Nathan Carroll

Dr. Nathan Carroll is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Theatre, and Art. He started teaching at St. Scholastica in 2006. Nathan grew up in Fargo, ND attending Oak Grove Lutheran High School and completed a double major in Philosophy and Political Science with a minor in English from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN in 1995. Nathan took graduate courses in Philosophy and Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands before completing an MA in Philosophy (Aesthetics) from the University of York in the UK in 1999. His work there focused on sublime aesthetics and his thesis titled: "The Enlightenment of Postmodernism: Lyotard, Foucault, and the Return of Kant" received a mark of distinction. Nathan received his PhD from Indiana University in Bloomington with a combined degree in the Departments of Communication and Culture and American Studies. He successfully defended his dissertation titled: "Public Access, Private Archives: How DVDs Disrupted Film History" in April 2006.

Nathan has published the following articles in peer-reviewed film journals:

"Unwrapping Archives: DVD Restoration Demonstrations and the Marketing of Authenticity." The Velvet Light Trap 56 (Fall 2005).

"Mitchell and Kenyon, Archival Contingency, and the Cultural Production of Historical License." The Moving Image 6.2 (Fall 2006).

Additionally, Nathan received a research grant in 2007 for a project on "The Auteur and the Opera: Cinema's Pet Project," which he recently chaired a panel on at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference in Philadelphia in 2008. He has also given papers at SCMS in London in 2005, Vancouver in 2006, and Chicago in 2007. Further, he has presented at film conferences in Milwaukee, New Orleans, Seattle, and Bloomington, IN. Among other projects, Nathan is currently working on a paper relating to the opening Olympic ceremonies in Beijing in terms of their cross-cultural marketing strategies and methods of digital distribution.

Nathan was elected Vice-Chair of the Faculty Assembly at CSS in Spring 2008. He also organizes and hosts the School of Arts and Letters Colloquium since 2007, a monthly lecture series highlighting the diverse research projects of SAL faculty at CSS. In 2007, he helped coordinate the Ingmar Bergman Film Festival and the Kieslowski Decalogue festival in 2008. He is currently organizing an Italian Film Festival for October 2008 featuring films by Fellini, Rossellini, and De Sica. Nathan serves on the WellU Academic Integration Committee and acts as advisor to the newly formed student film club.

Nathan designs and teaches a wide variety of film courses at CSS. In addition to several film genre courses with varying topics, he annually teaches The Moving Image course regarding the history of film as art. He also teaches an annual upper division writing intensive film auteur course focusing each year on the works of different important filmmakers. Nathan regularly designs special topics courses in film studies and has taught a course on sublime aesthetics in Philosophy as well at CSS. Other courses taught include Human Communication, Public Speaking, and an Emeritus course in 2007 on films released in 1939.

Married to Dr. Nichole Sterling since 2004 (PhD, UC Berkeley), Nathan enjoys collecting DVDs and watching as many as movies as possible. Nathan and Nichole love to travel, especially to Europe, and hanging out with friends.

Contact Nathan
Office: T 4405
Office Hours:
Phone: ext. 6144
Email