Fields of Interest
Biography
I am generally interested in historical and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of modern culture. Within this framework I also have a number of more specific interests, including visual culture, the various technologies and institutions that produce it, and the historical experiences associated with them. I have published on several forms of nineteenth-century display culture, including zoological gardens, ethnographic exhibitions, and Wild West shows in Germany. I have also published on the interrelationship of science, technology, and popular culture in specific situations: the vital importance of the phonograph and the archive to the formation of ethnomusicology, and the cinema’s function as an instrument of cultural power in the writings of Hugo Münsterberg. I am co-editor of Germany’s Colonial Pasts (Nebraska, 2005) and author of Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainments (Washington, 2009) and of Ferocious Reality: Documentary according to Werner Herzog (Minnesota, 2012). My edited collection, Werner Herzog: Interviews (Mississippi, 2014), is now available in paperback. Most recently, I published a little book on Aguirre, the Wrath of God in the BFI Film Classics series (2016).
In Autumn 2024, I'll be offering a large lecture course, "Crime Scenes: Investigating the Cinema" (CMS 270, which is a pre-req for the CMS major). In Winter 2025, I'll teach our gateway to the major, "Film and Media Studies: Analysis" (CMS 301). And in Spring 2024, I'll give a senior capstone on "Documentary and the Avant-Garde" (CMS 480).
Questions about CMS courses or degree programs? I'd be happy to help! Best way to reach me is email: eames@uw.edu