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Ashley R. Smith '09 will deliver a presentation on Nov. 15 at СÓÅÊÓƵ that will examine representations of race, ethnicity and social class in film horror.

The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will pay particular attention to Tobe Hooper's 1974 cult classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; Deliverance, Jack Boorman's 1972 film, which is not typically classified as a horror film; and Get Out, Jordan Peele's 2017 Academy Award-winning film.

"It is a great pleasure to have one of our most accomplished film students back at Rider, where she will share her fascinating and impeccable scholarship with students and faculty and will serve as an inspiration to our current undergraduates," says Professor Cynthia Lucia, the director of Film and Media Studies at Rider.

Smith received a bachelor's in English from Rider, Summa cum laude, with a concentration in cinema studies. She wrote her thesis for the Baccalaureate Honors Program on "Sympathy for the Devil: Viewer Identification with Villains in Cinema." 

While at Rider, Smith received the Jane Rosenbaum Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Contribution to the English Major and the English Department Writing Award for Best Critical Essay for "Putting Patriarchy Under (or in Front of) the Lens: Examining Themes of Confinement and Constriction in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Full Metal Jacket." That essay also won the 2009 Film and Media Studies Symposium Award for Best Essay and was published in Horizons journal. 

After graduating from Rider, Smith received a master's in cinema studies from New York University, where she received a full-tuition fellowship from Tisch School of the Arts. She is now completing her doctorate in screen cultures at Northwestern University. Her dissertation is titled, "Hillbillies, Yuppies, and the American Tourist in Peril: The Crisis of American National Identity in 1970s Horror Cinema and Beyond," a portion of which will be the subject of her talk at Rider on Nov. 15. 

Smith has presented her work at various scholarly conferences including the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the Film and History Society. She has taught a range of film and media courses at Northwestern and currently is teaching at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

"What a wonderful experience it is to count a former student as a colleague whose work promises to make significant contributions to the field of cinema studies," Lucia says

Smith has expressed enthusiasm about returning to Rider, where she has such fond memories. "I'm looking very much forward to meeting the students currently studying film and reconnecting with many of the professors who were so important in helping to shape my scholarly interests," she says. 

"Hillbillies, Yuppies, and other Boogeymen: Race an Abjection in American Horror," a presentation by Ashley R. Smith '09, is co-sponsored by the Film and Media Studies Program and The Department of English. It takes place Nov. 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the  Science and Technology Center 102.