Director's Introduction

As many of you know, the Center for the Study of Film and History and its refereed journal, Film & History, have traveled north from Oklahoma to Wisconsin. Retiring Editor-in-Chief Peter C. Rollins continues to advise the Center and the journal, and the staff of associate editors and reviewers remains solidly in place, with Deborah Carmichael assuming a new academic post in Michigan.

What remains unchanged is the journal's mission: to investigate the exchanges between film genres and historical events and to explain ideas in a concise,unpretentious language. Toward that goal, volume 37.2 completes a two-part series on Reality Television, edited by Julie Ann Taddeo and Ken Dvorak. And this issue inaugurates a series on pedagogy. Our first article for this series, by Scott Metzger, examines the dangers and rewards of using historical feature films for teaching purposes. Metzger's research suggests that, well before they reach their students, instructors themselves must study how, not just what, historical content is conveyed by any film. Only then are they ready to guide students toward historical literacy, which Metzger organizes into five core "competencies." Real literacy requires a particular attitude as well as a proven method, and Metzger's article lays the foundation for both.

By now you should be planning for the 2008 Conference in Chicago (Oct. 30 – Nov. 2). We shall be staying at The Westin O'Hare, a four-star hotel with which the Center has negotiated an exceptionally low rate for our participants. Our Keynote Speaker is the special-effects legend behind so many mesmerizing films that one need only mention his name to invoke them: Stan Winston, an artist whose ingenious technologies have dazzled and terrified us for over 30 years. The Alien series, the Terminator series, the Predator series, the Jurassic Park series, along with Edward Scissorhands, The Sixth Sense, and Galaxy Quest—these films have confounded our notions of possible realities, and they have provoked scholars around the globe to contemplate the nature and direction of science.

On the academic side, our Featured Speakers include Wheeler Winston Dixon ( James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies at University of Nebraska, Lincoln) and Sidney Perkowitz (Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics at Emory University).These are eminent scholars who,from different professional angles, explore the uneasy but always fascinating partnerships between film and science.

If you have visited Chicago, the home of modern architecture, then you know why it is considered one of the most exciting cities in the world for conventions, conferences, and congregations of every kind. And did we mention the art, the jazz, the sports, the dining, the sailing, the shopping—and the dinosaurs? See www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory.edu for details and registration, and note that the early-bird rate lasts until December 31, 2007.

We are excited to begin this next phase of the Center and the journal. Please see the formal announcement of our big move to Wisconsin at www.uwosh.edu/news_bureau/releases/May07/film%20history.html. Our new Web site is www.uwosh. edu/filmandhistory (entering "www.filmandhistory.org" will take you to the current address, which has a clean, compact interface). And our new e-mail address, to be used in all your correspondence with us, is FilmandHistory@uwosh.edu.

The staff at Film & History look forward to seeing all of you—and to hearing your presentations and your feedback—at our 2008 conference.

Warmest greetings to you all,