Campus Directory

Division Arts Division

Department/College/Unit Film and Digital Media Department

Title Associate Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Digital Arts and New Media

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Web Site

Primary Office Location Communications Building
134

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours Tues 6:20pm-7:20pm and by appointment; https://irenegustafson.youcanbook.me/

Mail Stop Film and Digital Media

Biography, Education and Training

M.F.A., Radio/TV/Film, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
B.A., The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA

Summary of Expertise

Non-fiction prouction, history and theory; Essayistsic production; Gender and Queer Studies; 

Research Interests

Irene Gustafson’s research interests are located very broadly within visual culture studies with an emphasis on film/video theory and production. Her specific areas of research are: non-fiction film/video, essayistic production, experimental film/video, and queer and sexuality studies. 

Teaching Interests

Film + Video Production, Producing across the boundaries between “theory” and “practice”, Non-fiction, Gender and Queer Studies

Selected Exhibitions

• Close [2025, digital video, 65 min]
• Community Grand Rounds [2020-2024]
• Reimagining The City [2020, digital video, 20 min]
• Facing the Subject [2016, 25 min]
• Portrait of Turner [2009, digital video, 55 min.] Producer, Director, Editor
• Incoming Messages [2008, digital video, 25 min.] Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor,
• Queens of Heart [2006, digital video] Co-writer, Editing Advisor
• Screen Test No.1, No.2, No.3 [1998-2001, film/video, 12 min.] co-Producer, co-writer, cinemtagrapher, co-editor
• Velvets [1999, film/video, 25 min.] Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor
• Distracted [1997, video, 15 min.] Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor

Selected Publications

“The feminist narrative: analysing the location of action” Review for [In]Transition 10.1 May/June 2023. Invited

“Beyond the Screen #NoFilter“ Review for [In]Transition 6.1. March/April 2019. Invited

On the Importance of Being Two-Faced” Cinema Journal Teaching Dossier Vol. 4 (1) Spring 2016. Peer Reviewed

“How Much is That Doggy in the Window?: The Aesthetics of Animal Shelter Display” in Animal Housing and Human-Animals Relations: Politics, Practices and Infrastructures. Ed. Bjørkdahl and Druglitrø (NYC: Routledge) Spring 2016, Peer Reviewed.

“The Flaherty Film Seminar “Review for The Moving Image Journal (12:1) Winter 2012. Invited

“Putting Things to the Test: Re-considering Portrait of Jason (1967),” Camera Obscura 77, vol. 26, no. 2 (Winter 2011) Peer Reviewed

“Notes on Screen Testing” Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 2007), 201-208

      (Special Issue: “Detritus and the Moving Image”) Co-authored with Julia Zay, Peer Reviewed

“Longing at the Found and Lost: Telephones with a Memory” Spectator, Volume 26, No. 2 (Spring 2006),

      64-69. (Special Issue--Ephemeral Cinema, Invisible Media: Sound and Image at the Edge of Awareness)

“Speak Out: Interview with Marlon Riggs” The Portland Alliance, Vol. 11, No. 12 (December 1992)