About

Sarah Projansky is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gender & Women's Studies and the Unit for Cinema Studies. She studies gender and race in the media, feminist film studies, girls and popular culture, cultural studies, and film theory and history.

Education

1995: Ph.D., University of Iowa, Communication Studies/Film Studies

1990: M.A., University of Iowa, Communication Studies/Film Studies

1987: B.A., Wesleyan University, Film, Psychology-Sociology

Academic Employment

2002 - Present: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Associate Professor, Gender and Women's Studies and Cinema Studies

2001 - 2002: University of California, Davis, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies

1995 - 2001: University of California, Davis, Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies

Looking at popular culture from 1980 to the present, feminism appears to be "over": that is, according to popular critics we are in an era of "postfeminism" in which feminism has supposedly already achieved equality for women.

Not so, says Sarah Projansky. In Watching Rape, Projansky undermines this complacent view in her fascinating and thorough analysis of depictions of rape in U.S. film, television, and independent video. Through a cultural studies analysis of such films as Thelma and Louise, Daughters of the Dust, and She's Gotta Have It, and television shows like ER, Ally McBeal, Beverly Hills 90210, and various made-for-tv movies, Projansky challenges us to see popular culture as a part of our everyday lives and practices, and to view that culture critically. How have media defined rape and feminism differently over time? How do popular narratives about rape also communicate ideas about gender, race, class, nationality, and sexuality? And, what is the future of feminist politics, theory, and criticism with regard to issues of sexual violence, postfeminism, and popular media?

The first study to address the relationship between rape and postfeminism, and one of the most detailed and thorough analyses of rape in 25 years, Watching Rape is a crucial contribution to contemporary feminism.