Amy Villarejo

Amy Villarejo is an American scholar in cinema and media studies, specializing in feminist and queer media, critical theory, and television studies. She is currently chair of the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media (FTVDM) and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Previously, she was the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Humanities at Cornell University, where she taught in the Department of Performing and Media Arts and the Department of Comparative Literature.^[1][2]

Her notable works include Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Duke University Press, 2003), which won the Katherine Singer Kovács Prize from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.^[3]

Villarejo was born and raised in Los Angeles and Davis, California. She earned her A.B. degree from Bryn Mawr College and later received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Cinema Studies with distinction from the University of Pittsburgh.^[2][4]

Villarejo began her academic career in 1997 at Cornell University, where she served as the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Humanities. She was affiliated with both the Department of Performing and Media Arts and the Department of Comparative Literature.^[5] In 2020, she joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as chair of the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media and professor.^[2]

Villarejo's research spans a wide array of topics in cinema and media studies, with a particular focus on queer and feminist media studies, documentary film, Brazilian and Indian cinema, and American television. She also engages with critical theory, cultural studies, and Third Cinema, contributing significantly to these interdisciplinary fields.^[6]

• Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Duke University Press, 2003) – Winner of the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award.^[7]
• Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire (Duke University Press, 2013).^[8]
• Film Studies: The Basics (Routledge, 2013; 3rd edition, 2021).
• Co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2021) with Ron Gregg.

Villarejo has authored more than 50 essays published in peer-reviewed journals and anthologies, including New German Critique, Social Text, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Film Quarterly, and Cinema Journal (now Journal of Cinema and Media Studies).^[9]

Villarejo serves on the editorial boards of Film Quarterly and the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS). Her editorial work continues to influence the field of media studies.^[10]

• Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award for Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (2003).^[3]