Dr Sam Summers
Name | Dr Sam Summers |
---|---|
Job title | Lecturer in Animation Contextual Studies |
Research institute | |
Primary appointment | School of Film |
Email address | S.Summers@mdx.ac.uk |
ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0724-7298 |
Contact category | Academic staff |
Biography
Biography Sam Summers is an animation theorist and historian, who joined Middlesex in 2023 as a Lecturer in Animation History & Theory and joint-programme leader for BA Animation. He completed his PhD in 2018 at University of Sunderland, with his thesis 'Intertextuality And The Break From Realism in DreamWorks Animation'. He has since taught on animation and film studies programmes at Sunderland, Newcastle, Liverpool Hope and University of the Arts London. Sam's research interests lie in the intersections between animation and other pop cultural forms, and as such his research has focussed on themes of intertextuality, adaptation, remix cultures and animation aesthetics. Although well-versed in a broad range of animation traditions, genres and forms from around the world, his research looks primarily at the history of Hollywood animation, with outputs focusing on studios like Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar, Warner Bros and Hanna-Barbera. He is active in the communication of animation studies to mainstream audiences, appearing in publications like Variety, Vulture, Vice, Empire and The Independent, and on BBC and CBC radio. He has organised and spoken at numerous public-facing events, most notably as part of BFI's Disney retrospective, and co-hosts the popular animation history podcast Disniversity. He is the convenor of the Animation Special Interest Group for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies, in which capacity he has organised and facilitated funding for a wide array of animation-centric research events.
Teaching Sam is currently joint-programme leader for BA Animation, primarily teaching on modules dealing with the history and theory of animation. His classes aim to equip students with the contextual knowledge and intellectual approaches necessary to become informed, creative and critical practitioners of animation He also advises students on their practical animation projects, with a focus on developing their writing and storytelling skills as well as their cultural literacy He also contributes classes on animation history and theory to BA 3D For Games and Film
Education and qualifications
Grants
Prizes and Awards
External activities
Research outputs
Prince with a thousand faces: shifting art-styles and the depiction of violence in Watership Down
Summers, S. 2023. Prince with a thousand faces: shifting art-styles and the depiction of violence in Watership Down. in: Lester, C. (ed.) Watership Down: Perspectives On and Beyond Animated Violence New York, NY Bloomsbury. pp. 176-190Fun for all the family: adapting the Fast & Furious as animated children's television
Summers, S. 2023. Fun for all the family: adapting the Fast & Furious as animated children's television. in: Gulam, J., Elliott, F. and Feinstein, S. (ed.) Full-Throttle Franchise: The Culture, Business and Politics of Fast & Furious New York, NY Bloomsbury. pp. 213-232Intertextuality and “adult” humour in children’s film
Summers, S. 2022. Intertextuality and “adult” humour in children’s film. in: Brown, N. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Children's Film Oxford University Press (OUP). pp. 124-144Book Review: David McGowan, Animated Personalities: Cartoon Characters and Stardom in American Theatrical Shorts (University of Texas Press, 2019)
Summers, S. 2021. Book Review: David McGowan, Animated Personalities: Cartoon Characters and Stardom in American Theatrical Shorts (University of Texas Press, 2019). Open Screens. 4 (1), p. 13. https://doi.org/10.16995/os.65A real American hero: the superhero-fication of Disney’s Hercules
Summers, S. 2020. A real American hero: the superhero-fication of Disney’s Hercules. in: Blanshard, A. and Stafford, E. (ed.) The Modern Hercules: Images of the Hero from the Nineteenth to the Early Twenty-First Century De Gruyter Brill. pp. 488–505DreamWorks Animation: intertextuality and aesthetics in Shrek and beyond
Summers, S. 2020. DreamWorks Animation: intertextuality and aesthetics in Shrek and beyond. Cham Palgrave Macmillan.Adapting a retro comic aesthetic with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Summers, S. 2019. Adapting a retro comic aesthetic with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Adaptation. 12 (2), pp. 190-194. https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apz014High fantasy meets low culture in How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
Summers, S. 2018. High fantasy meets low culture in How To Train Your Dragon (2010). in: Holliday, C. and Sergeant, A. (ed.) Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres New York, NY Taylor & Francis (Routledge). pp. 227-242From shelf to screen: toys as a site of intertextuality
Summers, S. 2018. From shelf to screen: toys as a site of intertextuality. in: Smith, S., Brown, N. and Summers, S. (ed.) Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature New York, NY Bloomsbury. pp. 127-140Introduction
Brown, N., Smith, S. and Summers, S. 2018. Introduction. in: Smith, S., Brown, N. and Summers, S. (ed.) Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature New York, NY Bloomsbury. pp. 1-6Toy Story: how Pixar reinvented the animated feature
Smith, S., Brown, N. and Summers, S. (ed.) 2018. Toy Story: how Pixar reinvented the animated feature. New York, NY Bloomsbury.La alternativa de Bugs Bunny. Matador y Estrella en "Bully for Bugs" (Chuck Jones,1953)
Smith, S. and Summers, S. 2017. La alternativa de Bugs Bunny. Matador y Estrella en "Bully for Bugs" (Chuck Jones,1953). Revista de Estudios Taurinos. 41, pp. 251-278.423
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