Hi!
I am Amitha Halthore, a recipient of the Chancellor's Undergraduate Teaching Fellowship for Spring 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Jeffrey Heinzl. I am a Neuroscience and Film & Media Studies double major with a Chemistry minor, and I will be graduating this April! A little bit about me: I am a big coffee and tea enthusiast and enjoy jigsaw puzzling with friends and family. As I plan to attend medical school in the fall, I have been reflecting on my journey the past 4 years, and I've realized my time in Contemporary Film, which I took in Spring 2022 with Dr. Heinzl and for which I am now a TA, undoubtedly played an influential role in shaping my interests at Pitt.
Horror has fascinated me since childhood, creating uncomfortable emotional responses that few other media have been able to accomplish. When I first watched Midsommar (2019) during Contemporary Film, I was absolutely shocked by how a director or writer could come up with such an unpredictable, violent, yet intricately designed film. Discussing Midsommar in class, I learned of the homage to Irish and Greek mythology within the film and was curious to better understand the power behind traditional horror structures and how they can be subverted. Under the guidance of Dr. Heinzl, I further investigated Midsommar for the 2022 Film and Media Studies Undergraduate Symposium and presented "Mythsommar and Femininity: A Bittersweet Empowerment," a discussion of mythological allusions in Midsommar that related these allusions to societal constructions of femininity and identity. Throughout this journey, I've continuously come back to the inception of my interest with film analysis, established by Contemporary Film, and I hope to guide future students in developing their film interests, reflecting the path Dr. Heinzl has helped me navigate.
As a TA for Contemporary Film, I aim to facilitate discussions of horror and guide students in analyzing and defining the contemporary horror landscape. Within film, horror has undergone an evolution from the inception of cinema to current day, as themes reflect shifting fears and anxieties in response to sociocultural transitions, industry trends, and changing technologies. Horror is also closely intertwined with questions surrounding women's subjectivities, which it frequently explores to create dread. As we move throughout the Trauma & Violence and Taboo Sexualities units regarding contemporary horror, students will work towards a definition of horror and learn about the broader contemporary horror climate. A thorough understanding of sources of horror in our daily lives promotes meaningful comprehension of how films reflect and play with developing political attitudes and global, intertextual trends.
The Chancellor's Undergraduate Teaching Fellowship offers me an opportunity to both learn and build on new perspectives of teaching both in and out of the classroom. Understanding constructive patterns of thought and behavior in lecture and discussions will be valuable in my own future as I pursue medicine, for which clinical teaching and experiences are the core of professional development. Through the CUTF, I am excited to gain the confidence and competence in skills relevant to presenting information that promotes inventive, original thought both in myself and in the students I engage with. Along with providing an opportunity for me to guide the class in discussions of film analysis and contemporary horror structures, the CUTF will support my journey in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the horror genre as a whole, while enriching the field of film and media studies through the support of alternative, meticulously developed interpretations of global cinema.
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