Carroll, who is the Andrew W. Mellon Term Professor in the Humanities at Temple University, is the author or editor of 15 books and hundreds of articles on a wide range of humanistic and cultural topics. Scholarly interests for Carroll include film theory, the philosophies of literature and the visual arts, as well as social and cultural theory.
Carroll became widely known with the publication of Philosophical Problems of Contemporary Film Theory (1988), Mystifying Movies: Fads and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory (1988) and The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart (1990).
All three books declared war on the then-fashionable orthodoxies of psychoanalytic film theory and its stylistic obscurantism. The works also opened windows and doors in film studies programs around the world, letting in a welcome blast of cold air, said Thomas Leitch, UD professor of English and director of the concentration in Film Studies.
Books by Carroll also include, Interpreting the Moving Image (1998), A Philosophy of Mass Art: A Contemporary Introduction (1999), Beyond Aesthetics (2001), Engaging the Moving Image (2003) and Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping (2006).
In addition to editing three highly influential anthologies on philosophy and film theory, Carroll also has written articles for the Chicago Reader, Artforum, In These Times, Dance Magazine, Soho Weekly News and The Village Voice.
Carroll received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2002 to explore the relationship of philosophy and dance. He has taught at New York University, Cornell University, Columbia University and State University of New York-Buffalo. Most recently he was Monroe Beardsley Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin.
The event is sponsored by the Department of English.
