Susan Doll
holds a Ph.D. in film studies from the Radio, Television, Film Department
of Northwestern University. In addition to teaching film classes
at Oakton, she works in DVD production at Facets Multi-Media and
writes extensively about film and popular culture. She is the author
of several books on Elvis Presley, who was the subject of her dissertation,
and one on Marilyn Monroe. Her books include Understanding Elvis,
The Films of Elvis Presley, Best of Elvis, and Marilyn: Her Life
and Legend. Other writings include “The Great Boston Molasses
Flood,” a chapter in an anthology about disasters title Public
Reactions to Extraordinary Events and “A Biography of Blanche
Lazzell” for Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of an American
Modernist.
Dr. Doll's most recent book, coauthored with partner David Morrow, is FLORIDA ON FILM, a look at the role of Florida in film history and the many films shot in the Sunshine State. The book was published in June 2007 by the University Press of Florida.
Susan’s goal in her film courses is to help her students become
active viewers by making them media literate. Media literacy involves
understanding the techniques of a media (such as film), interpreting
how those techniques enhance or generate meaning, and discovering
what those meanings suggest about our culture. Today’s students
have unprecedented access to films through a variety of home-viewing
technologies, and they are relentlessly marketed to by mainstream
Hollywood, but few understand how films actually work as art, or
how they impart meaning to us. Exposure to film history, genre theory,
auteur studies, and other methodologies not only helps students
to learn about film as an art form and cultural phenomenon but also
helps them get more pleasure from their viewing experiences.
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