Home > Faculty > Jules Odendahl-James

Jules Odendahl-James, Mellon Lecturing Fellow

Contact Info:
Office Location: 200-F Art Building
Office Phone: +1 919 660 4378, 919-660-4368
E-mail Address:

Teaching (Fall 2009): (typical courses)

Writing 20.10, Academic writing Synopsis Carr 242, TuTh 01:15 PM-02:30 PM
Writing 20.18, Academic writing Synopsis Art 102, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM
Writing 20.31, Academic writing Synopsis White 106, TuTh 11:40 AM-12:55 PM

Office Hours:: Variable by semester.

Education:

PhD, Univeristy of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2003
M.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1999
M.F.A., University of Texas at Austin, 1996

Research Interests:
Performance Studies and Visual Culture

Current projects:
Anatomies of Forensic Media (edited collection), Evidence Doesn't Lie: Documentary Performance and the Forensic Imagination
Dissertation explores the performative nature of photography in relationship to non-normative women subjects and their representation in visual culture. Current research on the "forensic imagination," a resurgence of belief in the infallibility of science and scientific testing to determine criminal culpability. This imagination is dramatized in prime-time shows like CSI, Bones, and even House, M.D. Its impact can be seen in the very technological apparatuses--forensic media--used to capture, analyze, and report data. Although philosophically antithetical to narrative, in practice the forensic imagination imbues the scientific method with the power of story, dramatizing the ways in which fictions and facts are social constructions.

Recent Publications (More Publications)

J. Odendahl. "Longinotto, Kim." Encyclopedia of Documentary Film. Routledge, 2006. (Encyclopedia Entry.)
J. Odendahl. "The Thin Blue Line." Encyclopedia of Documentary Film. Routledge, 2006. (Encyclopedia Entry.)
J. Odendahl. "Arts Funding and Censorship." Social Issues: An Encyclopedia of Controversies, Histories, and Debates. Ed. James Ciment East River Books, 2006: 169-77. (Article-length encyclopedia entry.)
J. Odendahl, "Embodied Views to the Visual Through Interdisciplinary and Reflexive Methodologies". Text and Performance Quarterly (January, 2003). [abs]
J. Odendahl. "Giving, Loving, and Writing." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5:6 (November, 2002). November, 2002