Secretary, 2024-2027

Biography

Kate Fortmueller is Associate Professor in the School of Film, Media and Theater at Georgia State University. She received her Ph.D. in Critical Studies at the University of Southern California under the direction of Dr. Ellen Seiter. She was appointed as the Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Southern California (2014-15) and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Film Studies and Communication at Fairfield University. Prior to her position at GSU she was an assistant professor at the University of Georgia in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Degrees

Ph.D., Critical Studies, University of Southern California
M.A., Critical Studies, University of Southern California
B.A., Government and Italian Studies, Smith College

Teaching & Research Interests

Media industries, U.S. film and TV history, media labor, Hollywood unions and guilds, gender in film and television

Selected Publications & Works

Books
Hollywood Unions, co-edited with Luci Marzola (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, Forthcoming, 2024.)
Hollywood Shutdown: Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021).
Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021).

Selected Articles
"Vintage Furniture: The Significance of the Casting Couch as Industry Gossip and Rumor," NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies, 2022. Available here.
"Right Here in Hollywood: The Greatest Story Ever Told, the American West and the American Film Worker," Journal of Popular Film and Television 48.2, 2020, 103-114.
"Time's Up (Again?): Transforming Hollywood's Industrial Culture," Media Industries 6.2, 2019, Available here
"Gendered Labour, Gender Politics: How Edith Head Designed her Career and Styled Women's Lives," Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television Vol. 38 No. 3, 2018, 474-494.
"Encounters at the Margins of Hollywood: Casting and Location Shooting for Bhowani Junction," Film History Vol. 28 No. 4, 2016, 100-124."

Other Activities & Awards

Section editor, "Film and Cinema: Industry Studies," Routledge Resources Online: Screen Studies, Ed. Sarah Atkinson, New York: Routledge.
Recipient of David H. Culbert Routledge-IAMHIST Prize for Best Article by an Established Scholar 2018."

SCMS Board & Committee Service

Chair, Professional Development Committee, 2022-2024 (resigned to take SCMS Board position).
Co-Chair, Media Industries Scholarly Interest Group, 2021-2024.
Mentor, Graduate Student Job Clinic at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2019-Present. (Mentor 1 student/year)
Committee Member, Best Edited Collection Award Committee, 2018-2019.

Contact

School of Film, Media, & Theatre
P.O. Box 5060
Atlanta, GA 30302-5060

kfortmueller@gmail.com
Facebook: Kate Fortmueller
Twitter/Instagram: @kfortmueller
Bluesky: kfortmueller.bluesky.social