Eric Schaefer, Ph.D., (born 1959) is a
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
and
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
. He is an associate professor at
Emerson College and interim chair of the visual and media arts department.
He has a B.A. from
Webster University
Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri. It has multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It offers undergraduate and graduate program ...
, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the
University of Texas, Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
.
He is best known for his book on
exploitation film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
making, ''Bold! Daring! Shocking! True: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959'', published by
Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Du ...
in 1999. He has been described as "the go-to academic source on the genre of exploitation films."
He is a member of the Northeast Historic Film board of advisors and a member of the editorial board of the journal ''The Moving Image.''
''The Moving Image'', editorial board
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Selected works
* ''Bold! Daring! Shocking! True": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959'' (1999) - Duke University Press.
* "Plain Brown Wrapper: Adult Films for the Home Market, 1930-1970", ''In the Absence of Films: Towards a New Historiographic Practice'', Eric Smoodin and Jon Lewis, editors, Duke University Press.
* "Gauging a Revolution: 16mm Film and the Rise of the Pornographic Feature". ''Cinema Journal
The ''Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' (formerly ''Cinema Journal'' and ''The Journal of the Society of Cinematologists'') is the official academic journal of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies). ...
- 41, Number 3, Spring 2002, pp. 3–26.
*"Dirty Little Secrets: Scholars, Archivists, and Dirty Movies". ''The Moving Image'' - Volume 5, Number 2, Fall 2005, pp. 79–105
References
Emerson College faculty
Webster University alumni
Living people
1959 births
{{US-historian-stub