University Press, 2000)
• Captive Bodies: Postcolonialism in the Cinema (State University of New York Press, 1999)
• Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity" (Southern Illinois University Press, 1997)
• Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995
• Identity and Memory: The Films of Chantal Akerman (Southern Illinois UP, 2003)

Filmography

References

References

1. May 6, 1998, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, [http://www.unl.edu/ucomm/ucomm/598/5698anews.html FOSTER RECEIVES EMERGING SCHOLAR AWARD] {{webarchive. link. (2013-10-29 , Accessed October 26, 2013, "...Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, assistant professor of English at the University of Nebraska, has won the American Association of University Women Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars. ... The award selection is based on demonstrated excellence in teaching, a documented and active research record, evidence of mentoring female students, and evidence of a potentially significant contribution to the awardee's field of study. ...")
2. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. (2003). "Community, Loss, and Regeneration: An Interview with Wheeler Winston Dixon". Senses of Cinema.
3. link. (2016-04-28 , Accessed October 26, 2013, "...keynote speakers ... Gwendolyn Audrey Foster,...")
4. Mike Hollins, October 15, 2010, ''[[The Daily Nebraskan]]'', [http://www.dailynebraskan.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_a1fe4b47-3e20-55aa-9614-0f33828612a5.html Film professors prescribe lesser-known horror cinema], Accessed October 26, 2013, "... Dr. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster... Terror of Frankenstein ... mesmerizing and thoughtful.."
5. ''The Daily Nebraskan'', Mike Hollins, December 3, 2010, [http://www.dailynebraskan.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_2a052b97-e8aa-5a42-bce0-49cb49f47922.html Film professors share underappreciated holiday classic], Accessed October 26, 2013, "... Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, an English professor at UNL, said she dislikes the idyllic outlook of most holiday films..."
6. Kendra Marston, 2013, ''[[Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media]]'', [http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/MarstonWhWomenRace/ English ladies to liberators? How Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland mobilize aristocratic white femininity] {{webarchive. link. (2013-10-29 , Accessed October 26, 2013, "... Gwendolyn Audrey Foster explores the film performances of classic Hollywood star Mae West...)
7. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster and Wheeler Winston Dixon. (September 2003). "Every Frame Was Precious": An Interview with Wheeler Winston Dixon". [[Allegheny College]].
8. ''The Daily Nebraskan'', January 27, 2011, Mike Hollins, [http://www.dailynebraskan.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_e014191d-2733-5188-ada8-af8c975450e1.html 3-D movies prove successful at box office, despite difficulties in filmmaking], Accessed October 26, 2013, "..."I think the problem is that studios are not run by visionaries anymore.."
9. Mayne, Judith. Book Review: Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. Women Filmmakers Of The African And Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing The Gaze, Locating Subjectivity and Kenneth W. Harrow, Ed. With Open Eyes: Women And African Cinema. In Research in African Literatures. Spring 1999, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 238–240. Accessed October 26, 2013
10. Judith E. Pike, January 1, 1997, Literature/Film Quarterly, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105233607/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-25571541.html Women-of-Color Filmmakers], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997. 177 pp...."
11. Film Criticism, Allegheny College, [http://filmcriticism.allegheny.edu/archives30_3.htm Film Criticism], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. ..."
12. "Quarterly Review of Film and Video". [[Inside Higher Ed]].
13. 2013, Curriculum vitae, [http://eng-wdixon.unl.edu/vitae.html Professor Gwendolyn Audrey Foster], University of Nebraska–Lincoln, {{webarchive. link. (2013-10-29 , Accessed October 26, 2013)
14. March 1, 2005, Helen Addison-Smith, [https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-134133517 E.T. Go Home: Indigeneity, Multiculturalism and 'Homeland' in Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...In Gwendolyn Audrey Foster's investigation of the performance of whiteness in Hollywood cinema..."
15. Stuart Minnis, July 1, 2003, Journal of Film and Video, [https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-744761081 Experimental Cinema: The Film Reader], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: THE FILM READER Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, eds. ... the American avant-garde."
16. Bowling Green State University, Cynthia Baron (editor), The Projector Film and Media Journal [http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/theatrefilm/current/projector/vol3issue2folder/vol3issue2art3.htm Lois Weber: Woman Filmmaker Anne Marie Sweeney] {{webarchive. link. (2013-10-29 , Accessed October 26, 2013, "...In Women Film Directors: ... Gwendolyn Audrey Foster argues ...")
17. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, October 18, 2013...Gwendolyn Audrey Foster writes frequently for Film International...."
18. The New York Times, 1991, review, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029184455/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/55120/Women-Who-Made-the-Movies/overview Women Who Made the Movies (1991)], Accessed August 25, 2013, "...This documentary by filmmakers Gwendolyn Foster and Wheeler Dixon pays homage to women directors and filmmakers..."
19. Film Search, 1992, Chicago Reader, [http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/women-who-made-the-movies/Film?oid=1057021 Women Who Made the Movies], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...Gwendolyn Foster and Wheeler Dixon's 1992 documentary surveys the history of women filmmakers in Hollywood..."
20. Film listing, 1994, WorldCat, [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/068003544 Squatters], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...Authors: Wheeler W Dixon; ... Gwendolyn Audrey Foster..."
21. "Gwendolyn Audrey Foster".
22. Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. (February 23, 2018). "Foster & Dixon New Experimental Video Works (March 2 – April 15, 2018)". Experimental Cinema.
23. "Galeria BWA/Art Gallery/Katowice – Gwendolyn Audrey Foster / Wheeler Winston Dixon "New Video Works".
24. (23 February 2018). "Foster & Dixon New Experimental Video Works (March 2 – April 15, 2018)".
25. (4 April 2018). "Experimental Response Cinema".
26. "Filmhuis Cavia :: Gwendolyn Foster: Queer Feminist Punk Experimental Films".
27. (28 August 2018). "NewFilmmakers: Short Experimental Documentaries".
28. "The Screening Room".
29. "STYPA".
30. (2015). "Black and White Cinema: A Short History". [[Rutgers University Press]].
31. Wheeler Winston Dixon, July 2012, Screening the Past (film magazine), [http://www.screeningthepast.com/2012/07/the-anatomy-of-harpo-marx/ The Anatomy of Harpo Marx], Accessed October 26, 2013, "... 21st Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation (co-written with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Rutgers University Press, 2011);..."
32. "A Short History of Film, Third Edition".
33. Film Journal, 2013, Underground Resources: Index, [http://www.undergroundfilmjournal.com/underground-film-bibliography/ Underground Film Bookshelf], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...Below is a list of books written about the history of underground film. ...Dixon, Wheeler Winston, and Gwendolyn Audrey. Foster. Experimental Cinema: the Film Reader, London: Routledge, 2002. ..."
34. 2012–2013 Graduate reading list, ACS List, University of New Mexico, [http://www.unm.edu/~amstudy/2012_2013ACS_list.htm American Studies], Accessed October 26, 2013, "...Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Captive Bodies: Postcolonial Subjectivity in Cinema (SUNY Press, 1999) ..."
35. MICHAEL ROWIN, 2003, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, [http://filmlinccom.siteprotect.net/fcm/online/booksca.htm BOOK REVIEW: IDENTITY AND MEMORY: THE FILMS OF CHANTAL AKERMAN], Accessed October 26, 2013,