Linda Williams, Who Helped Develop Film Studies, Passes Away

We are devastated to learn of the passing of friend, mentor, and colleague, Linda Williams.

As the New York Times wrote: Linda Williams, a trailblazing scholar whose research was foundational to the field of film studies and to feminist film theory, and who wrote extensively about pornography, died on March 12 at her home in Lafayette, in Northern California. She was 78.

Kristen Whissel writes: Williams was a groundbreaking film scholar whose research helped establish and shape the fields of feminist film theory, pornography studies, documentary studies, and melodrama studies...[She] was a remarkably talented, dedicated, and generous instructor and mentor, and she supervised or served on the committees of an almost impossible number of PhD dissertations, influencing a generation of future film and media scholars.

We mourn her loss and invite you to reflect on her many incredible contributions to the way we view our world.

Read more at the New York Times and the Film & Media Studies website.