research overview
- My research focuses on franchise studies, genre studies (especially science fiction, fantasy, and horror), American literature and culture, and media studies.
- Contact Info
Robertson, Benjamin J
Positions
- Associate Professor, English
Research Areas
- American History
- American Literature
- Computer Music
- Cultural Activities
- Cultural History
- Culture
- Design Arts
- Fiction
- Graphic Design
- History
- History of Science & Technology
- Humanities Planning/Policy
- Language and/or Literature, Fiction
- Language and/or Literature, Modern
- Literary Criticism
- Literature--Design/Production
- Media Arts
- Modern History
- Novels
- Philosophy
- Theatre/Film Criticism
- Twentieth Century History
Research
keywords
- Franchise studies, genre (especially science fiction, fantasy and horror), 20th and 21st-century American literature, history, culture, media and technology studies, late capitalism
Publications
selected publications
-
book
- None of This Is Normal The Fiction of Jeff VanderMeer 2018
- The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media. Ed. Emerson, Lori. 2014
-
chapter
- “‘Another world, another life’: Humans, Monsters, and Politics in Predator: South China Sea.”. 195-209. 2021
- Backstory. 37-44. 2017
- History and Timelines. 107-114. 2017
- World Completeness. 82-89. 2017
- Incommensurate Nostalgias Changin' Times in Watchmen. 199-212. 2014
- Music, Terrorism, Response: The Conditioning Logic of Code and Networks. 31-42. 2011
-
journal article
- Review of Dan Golding’s Star Wars after Lucas: A Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy 2021
- The Dark Tower. Science Fiction Film and Television. 155-158. 2020
- “But that is not the story: Marlon James’s Black Leopard Red Wolf.” 2019
- Review of James Gifford, A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, and the Radical Fantastic.. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 129-131. 2019
- “Annihilation and the Historicity of Horror.”. 29-33. 2019
- “Captain America and General Intellect: Abstraction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”. 28-35. 2019
- “Connected.”. Extrapolation. 111-112. 2019
-
Media Scholarship in the Age of Franchise.
Science Fiction Studies.
366-369.
2018
- Annihilation. 24-26. 2018
-
From Fantasy to Franchise.
Extrapolation.
129-152.
2017
-
Guilty Pleasures: Late Capitalism and Mere Genre Introduction.
Extrapolation.
123-128.
2017
-
Media Archaeology and Science Fiction.
Science Fiction Studies.
198-201.
2017
-
'It's just us now': nostalgia and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
Science Fiction Film and Television.
479-488.
2016
-
Obsession and the Aca-Fan.
Science Fiction Studies.
595-595.
2016
- Review of Carl Freedman, Art and Idea in the Novels of China Miéville and Caroline Edwards and Tony Venezia (eds.), China Miéville: Critical Essays. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 364-368. 2016
- The Future of Fantasy Criticism. Extrapolation. 369-373. 2016
- ‘A place I have never seen”: Possibilities and Impossibilities, Genre and Politics in China Miéville’s The Scar. 68-88. 2016
- “A Place I Have Never Seen”: Possibility, Genre, Politics, and China Miéville’s The Scar. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 68-88. 2016
-
New Tools, New Value Producing Music after the Individual.
Music, Sound and the Moving Image.
207-218.
2015
- Shuffle Culture: Archive, Mashup, Apparatus, Human 2013
- The Grammatization of Scholarship 2013
-
What We Talk About When We Talk About Healthcare: A Response to Lawrence J. Hergott.
English Language Notes.
193-196.
2012
- 'Some Matching Strangeness': Biology, Politics, and the Embrace of History in Octavia Butler's Kindred. Science Fiction Studies. 362-381. 2010
-
Mashing-up the Past, Critiquing the Present, Wrecking the Future: The Kleptones' A Night at the Hip-Hopera.
Hyperrhiz.
1-1.
2010
- Free as in Free Culture: A Response to Francis Raven. Electronic Book Review (EBR). 2006
-
On Moral Science: The Problematic Politics of Stuart Kauffman's Order.
Configurations.
287-312.
2004
Background
education and training
- Ph.D., SUNY at Buffalo 2007
- M.A., Montclair State College 2000
- B.A., Pace University-New York 1996
awards and honors
International Activities
geographic focus
- Germany Country
- United Kingdom Country