Educator / Academic

Teaching at the newly founded University of Massachusetts—Boston (1968-2007), Linda helped shape the curriculum and culture of a vibrant university that serves a diverse body of commuting adults. During these decades she taught literature and film courses at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels, including modern and post-modern fiction and narrative theory. Her course, “Narrative in the Novel and Film,” pioneered Film Studies on her campus, followed by another pioneering course, “Women Film Directors,” among others. Another signature course, “Literature and the Political Imagination,” focused increasingly on post-colonial literatures, notably Israeli and Palestinian fiction.

Recipient of UMB’s Chancellor Award for Excellence in Teaching, Linda served as her Department’s Graduate Program Director and participated in several collaborative, cross-disciplinary programs. During her tenure at UMB and into retirement she held two Fulbright grants to teach in India, the second as Distinguished Chair; she served twice as a visiting professor in film studies at Tel Aviv University; taught at UMB’s Honors Program and at Tufts University’s Experimental College; and at the University of Paris. After retirement she taught literature and film courses at UMB’s Osher Life Long Learning Program.

Linda’s academic writing has a wide wingspan, including the co-edited books, From Hanoi to Hollywood; The Vietnam War in American Film and Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism. Her essays range over films such as Salt of the Earth, Gilda, Boys Don’t Cry, and Last Year in Marienbad , and the novels Quicksand, The House of Mirth and The Bluest Eye. She has also published many articles on teaching and continues to serve as long-standing member of Radical Teacher’s Editorial Board.

Linda’s tenure at UMB included years as English Department’s Graduate Program Director, as Chair of her College Senate, and as organizer of a national conference on War Films. She also Chaired a Task Force on Race for the Society for Cinema Studies, served on its Executive Council, and chaired its Annual Program. Her academic work has been recognized by significant awards:

  • UMB Chancellor Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
  • Two Fulbright grants to India, the second as Distinguished Chair.
  • Two semester-long invitations to teach at Tel Aviv University.
  • A Lectureship at Paris V (University of Paris).
  • And a two-months long NEH faculty seminar in Film Theory.