Brent Stevens

Seeking a full-time position that offers professional challenges and utilizes my decades of experience editing, writing, teaching, and generating content for print, tv, radio, and the web.

• WDBJ7B, Local at 4, Weekly Guest, 2017, present
• WFIR (107.3), Cineminute, Author, Editor, Producer, 2018, present
• WFIR (107.3), At the Movies with Gene Maranno, Author, Editor, Producer, 2018, present
• WVMP (101.5), Cineminute, Author, Editor, Producer, 2015, 2018

• Tutor Training Course (Hollins), This course is one-part writing, one-part theory, and one-part mock tutoring designed to help students become informed and well-rounded tutors. An emphasis is placed on writing across the disciplines, learning various documentation styles, and working with diverse student populations.
• Composition I (Hollins, USC, Midlands Tech, Edinboro University, VWCC, Roanoke College, Virginia Tech, and VMI), While different institutions have varying standards, my philosophy is that this course starts with a student's passions, and uses this investment to build energy and enthusiasm for writing. Narrative and reflection assignments are followed by responses to various forms of popular culture such as art, advertising, films, television, live theater, and graphic novels. Newly empowered, students then turn to the daunting task of dialoguing with other voices to refine their analytical skills. My hope is that students emerge from this initial experience with the ability to read resistantly, write competently, and think critically.
• Composition II (USC, Midlands Tech, Edinboro University, VWCC, Roanoke College, and Virginia Tech), Again, I have taught this course under a variety of rubrics, but the emphasis is on empowering the writer to gain a voice in a complex and competitive marketplace of ideas. I strive to find topics that have some relevance to their lives. I tell them, for example, that an essay on the death penalty is not allowed unless they have a relative on death row. I encourage them to conduct interviews, critique websites, construct blogs, and physically use the library to ferret out the interesting information that will distinguish their work and give them the confidence to express themselves through their writing both throughout their college career and beyond.
• Surveys of British Literature (VWCC, Roanoke College, and Virginia Tech), A mix of canonical and neglected authors comprises the materials for these survey courses. The metanarratives of shifting hegemonies, identity, and the complex ways texts position readers are also emphasized. Instructive mythologies inherent in texts such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gradually give way to the confessional modes of the twentieth-century poets. These larger trends give students a structure that allows them to see the forest, and not just the trees. Selection of texts also foregrounds issues of intertextuality. Comparisons of texts such as Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea foster a better understanding of the individual periods. I also challenge students to make connections between these texts and their current cultural context as a means of keeping this material relevant and vibrant.
• Surveys of American Literature (USC and Roanoke College), In these sophomore-level surveys, the writings of Winthrop, Bradstreet, Taylor, and Franklin provide a framework to develop a working model of what constitutes our modern concept of the American dream. The remainder of the course is dedicated to elaborations on, and permutations of, this mythology through such works as Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street and Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. History, popular culture, and art are utilized to convey a fuller sense of the periods.
• Technical Writing (Virginia Tech), This course gives students the tools necessary to sharpen their written work both within their respective disciplines and for a wider audience. Texts such as David Macaulay's The Way Things Work and An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson serve as models for how highly technical material can be made accessible to the layperson. Creative assignments bolster more conventional assignments such as writing lab reports and theoretical summaries. I ask each student, for example, to build something out of legos and write a paper outlining their construction process.
• Introduction to Film (Edinboro University), This is a crash course in the analysis, theory, techniques, and practices with an emphasis on learning the grammar of film. We will also discuss the disparities between Hollywood cinema and arthouse cinema. Issues of adaptation will also be emphasized.
• Contemporary Horror (Virginia Tech), Horror is terribly important. Not all of it, of course. Rubber monsters and cheap surprise endings haunt the genre. But the best of it rips off the polite mask of society and allows us to see features such as gender roles, power structures, and the politics of vision in their deepest forms and structures. But even more disturbing is a new strain of what I call ethical horror films. Movies like Saw provide traditional horror film pleasures but allow the spectator to disavow the recognition of their morbidity by fooling them into thinking that they are participating in a lesson on morality. These types of tricks make it imperative that we become resistant readers/spectators.
• Modernist British Literature (Virginia Tech), My approach to this course fosters a multi-faceted understanding of the period with emphasis not only on its literature but also its history, art, advertising, and film. This period holds many parallels to our own: impending war, struggles of religion and identity, and the chaos that follows the wake of rapid technological change. Thus this period has much to offer students. I encourage them to apply these texts to their lives as well as impart to them the contemporaneous dynamics and trends of this exciting period.
• Literature and Film (Virginia Tech), This coursecross-listed with the Communication Departmentexplores the translation of text to film with a special emphasis on the relationship between reader/spectator and text. As a secondary goal, students gain a sophisticated understanding of film theory, terminology and of the ways in which ideology affects spectatorship. The challenge for me is getting students to disengage from the power of the cinematic illusion in order to view it with a critical eye.
• Southern Literature (Roanoke College), Southern culture remains a divergent experience from the national one, and this course traces those differences. We start at Jamestown and work our way through to the present. Questions emerge along the way: why, for example, is there such a dearth of literature before the Civil War and such a dense flowering in the Modernist period? Using such non-fiction sources as W. J. Cash's The Mind of the South and Fred Hobson's The Southern Writer in the Postmodern World, this course explores what makes this region so unique. As a secondary goal, we examine the perpetuation of Southern stereotypesboth from within and without.

• Images of Southern Women (Hollins University), The American South has a history of producing stereotypical images of women. This, of course, does not distinguish the region. But the ways in which female stereotypes express themselves culturally in Southern literature and film are unique. The notion of the “Southern Belle,” for example, continues to be a staple in Southern cultural mythology. In this course we use films such as Steel Magnolias, Gone With the Wind, George Washington, and Sweet Home Alabama and the fiction of Bobbie Ann Mason, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Joyce Carol Oates and others to build a better understanding of both the stereotypes of Southern women and the voices that resist these stereotypes.
• Images of Parenthood (Hollins University), This graduate-level course explores issues of parenting by examining its presentation in film, literature and television. What messages about parenting can we derive from the texts we consume as a culture? For example, is Desperate Housewives popular because it offers a realistic portrait of motherhood or is it a sunny distortion that viewers use as an escape? Fears of fatherhood we explore through films such as Eraserhead, About a Boy, and Raising Arizona. Although these films are quite different generically, each investigates this issue in a complex manner that illuminates the culture’s mixed messages about what it means to be a father. By the end of the course, students gain a greater understanding both of their own ideas about parenting as well as how cultural messages shape these perceptions.
• The Detective in Film and Literature (Hollins University), Beginning with the Oedipal myth, the course explores detective fiction in the context of literary tradition by surveying the figure of the detective in various transformations ranging from Sophocles to Thomas Harris, as well as in films by Alfred Hitchcock, John Houston, Fritz Lang, Roman Polanski, and others.
• Dystopias: Apocalyptic Films and Literature (Hollins University), To visit the multiplex these days, you need to be made of stern stuff. Each week brings films that offer new threats to the current world order. Tidal waves, zombie-producing pandemics, nuclear devastation, killer asteroids, sentient machines, and dire predictions from the Mayan calendar haunt our fictions. The History Channel and The Discovery Network showcase documentaries on The Black Death and “Life After Man.” But what do these dystopian visions have to say about our fears and desires? How does the current crop of threats compare to apocalyptic visions of the past? And what can we learn about ourselves by peering into these dark mirrors? We will read authors such as Mary Shelley, Richard Jeffries, Stephen King, and Cormac McCarthy and watch films such as Mad Max, The Matrix, 2012, and The Book of Eli to explore these questions.
• Films and Their Literary Sources (Hollins University), Why is it that no one ever says, “The movie was better?” This course explores the interrelationships between literature and film with an eye to understanding the complex dynamic between words and images.
• The Art of Analyzing Films: Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock once said that most films were simply pictures of people talking. He believed cinema could be much more than that. Through an examination of Hitchcock’s career which spanned six decades and 57 films, this course will draw on his work to learn the basics of film narrative, techniques, and language, as well as the various strategies critics use to analyze films. Secondary goals include gaining an appreciation of film history and the role of his films in the culture at large both in his time and today.
• From Panels to Popcorn Movies: Comic Books and Cinematic Adaptation, The combination of art and language dates back at least as far as the Bayeux Tapestry of the 1070s. Comic books, however, are a relatively new medium. Evolving out of a publishing war between Pulitzer and Hearst for the hearts and minds of the immigrant populace of Victorian New York, the art form eventually became closely aligned with the superhero genre, catering to power fantasies of adolescent boys. In recent decades, however, comic books have grown up, as evidenced by the term “graphic novel.” This course will trace the history, theory, and practice of comic books with a special emphasis on their value as cultural reflections. The course will also examine how this medium translates to film. Super Hero comic books are now the main source for blockbusters. Other genres of comic books, however, have quietly made their way to screens both large and small. We will talk about the concessions, textual changes, and cultural shifts that take place in these translations. And, along the way, you’ll leave the class with a better understanding of both mediums.

• Visual Literacy, Composition at Virginia Tech: Written, Spoken, and Visual Composition, Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2006
• Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s . . . Rocketman!’ Thomas Pynchon’s Comic Book Mythology in Gravity’s Rainbow, Studies in Popular Culture, 19, 3, Spring 1997, 35-43
• David Lynch as Vengeful Auteur: Revision of Meaning in Twin Peaks, Wrapped in Plastic, 21, February 1996, 14-16
• Cormac McCarthy, Cyclopedia of World Authors
• Andrew Lytle, Cyclopedia of World Authors
• A Translation of the Spanish Passages in All The Pretty Horses, www.cormacmccarthy.com

• Board Member, Grandin Theatre, 2015, present
• Founder, Grandin Theatre Film Lab, 2016, present
• Member, Title IX Working Group, 2016
• Member, Curriculum Committee for Five Year Plan, 2011, 2012
• Member, Curriculum Revision Committee, Roanoke College, 2007, 2008
• Member, Language, Literature, and Culture Committee, Virginia Tech, 2006, 2007
• Member, Composition Textbook Revision Committee, Virginia Tech, 2005, 2006
• Finalist, 2006 Sporn Award for Teaching of Introductory Subjects, Virginia Tech
• Voted one of the most valuable professors by the Pan-Hellenic Council, 2006

• Un Prophete, Roanoke College International Film Festival, February 20th, 2021
• Earth and Mid-August Lunch, Roanoke College International Film Festival, February 21st, 2020
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Role in World War 2, Kegley Lecture at the O. Winston Link Museum, July 17th, 2019
• Alfred Hitchcock and World War 2: Propaganda and Personal Style, Roanoke College Elder Scholars Program, April 3rd, 2019
• Form and Meaning in Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ and Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Eleanor Wilson Museum, Roanoke VA, October 1st, 2015
• What The Daily Show Can Teach Us About College Writing, The 2010 Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, Greensboro, NC, January 2010
• The Postmodern Poetics of Violence in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, 2nd Annual International Conference on the Emerging Literature of the Southwest Culture, El Paso, Texas, September 13, 1996
• Keeping Harry Underground and in the Closet: Confining Masculine Subjectivity in The Trouble With Harry, Popular Culture Association of the South, Richmond, Virginia, October 1995
• Coleridge’s Flawed Compass: The Marginal Gloss to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, American Conference on Romanticism, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 1995
• David Lynch as Vengeful Auteur: Revision of Meaning in Twin Peaks, Twentieth Annual Florida State Film and Literature Conference, Tallahassee, Florida, January 1995

• Dr. Diana George, Director of Composition, Virginia Tech, 335 Shanks Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, (540) 231-6566, dianag@vt.edu
• Dr. Sheila Carter-Tod, Associate Director of Freshman Writing Program, Virginia Tech, 443 Shanks Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, (540) 231-8448, sct@vt.edu
• Dr. Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor of English, Virginia Tech, 413 Shanks Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, (540) 231-6146, lroy@vt.edu

• WFIR (107.3), At the Movies with Gene Marrano: Author, Editor, Producer, 2018-present.
• WDBJ7B, Local at 4, Weekly Guest, 2017-present.
• WFIR (107.3), Cineminute, Author, Editor, Producer, 2018-2020
• WVMP (101.5), Cineminute, Author, Editor, Producer, 2015-2018

• Visual Literacy, Composition at Virginia Tech: Written, Spoken, and Visual Composition, Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2006
• Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s . . . Rocketman!’ Thomas Pynchon’s Comic Book Mythology in Gravity’s Rainbow, Studies in Popular Culture, 19, 3, Spring 1997, 35-43
• David Lynch as Vengeful Auteur: Revision of Meaning in Twin Peaks, Wrapped in Plastic, 21, February 1996, 14-16
• Cormac McCarthy, Cyclopedia of World Authors
• Andrew Lytle, Cyclopedia of World Authors
• A Translation of the Spanish Passages in All The Pretty Horses, www.cormacmccarthy.com

• Board Member, Grandin Theatre, 2015-2021.
• Founder, Grandin Theatre Film Lab, 2016.
• Member, Title IX Working Group, 2016.
• Member, Curriculum Committee for Five Year Plan, 2011, 2012.
• Member, Curriculum Revision Committee, Roanoke College, 2007, 2008.
• Member, Language, Literature, and Culture Committee, Virginia Tech, 2006, 2007.
• Member, Composition Textbook Revision Committee, Virginia Tech, 2005, 2006.
• Finalist, 2006 Sporn Award for Teaching of Introductory Subjects, Virginia Tech.
• Voted one of the most valuable professors by the Pan-Hellenic Council, Virginia Tech 2006.

• Un Prophete, Discussion Leader ar Roanoke College International Film Festival, February 20th, 2021
• Earth and Mid-August Lunch, Discussion Leader at Roanoke College International Film Festival, February 21st, 2020
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Role in World War 2, Kegley Lecture at the O. Winston Link Museum, July 17th, 2019
• Alfred Hitchcock and World War 2: Propaganda and Personal Style, Roanoke College Elder Scholars Program, April 3rd, 2019
• Form and Meaning in Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ and Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Eleanor Wilson Museum, Roanoke VA, October 1st, 2015
• What The Daily Show Can Teach Us About College Writing, The 2010 Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, Greensboro, NC, January 2010
• The Postmodern Poetics of Violence in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, 2nd Annual International Conference on the Emerging Literature of the Southwest Culture, El Paso, Texas, September 13, 1996
• Keeping Harry Underground and in the Closet: Confining Masculine Subjectivity in The Trouble With Harry, Popular Culture Association of the South, Richmond, Virginia, October 1995

• Beth Macy, Writer, (540) 309-2222, Papergirlmacy@gmail.com
• Melissa Gaona, News Anchor/Reporter, WDBJ7, (817) 694-1037, mgaona@wdbj7.com
• Ian Fortier, Executive Director of the Grandin Theatre, (540) 345-6377, ifortier@grandintheatre.com
• Gene Marrano, News Anchor/Reporter, WFIR., (540) 354-3172, gmarrano@wfirnews.com