Dr. Katherine Spring
Associate Professor; Film Studies Program Coordinator & Undergraduate Officer
Contact Information
Email: kspring@wlu.caPhone: 519-884-0710 ext.4149
Fax: 519-884-8307
Office Location: 3-156 Dr. Alvin Woods Bldg.
Office Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays, 1:00-2:00 p.m. (exceptions: Jan. 7, Feb. 4)
Academic Background
Ph.D. & M.A., Film Studies (minors: Music; Media and Cultural Studies), University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hon.B.Sc., Cinema Studies and Physics, University of Toronto.
Additional Information
Fall 2012 brings exciting changes to the Film Studies program at Laurier. Effective September 1, students seeking a concentrated degree in the field can pursue the standalone Honours BA in Film Studies. Of course, we will continue to offer our Combined Honours BA and Minor programs. Visit the program homepage for worksheets and more information.
The Laurier Free Film Series brings a range of cinematic goodies to the biggest screen on campus. Titled "25 Years of Film Adaptations," the Fall 2012 series comprises ten films, including The Princess Bride, Persepolis, Doubt, The English Patient, Akira, No Country for Old Men, and features introductions delivered by faculty members and Ph.D. candidates from the Department of English and Film Studies. Highlights include a lecture by CBC pop culture critic Jesse Wente and the presentation of the entire extended-edition trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. Click here for a complete schedule.
On a more personal note, I had a great time delivering papers and catching up with friends and colleagues at the conferences of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies in Boston (March 2012) and the Film Studies Association of Canada in Waterloo (May-June 2012). A paper based on an assignment in FS354: Film Sound (Fall 2012), was published in the Summer issue of Music and the Moving Image. Summer also gave me time to catch up on movie-going at the Princess Cinemas. Meanwhile, I continue to serve on the advisory board of Film Matters, a refreshing journal for undergraduate scholarship in the field. If you are a student with a paper to submit, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.
Selected Publications
Saying it with Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema, 1927-1931 (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).
"Walk This Way: The Pedagogical Value of Soundwalking to the Study of Film Sound," Music and the Moving Image 5.2 (Summer 2012).
"'To Sustain Illusion is All That is Necessary': The Authenticity of Song Performance in Early American Sound Cinema," Beyond Vitaphone: The Early Sound Short, ed. Rob King. Spec. issue of Film History: An International Journal 23.3 (2011).
"Chance Encounters of the Musical Kind: Electronica and Audiovisual Synchronization in Three Films Directed by Tom Tykwer," Music and the Moving Image 3.3 (2010).
"Pop Go the Warner Bros., et al." Marketing Film Songs During the Coming of Sound," Cinema Journal 48.1 (2008).
"Now It's Personal: Style, Narrative, and Irony in A Hero Never Dies," in Milkyway Image, Beyond Imagination: Wai Ka-fai, Johnnie To, Creative Team (1996-2005). Ed. Lawrence Pun. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2006.
Courses Taught
Film and Narrative; Film History 1895-1939; American Film 1929-1969; Classical Film Theory; Hong Kong Cinema; Early Film; Film Sound, Music & Narrative; Film and Technology; Film Melodrama (graduate seminar); Film Sound.
External Grants
Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: Hong Kong Film Music in the Age of Digital Media, 1983-1997.
