Despina Kakoudaki Associate Professor and Director, Humanities Lab Literature
- Additional Positions at AU
- Director, Humanities Lab
- Degrees
- PhD, Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley
MA, Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley
BA, English and American Literature/ Linguistics, University of Athens, Greece - Languages Spoken
- Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Latin, French
- Bio
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Professor Kakoudaki teaches interdisciplinary courses in literature and film, visual culture, and the history of technology and new media. Her interests include cultural studies, science fiction, apocalyptic narratives, and the representation of race and gender in literature and film.
She completed her doctorate in Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, and taught at Berkeley and at Harvard University before joining AU. She has published articles on robots and cyborgs, race and melodrama in action and disaster films, body transformation and technology in early film, the political role of the pin-up in World War II, and the representation of the archive in postmodern fiction. She has also co-edited a collection of essays on the work of Pedro Almodovar with Brad Epps (University of Minnesota Press, 2009).
Professor Kakoudaki's recent book, titled Anatomy of a Robot: Literature, Cinema, and the Cultural Work of Artificial People, was published by Rutgers University Press in 2014. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for this project, which traces the history and cultural function of constructed people and animated objects in literature and film.
In 2014 Professor Kakoudaki was appointed Director of the Humanities Lab, a new research initiative at 国产小呦女. Working across departments and schools, the Humanities Lab aims to support and showcase interdisciplinary research and support scholarly collaboration at 国产小呦女and beyond.
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- For the Media
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Teaching
Spring 2024
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LIT-446 Advanced Studies in Film: Frankenstein and Beyond
Fall 2024
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LIT-146 Critical Appr to Cinema
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LIT-613 Cultures of Information & Tech
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Work In Progress
Recent conference presentations:听听 听
- "Melodrama and Apocalypse:听The Melodramatic Mode in听Contagion."听Society for CInema and Media Studies, Chicago, 2017.
- 鈥淎rtificial People in The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964.鈥 Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Atlanta, March 2016.
- 鈥淐inematic Melodrama in the 1960s and 70s.鈥 American Comparative Literature Association. Presenter for Seminar: 鈥淐omparative Melodrama鈥 organized by Matthew Buckley, Rutgers University. ACLA Boston, March 2016.
- 鈥淭echnology on Stage: Karel 膶apek鈥檚 R. U. R., Eugene O鈥橬eill鈥檚 Dynamo, and the Question of Technology in the 1920s.鈥 Science Fiction Research Association, Stony Brook, June 2015.
- 听鈥淔amily Melodrama in the 21st Century.鈥 Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, March 2013.听听 鈥淟anguage, Race, and Impersonality.鈥 Modern Language Association, MLA Special Session on 鈥淏arbara Johnson鈥檚 Last Works.鈥 Boston, January 2013.
- 鈥淔resh New World: Fantasies of Earth and the Aesthetics of Closure in Battlestar Galactica.鈥听 Science Fiction Research Association, SFRA Annual Conference, Detroit, June 2012.
- 鈥淲ar and Meaning: Resisting Closure in The Hurt Locker.鈥 Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Boston, March 2012.听听
- "Robots in Popular Culture," Author Lecture for Escape Velocity Convention, Museum Of Science Fiction,听Washington DC. September 2017. Visit:听
- Featured speaker for "Cyborg Futures:听Animal Life and Social听Robots Workshop,"听Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia. April 2017.
- 鈥淩obots and Slaves: History, Allegory and the Structural Logic of the Robot Story.鈥澨 Center for Cultural Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz, May 2014. 听
- 鈥淢elodrama and Apocalypse: Genre, Politics and The End of the World.鈥 Invited talk for 鈥淪creen Melodrama: Global Perspectives,鈥 Columbia University and New York University, February 2013. 听
- 鈥淎t Home and at War: The American Pinup in the 1930s and 40s.鈥 Winthrop University Galleries Exhibition, 鈥淏etween the Springmaid Sheets.鈥 Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC. October 8, 2012.听
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Selected Publications
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Anatomy of a Robot:听Literature, Cinema, and the Cultural Work of Artificial People. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014.
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A historical and theoretical approach to the discourse of the artificial person from antiquity to the 20th century. Single-authored book-length manuscript, in print.
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You can see a description of this project on the website.
- Listen to a short interview I gave about this听 book on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on .
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All About Almod贸var: A Passion for Cinema. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 听2009.
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Co-edited with Professor Bradley S. Epps, Harvard University.听 A new collection of critical essays on Pedro Almod贸var by international group of scholars. Includes substantial co-authored 鈥淚ntroduction鈥 and single-authored chapter. Edited Book, in print.
- You can look at the book's description on the website. 听
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Recent article publications:听 听
- 鈥淢elodrama and Apocalypse: The Melodramatic Mode in Contagion.鈥 In Melodrama Unbound. Eds. Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams. Columbia University Press, forthcoming 2018.
- 鈥淎ffect and Machines in the Media.鈥 In Handbook of Affective Computing. Eds. Rafael. A. Calvo, Sidney K. D鈥橫ello, Jonathan Gratch, and Arvid Kappas. Oxford University Press, 2014. 110-128.听
- 鈥淩epresenting Politics in Disaster Films.鈥 In International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 7:3 (Dec. 2011): 349-356.
- 鈥淲orld Without Strangers: The Poetics of Coincidence in Pedro Almod贸var鈥檚 Talk to Her.鈥 In Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies鈥68. 23:2 (Sept. 2008): ii-39.听 听