Danielle Childs
About
I hold a Bachelor of Arts in English and German Studies from the University of Portland. After completing my undergraduate degree, I worked in Vienna for two years as an English teaching assistant for Fulbright Austria. I then pursued a Masters in Film Aesthetics at the University of Oxford, where I first began to explore my interest in the relationship between cinema and architecture. My current PhD project is funded by a Chancellor鈥檚 International Scholarship from the University of 海角社区.
Research
My doctoral project investigates the aesthetic utility and cultural significance of the motel in contemporary American independent cinema. Grounded in the historical development of the motel within U.S culture, the research accounts for the setting鈥檚 enduring prominence, functions, and shifting meanings within the American film landscape. Combining detailed mise-en-scene criticism with cultural-anthropological lenses informed by spatial theory and emergent strands of mobilities studies, the thesis will present an original, authoritative account of the motel鈥檚 character as a long-enduring, endlessly versatile space in American cinema. Though honing in on a very particular architecture within the American built environment, my research also questions the relationship between cinema and architecture more broadly. It asks whether there is an implicit connection between mise-en-scene and architecture as two modes of non-verbal aesthetic expression with the ability to frame and order perception. In doing so, my hope is that the project will provide a roadmap for investigating filmic depictions of other culturally specific architectures.
Supervisors: Dr. James MacDowell and Dr. Michael Pigott
Research Interests
American cinema; film aesthetics; indie cinema; postmodernism and metamodernism; spatial theory; mobilities studies; precarity; the built environment; cinema and architecture
Publications
"Motels, Automobility, and Social Immobility in American Cinema." Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture 8, no. 3 (September 2023)
Teaching
2023-2024 FI249 Hollywood Cinema: History, Theory, Industry (Spring Term)
2022-2023 FI249 Hollywood Cinema: History, Theory, Industry (Spring Term)
Conference papers
鈥楬orny Furniture and Renting by the Hour: The Motel as a Place of Sexual Permission and Play in American Cinema鈥�, Sex in Contemporary Media Conference, University of 海角社区 (6 October 2023)
鈥楢lmost Magic Castles: The Motel as Home Approximation in Sean Baker鈥檚 The Florida Project鈥�, Screening Spaces of Youth Symposium, Online (2 June 2023)
鈥楶ostmodern Parody: The Motel as Cinematic Clich茅 in Noah Baumbach鈥檚 White Noise鈥�, Department of Film and Television Studies Research Day, University of 海角社区 (10 May 2023)
鈥楶rovisional Domesticity and the Built Environment in Andrea Arnold鈥檚 American Honey鈥�, Department of Film and Television Studies Research Day, University of 海角社区 (18 May 2022)
Memberships
BAFTSS: British Association of Film, Television, and Screen Studies