Greensboro College Professor Publishes Chapter in Forthcoming Book
GREENSBORO, N.C. – A professor of English and Communication Studies at Greensboro College, Sheila J. Nayar, has published a chapter in a forthcoming book on humanism.
Nayar’s chapter, “Humanism and Film,” will appear in The Oxford Handbook of Humanism. The chapter’s abstract is online here.
Her chapter addresses the relationship between humanism and film while spotlighting the irony of that context: humans’ relationship with technology. The publisher notes:
“The first half briefly traces the dramatization of humanists on celluloid, before exploring specific movies and movements that notably espoused a humanist philosophy, as well as advances in filmmaking that sometimes facilitated a humanist ethics.
“The chapter’s second half more innovatively addresses why conventional assessments regarding what constitutes a ‘humanist film’ might not apply uniformly across today’s spectrum of spectators. In doing so, it intentionally forces a rethinking of where and how humanism can—and, in some instances perhaps, ought—cinematically to go.
“Such an analytical move seems especially pertinent given the incumbent rise of computer graphic imagery and digital media (including as animation) and consequent fading of film as a material medium.”
Nayar has published five books, as well as numerous scholarly articles in such journals as Journal of the American Academy of Religion; PMLA, the journal of the Modern Language Association of America; and Studies in Philology.
She won the 2011 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology, an award given annually by the Media Ecology Association, for her 2010 book “Cinematically Speaking: The Orality-Literacy Paradigm for Visual Narrative” (Hampton Press).
She holds a B.A. from Concordia University, an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined the faculty in 1999.
Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and, spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.
Founded in 1838 and located in downtown Greensboro, the college enrolls about 1,000 students from 29 states and territories, the District of Columbia, and seven foreign countries in its undergraduate liberal-arts program and six master’s degree programs. In addition to rigorous academics and a well-supported Honors program, the school features a 17-sport NCAA Division III athletic program and dozens of service and recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.greensboro.edu.
Think critically. Act justly. Live faithfully.
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