Education

  • BA Russian Language and Literature, University of Southern California
  • MA Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
  • PhD Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
  • MSLIS Academic Librarian, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Bio/Affiliation

Dr. Michele Leigh received her PhD from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. She has taught courses on precinema, film and animation history, and visual culture, among other subjects. She has published on Russian silent film, historiography, and Russian Animation.

 

Portrait of Michele Leigh

Awards and Honors

  • Fulbright Fellowship
  • Faculty Teaching Award
  • Faculty Seed Grant

Professional Accomplishments/Exhibitions:  

Juried Exhibitions and Performances:

  • Leigh, Michele and Robert Spahr. (2019). Liminal Lunch on the Grass a live performance
    that incorporates chance, algorithm and game play to determine its parameters and demonstrates the
    connections between generative art processes and education. Performed as part of “Generative Art
    from the Past to the Present” in collaboration with @potasis at the Roman Summer Festival. Rome,
    Italy, June 7, 2019.
  • Leigh, Michele, with Jay Needham and Robert Spahr. (2017). Scholars on a Picnic: A Generative
    Ballet in Three Parts, a live performance that incorporates chance, algorithm and game play to
    determine its parameters. Performed at the GA 2017 – XX Generative Art Conference, Ravenna,
    Italy, December 12-15.
  • Torre, M. (2011). Locked. Photograph. Art Over Easy, Southern Illinois University.
  • Torre, M. (2010). Gaping Maw. Photograph. Art Over Easy, Southern Illinois University.
    Leigh 8

Exhibits:

  • Leigh, M. (2018). Blood, Bile and Tears. Bitterness. Cinema & Photography Gallery. Southern
    Illinois University Carbondale. February.

Photographic Publications:

  • Leigh, M. (2013). Moscow, Russia. Babushka Gets A Call. In Aguayo. J. A., & Calvert, J.S.,
    (Re)Capturing Womanhood: Perspectives and Portraits Through Mobile Photography. Visual
    Communication Quarterly, 20:3, 185.
  • Torre, M. (2012). Untitled. In Stocking, R., SIU’s Community of Resistence. Solidarity.
  • Torre, M. (1999, Spring/Summer). Series of photographs, In Barton, I., Fucking with Identity.
    Spectator. Vol. 19.

Publications:  

  • Leigh, Michele and Lora Mjolsness. She Animates: Gender in Soviet and Russian Animation.
    Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press. November 2020.

     

  • Leigh, Michele. (2017). A Laughing Matter: El’dar Riazanov and the Subversion of Soviet Gender in
    Russian Comedy. In Marina Rojavin and Tim Harte (Eds.), Women in Soviet Film: The Thaw and
    Post-Thaw Periods. London: Routledge.

     

  • Leigh, Michele. (2015). Zoia Barantsevich and the Khanzhonkov Studios 1913-1917. In Jule Selbo
    and Jill Nelmes (Eds.), Women Screenwriters – An International Guide (146-150). Basingstoke,
    England: Palgrave MacMillan.

     

  • Leigh, Michele. (2015). Reading Between the Lines: History and the Studio Owner's Wife. In
    Christine Gledhill and Julia Knight (Eds.), Doing Women's Film History (42-52). Champaign,
    Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

     

  • Leigh, Michele. (2013). Alexander Khanzhonkov and His Queens of the Screen. In Monica
    Dall’Asta, Victoria Duckett, Lucia Tralli (Eds.), Researching Women in Silent Cinema: New
    Findings and Perspectives (pp. 162-373). Bologna, Italy: University of Bologna.

     

  • Torre, Michele. (2004). Filtering Culture: Symbolism, Modernity and Gender Construction in
    Evgenii Bauer’s Films. In Fullerton, J. (Ed.), Screen Culture: History and Textuality (pp. 99-112).
    Eastleigh, England: John Libbey Press.

     

  • Lowery, Michele. (1998, December). For Queen and Country. An article on Shekhar Kapur’s
    Elizabeth. American Cinematographer, 16-20.

Clients / Employment History

  • Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois
  • Southern Illinois University Carbondale
  • University of Southern California