Monday, Jun 20, 2011
Rider鈥檚 Jack Sullivan and his family were featured in a Father鈥檚 Day feature report on CNN.
by Sean Ramsden
Dr. Jack Sullivan, a professor of English and the director of the American Studies program at Rider, was featured in a CNN Father鈥檚 Day segment that aired multiple times on Sunday, June 19. Sullivan was featured along with his two teenage sons, Geoffrey and David, and his wife, Robin Bromley, as well as the small fathers鈥 group of which he鈥檚 been a part for the past decade and a half.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a group of friends 鈥 all fathers 鈥 who have gotten together to meet once a week since the kids were infants,鈥 explained Sullivan of the New York City-based group, which began convening informally in 1998. 鈥淲e鈥檝e gone from talking about diapers to talking about college. It鈥檚 been a long, very exciting journey.鈥
The segment, which appeared as a feature during CNN鈥檚 Sunday news programming, focuses on the relationship between the fathers and their children over the years, as well as the bond that exists among the group. Sullivan鈥檚 family welcomed CNN cameras into their home throughout the shooting process to record vignettes from their life.
鈥淚t's all about the joys and challenges of being a father,鈥 he said.
The segment can be viewed on CNN.com by clicking here: .
Considered the preeminent United States scholar on the subject, Sullivan is the author of Hitchcock鈥檚 Music, which analyzes the way the master of suspense complemented his filmed images with equally gripping musical scores. The book, published in December 2006 by Yale University Press, earned him an award at the 40th ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York in 2008.
Hitchcock鈥檚 Music, which was also cited by the London Observer as the best film book of the year and merited an admiring, full-page review in The New York Times, hardly represents the sum of Sullivan鈥檚 academic interests, however. A scholar of 19th- and 20th-century literature as well as music, film and American culture, he has written for Opera, The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsday, USA Today and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Sullivan has also authored program notes for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., Carnegie Hall and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.