John Bennett ’15
Bennett is an aspiring academic enrolled in film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the top Ph.D. programs for film in the country.
John Bennett ’15 knew he wanted to major in film studies (and also pursue French and English, his minors) even before he started at Muhlenberg. What his undergraduate experience helped him discover was how he wanted to apply his knowledge: He’s an aspiring academic, halfway through a draft of his dissertation on the Algerian film industry, enrolled in one of the top Ph.D. programs for film in the country.
“[Associate Professor of Media & Communications and Film Studies and Director of Film Studies] Amy Corbin did a lot of mentor work after I wrote one paper, early on, that she suggested I try to publish. She met with me one-on-one and taught me a lot about the academic publishing process,” Bennett says. “That paper wasn’t published, but I did end up publishing a different paper I wrote for one of her classes: She taught African American Film and went on maternity leave halfway through the semester. [Professor of Media & Communication] Paul McEwan took over. This paper I workshopped with both of them ended up being published in an undergraduate film studies magazine. The attention that I got from those professors was something that really helped to shape subsequent career choices.”
“There were all these different kinds of classes that explored lots of different art forms from lots of different cultural vantage points over lots of different periods of history that I was fortunate enough to sop up at Muhlenberg.”
Bennett also worked as a tutor in the Writing Center and was assigned to two first-year seminars as a writing assistant, where he collaborated with the professors to help students as they learned how to write at the college level. This got him interested in teaching, so when Professor of French Eileen McEwan brought a speaker to class to share information about a postgraduate opportunity to teach English in France, Bennett applied. Not only was he accepted, he was placed in Cannes, home of the famous international film festival. He was able to stay after his contract ended to attend in 2016.
When he returned home, he knew he wanted to continue his film studies, and he knew he ultimately wanted to teach at the college level. He began applying to graduate programs in film, and the University of Wisconsin – Madison program was the best fit. He plans to do archival research in Turin, Italy, and Paris this summer (“though archival research in Algeria itself poses certain logistical challenges, I hope to conduct research there one day as well,” he says) and hopes to be on the job market next spring. He credits his Writing Center experiences and the variety of courses he took at Muhlenberg, in all his areas of study, with setting him up for success.
“There were all these different kinds of classes that explored lots of different art forms from lots of different cultural vantage points over lots of different periods of history that I was fortunate enough to sop up at Muhlenberg,” he says.