, a professor in the 聽at the University of 91吃瓜, has been awarded a 2020 fellowship from the in support of her book project, "Unhomed: Mobility and Placelessness in American Cinema."
Wojcik is among 175 scholars, artists聽and scientists to be awarded fellowships this year from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants. Faculty in 91吃瓜鈥檚 College of Arts and Letters have won 18 Guggenheim fellowships in the last 20 years.听
鈥淚鈥檓 thrilled that Pam has received one of the world鈥檚 most prestigious and competitive fellowships,鈥� said , the I.A. O鈥橲haughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. 鈥淭his award is a strong endorsement of the quality of her research and continues our tradition of excellence with these awards.鈥�
Wojcik, who will begin serving as chair of FTT in July, said she is honored to receive the聽fellowship, particularly because her colleague Donald Crafton, the Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor Emeritus of Film, Television聽and Theatre, also .听
鈥淗istorically, it has not been given to many film scholars, so it鈥檚 wonderful to be honored and to have film studies recognized in this way,鈥� said Wojcik, a past president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a real honor to follow in Don鈥檚 footsteps, in particular.鈥�
Wojcik鈥檚 book project will explore America鈥檚 ambivalent and shifting attitude toward placelessness through marginalized figures 鈥� including tramps, hitchhikers, the homeless聽and contemporary youth.听
Through an examination of film cycles from the 1920s to the present, she suggests that genres of precarity have been central to American cinema all along.
鈥淚n America, we have fantasies about mobility and success,鈥� said Wojcik, also a concurrent professor in the and the . 鈥淚 think that all along, we鈥檝e had things that have troubled those fantasies and have shown us that it鈥檚 actually a much more complicated and difficult relationship.鈥�
Wojcik, who is currently completing a book about the 1959 film "Gidget" as a transmedia phenomenon, said that "Unhomed" stems from two of her previous books 鈥� "The Apartment Plot: Urban Living in American Film and Popular Culture, 1945 to 1975" and "Fantasies of Neglect: Imagining the Urban Child."聽
鈥淲riting about contemporary films and youth started me thinking about the pliancy of mobility,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t can sometimes seem like progress or freedom or opportunity, but it can also be tied to shiftlessness or deviance. I began thinking about more negatively viewed modes of mobility related to homelessness, nomads聽and exile.
鈥淚n the current climate, there is a sort of hostility and fear toward placelessness, in relation to immigration and mobility across borders 鈥斅燼nd, now, in relation to the coronavirus. I think we need to think historically about these issues and also own the ways in which we have marginalized figures who don鈥檛 fit into our fantasy.鈥�
Originally published by at on April 17.