Randolph Lewis
Core Faculty — Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Chair and Professor

Contact
- E-mail: randolph.lewis@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-475-7783
- Office: BUR 410
- Office Hours: Spring 2020: Wednesdays 12-2 and by appointment
- Campus Mail Code: B7100
Interests
surveillance and society, creative nonfiction, documentary expression, public scholarship, indigenous media, the intersection of art and politics broadly conceived, digital humanities, urban studies, film and video production
Biography
Most recently, I published Under Surveillance: Being Watched in Modern America, a book that examines the hidden impact of surveillance technologies now proliferating in the contemporary US. This research was featured in a National Geographic cover story as well as in the Atlantic, the Texas Observer, the New York Times (twice), and elsewhere. As surveillance becomes one of the defining infrastructures of 21st century life, I am continuing to look for new ways to explore the rapidly shifting landscape of ubiquitous monitoring. You can listen to in-depth interviews with me on NPR here and here.
My earlier work often explored the ways that visual culture shapes our sense of the nation, often with a focus on people working outside the cultural mainstream. In my first book, Emile de Antonio: Radical Filmmaker in Cold War America (2000), I detailed the collision of independent media and mainstream society in sixties America. In 2006 I published Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision of a Native Filmmaker, the first book devoted to an indigenous filmmaker. In 2012 I published Navajo Talking Picture: Cinema on Native Ground, an examination of the cinematic Southwest. I’m also the co-editor of a book series called "Native Film" for the University of Nebraska Press, which I launched with David Delgado Shorter (UCLA) in 2010. I envisioned all of these projects as a contribution to a more democratic mediascape.
Other interests are even closer to home. Beginning in 2011 I formed an editorial board of graduate students to create The End of Austin, an award-winning digital humanities project that explores urban identity in the fastest growing city in the US. (More info here). The End of Austin has received 250,000 page views from around the world, all for a cost of less than $100 annually. Inspired by this experience, I’m now teaching a new undergraduate course called “Why Cities Matter” as well as a new grad seminar called “Doing Public Scholarship” that helps students to connect their research to diverse audiences in Austin and elsewhere.
With such accessibility and egalitarianism in mind, I’m also committed to the craft of nonfiction writing, both for academic and general audiences. Over the years I’ve written for publications including The Boston Review, The Baltimore Sun, Flow, Inside Higher Ed., Zocalo Public Square, Jump Cut, The Velvet Light Trap, American Indian Quarterly, Transformations, Senses of Cinema, The Canadian Review of American Studies, and The Brooklyn Rail, where I was a contributing writer. My articles have explored subjects such as the filmmaker Errol Morris, the politics of The Dark Knight, Italian photography, the representational history of the chain gang, video surveillance in sacred spaces, the ethics of Borat, and the lack of compassion in mainstream media. I’ve also developed a number of writing projects in the context of UT-Austin’s Public Feelings Collective, an interdisciplinary group of scholars devoted to affect theory and related pursuits. I’m also an Affiliated Faculty member in the UT-Austin Anthropology Department since 2012.
Finally, I have a number of creative projects that complement my traditional academic work. I have done three projects as part of an international collective that blends artists and academics (Ex-Situ), resulting in short films, small booklets, and a gallery exhibition of photos (by Monti Sigg) and text (by me) in Windsor, Canada, which was supported by grant from the Canadian government.
When I lecture about music I’m drawing on the fact that I’ve played mandolin, piano, accordion, and guitar in various bands whose styles range from experimental to traditional bluegrass. In 2019 I released an album of experimental music under the name Part Time Genius, which was a featured release in Waterloo Records in May 2019; it’s available on Spotify, Bandcamp, Pandora, iTunes, Youtube, and other platforms.
In 2015 I wrote and directed a full-length play, My Dinner with Bambi, that premiered in Austin’s Long Fringe Festival, an experience that inspired me to create a documentary theater workshop in one of my undergrad seminars.
Finally, and quite usefully for someone who writes about cinema, I also have an ongoing interest in video production that has resulted in a number of short films, music videos, and several documentary films, including one that I co-produced after a year that I spent as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Catania in Italy. That ethnographic film is called Texas Tavola: A Taste of Sicily in the Lone Star State, and it has been screened at a number of festivals, academic conferences, universities, and on access TV in New York City. In 2011 it was the subject of a Masters Thesis by an Italian graduate student at the University of Sienna. Most recently, in 2020, Monti Sigg and I co-produced a half-hour documentary film about apocalypse culture called Who Killed the World? A Journey into the Wasteland, which we are currently submitting to film festivals. I use video production as a way of expanding my classroom: I make small films that I made available for free online, so that students anywhere in the world can use them at no cost.
For more information about what I’m up to, drop by my office hours or contact me via email.
Courses Taught
I’m very passionate about teaching and was honored to be awarded a Raymond Dickson Centennial Endowed Teaching Fellowship. I enjoy teaching a wide range of classes at the graduate and undergraduate level: large lecture courses such as “Main Currents in American Culture” as well as small seminars such as “Creative Nonfiction" (a workshop for grad students), “Why Cities Matter,” “The Culture of Surveillance,” “The Politics of Creativity,” “Cinema of Subversion,” “Teaching American Studies,” “Doing Public Scholarship,” and “Documenting America.” I am particularly excited about courses in which students create enduring collaborative projects (such as “The End of Austin”), experiment with artistic processes, or explore various forms of experiential learning that take them off campus.
Courses
AMS 398T • Supv Teachng In Amercn Stds-Wb
31694 • Spring 2021
Internet; Asynchronous
UGS 302 • Why Cities Matter
60425 • Fall 2020
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 134
Hybrid/Blended
Wr
ID
AMS 390 • Creative Non Fiction
31225 • Spring 2020
Meets M 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 370 • Key Works In Amer Pop Music
30620 • Fall 2019
Meets MW 10:00AM-11:30AM BUR 436B
IIWr
UGS 302 • Why Cities Matter
60675 • Fall 2019
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 436A
Wr
ID
UGS 302 • New Urban Studies
62155 • Fall 2018
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 436A
Wr
ID
AMS 390 • Creative Non Fiction
30340 • Spring 2018
Meets W 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 398T • Supv Teaching In American Stds
30375 • Spring 2018
Meets M 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 370 • Key Works In Amer Pop Music
30930 • Fall 2017
Meets MW 11:30AM-1:00PM JGB 2.202
IIWr
UGS 302 • New Urban Studies
62165 • Fall 2017
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 228
Wr
ID
AMS 356 • Main Curr Amer Cul Since 1865
30800 • Spring 2017
Meets MW 2:30PM-4:00PM BUR 224
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 356K)
AMS 386 • Cultural Hist Of Us Since 1865
30840 • Spring 2017
Meets W 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436B
(also listed as HIS 392)
AMS 370 • The Politics Of Creativity
30725 • Fall 2016
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:30PM BUR 436B
IIWr
UGS 302 • New Urban Studies
62055 • Fall 2016
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 436A
Wr
ID
AMS 370 • The Politics Of Creativity
29915 • Spring 2016
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM BUR 436A
IIWr
AMS 398T • Supv Teaching In American Stds
30006 • Spring 2016
Meets T 12:00PM-3:00PM BUR 436B
UGS 302 • New Urban Stuides
61310 • Fall 2015
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 436A
Wr
ID
AMS 356 • Main Curr Amer Cul Since 1865
30995 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 134
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 356K)
AMS 370 • The Politics Of Creativity
31020 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM BUR 228
Wr
AMS F391 • Doing Public Scholarship
81490 • Summer 2014
Meets MTWTHF 10:00AM-1:00PM SAC 5.102
AMS 398T • Supv Teaching In American Stds
31260 • Spring 2014
Meets T 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 370 • The Politics Of Creativity
30875 • Fall 2013
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 228
Wr
AMS 390 • Surveillance Culture
30905 • Fall 2013
Meets M 11:00AM-2:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 398T • Supv Teaching In American Stds
30885 • Spring 2013
Meets TH 9:00AM-12:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 356 • Main Curr Amer Cul Since 1865
30680 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BUR 134
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 356K)
UGS 302 • Cinema Of Subversion
63450 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MAI 220E
Wr
AMS 398T • Supv Teaching In American Stds
30945 • Spring 2012
Meets TH 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 390 • Documenting America
30670 • Fall 2011
Meets W 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 436B
UGS 302 • Cinema Of Subversion
63550 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MEZ 1.102
Wr
AMS 356 • Main Curr Amer Cul Since 1865
30875 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 201
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 356K)
AMS 386 • Cultural Hist Of Us Since 1865
30925 • Spring 2011
Meets TH 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 370 • Politics Of Creativity
29645 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 5:00PM-6:30PM MEZ 1.212
Wr
C2
UGS 302 • Cinema Of Subversion
63195 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MEZ 1.212
Wr
AMS 370 • Politics Of Creativity-W
29830 • Spring 2010
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM MEZ 1.120
C2
AMS 356 • Main Curr Amer Cul Since 1865
29950 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BUR 116
CD
Publications
Books
Under Surveillance: Being Watched in Modern America. University of Texas Press, 2016.
Navajo Talking Picture: Cinema on Native Ground. University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision of a Native Filmmaker. University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
Emile de Antonio: Radical Filmmaker in Cold War America, University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Reflections on James Joyce: Stuart Gilbert's Paris Journal. Co-edited with Thomas F. Staley, University of Texas Press, 1993.