John Trafton

Biography

John received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he also lectured in film studies and served as departmental research coordinator. He was an instructor in film studies at Seattle University and an instructor for the Seattle International Film Festival’s education program from 2017 to 2023. His research and teaching focuses on visual culture and its impact on film history, theory, and practices. His most recent book, Movie-Made Los Angeles (2023), explores how pre-cinema visual culture in Southern California from 1880 to 1920 contributed to the growth of Los Angeles as a cultural economy and the center for American cinema during the early 20th century. His current research looks at Mexican Muralism and its impact on art education and the training of film animators and production designers during the 1930s.

Select Publications

“Free State of Jones and the New Civil War Cinema.” in The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image. Edited by Hughs-Warrington, Marnie, Kim Nelson, and Mia E.M. Treacy. Routledge University Press, November 2023

Movie-Made Los Angeles. Wayne State University Press. October 2023

“Civil War Epistolary and the Hollywood War Film.” in Epistolary Entanglements in Film, Media, and the Visual Arts. Edited by Catherine Fowler and Teri Higgens. Amsterdam University Press, 2022.

“Violence and Memory in Spielberg’s Lincoln.” in A Companion to Steven Spielberg. Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Film Directors series (Edited by Nigel Morris). Co-authored with Robert Burgoyne. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017, 374 – 386., 2017

“The American Outlaw and Civil War Shock: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” Film International. 15.2, 86-97.

The American Civil War and the Hollywood War Film. NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015

“Haunting in the Historical Biopic: Lincoln.” Co-authored with Robert Burgoyne. Rethinking History. Taylor and Francis. 2015. Vol. 19, Issue 3, 525 - 535. 

“The End of History in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive.” Bright Lights Film Journal, February 2015.

“Things that Almost Killed Me: Apocalypse Now, The Hurt Locker and the Influence of 19th Century Spectacle Art.” Frames Cinema Journal. Issue 2, November 2012.