Christine Becker

On Leave for Fall 2023 Semester
Associate Professor

Specialties

History, Theory, and Criticism

Research Interests

media industries, television history, TV narrative and aesthetics, British television, sports and television, stardom and celebrity

Biography

Christine Becker received her B.A. in Humanities from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993 and Ph.D. in Communication Arts: Film Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. She has been in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame since 2000, specializing in film and television history, critical analysis of film and television, and media industry studies. She also teaches courses for the Sport, Media, and Culture Minor. Her current research project is focused on the history of the South Bend television show Beyond Our Control (WNDU, 1968-1986).

Representative Publications, Performances, and Creative Works

“Listening to the Dreadfuls” in Julie Grossman and Will Scheibel, eds., Penny Dreadful and Adaptation: Reanimating and Transforming the Monster. (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2023), 31-47.

“That’s a Long Time… A Rectify Video Essay,” co-created with FTT alum Tanner Cipriano, [in]Transition (Vol. 9 No. 2: 2022), https://mediacommons.org/intransition/journal-videographic-film-moving-image-studies-92-2022. 

“NewsNation: Local Broadcasting, National Cable Channels, and the Evolution of WGN” in Derek Johnson, ed., From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels, Second Edition. (Routledge, 2022), 91-100.

“Atypical Television? The Creative Evolution and Reception of Netflix’s Atypical,” in Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer, eds., Autism in Film and Television: On the Island. (University of Texas Press, 2022), 159-173.

“Knife Crime and Passion: A Very Special Episode of EastEnders,” in Jennifer Porst and Jonathan Cohn, eds., Very Special Episodes: Event Television and Social Change. (Rutgers University Press, 2021), 201-214.

“BBC America: Cloning Drama for a Transnational Network,” in Michele Hilmes, Roberta Pearson, and Matt Hills, eds., Contemporary Transatlantic Television Drama: Industries, Programs and Fans. (Oxford University Press, 2019), 69-86.

"Accent on Talent: The Valorization of British Actors on American Quality Television,” in Christopher Hogg and Tom Cantrell, eds., Exploring Television Acting. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018), 140-153.

“Off Goes the Telly: Writer Discourse on the Life on Mars Franchise Finales,” Journal of Screenwriting (Vol 6 Num 2: 2015): 173-188.

"Paul Newman: Superstardom and Anti-Stardom,” in Pamela Robertson Wojcik, ed., New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s, Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series, Adrienne L. McLean and Murray Pomerance, eds. (Rutgers University Press, 2011), 14-33.

It’s the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on Fifties Television. (Wesleyan University Press, 2008).