Bio
James Fiumara studied film and literature at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. His teaching and scholarly interests include film aesthetics, the history of Hollywood, genre film (horror, film noir, crime thriller), silent-era cinema, and the relationship between film and other cultural entertainments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (e.g., carnivals, fairgrounds, dime museums, vaudeville).
He has published on the avant-garde animation of the Quay Brothers and is currently researching and writing a book-length project on the history of horror cinema that rethinks the origins of the horror film through its intersections with 19th and early 20th century forms of popular entertainment (carnivals, fairgrounds, dime museums) and vernacular science (from popular science lectures to natural history museums and World’s Fairs). His book project is tentatively entitled Grotesque Attractions: Popular Entertainment, Vernacular Science, and the Origins of the Horror Film.