Photo of Matthew Cooper

Matthew Cooper

  • Teaching Assistant - Doctoral, English

Education

  • MA, Communication & Media with a concentration in Media & Cinema Studies,  DePaul University, 2021
  • BA, Media & Cinema Studies and Communication Studies, DePaul University, 2020

Teaching Schedule

Course Num Title Meets
ENGLISH 102-051 College Writing and Research MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

Courses Taught

  • ENG 102: Intro to College Writing and Research
  • ARTHIST/FILMSTD/ENG 111: Entertainment Arts: Film, Television, & the Internet
  • FILMSTD/ARTHIST 205: History of Film I: The Development of an Art, 1895-1945
  • FILMSTD/ARTHIST 206: History of Film II: The Development of an Art, 1945-Present

Research Interests

  • Film exhibition
  • American film history
  • Media technology and culture
  • Cultural nostalgia

Related Activities

Selected Conference Presentations:

  • "Expanding Screens: IMAX and the Aesthetic and Industrial Use of Aspect Ratio." Backward Glances Graduate Student Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2024.
  • Pandora at 48 FPS: Aesthetics of Immersion and the Cultural Capital of New Movie Technology in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Boston, MA, 2024.
  • "Nostalgia for the Palace: The Reconstitution of Historic Movie Theater Architecture in the Contemporary Exhibition Industry." Midwest Graduate Film Studies Symposium, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2024.
  • "The Last Movie Star?: Tom Cruise and the Star-Franchise Tension in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Denver, CO, 2023.
  • "Revival, Return, and Transference: Theorizing the Franchise Nostalgia Film in Recent Hollywood Cinema." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, online, 2022.
  • "Re-Evaluating Film Authorship: Directorial Authority in Studio-Driven Franchise Filmmaking." Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference, Chicago, IL, 2022.

Academic Awards

  • UWM Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship, 2023-24
  • UWM Frederick J. Hoffman English Writing Award, 2022-23
  • UWM Chancellor's Graduate Student Award, 2021-22
  • DePaul University College of Communication Outstanding Achievement and Leadership Award 

Selected Publications

 "Pandora at 48 Frames per Second: Aesthetics of Immersion and the Cultural Valuation of High Frame Rate Projection," Film History 35, no. 4 (2025): 75-100.
  • "The Last Movie Star?: Tom Cruise and the Star-Franchise Tension in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema." In Stars and Franchises: Identity, Image and Intellectual Property, edited by Sarah Thomas and Mark McKenna. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, forthcoming.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.