Timothy Shary

Shary earned his B.A. degree in 1991 at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where his work focused on cinema studies. His Division III project (a thesis written for graduation) examined voyeurism in Alfred Hitchcock's films, and he also wrote "A History of Student Activities and Achievements at Hampshire College".{{cite web|url=https://www.hampshire.edu/library/a-history-of-student-activities-and-achievements-at-hampshire-college|title=History of Student Activities|website=Hampshire.edu|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

Shary went on to earn an M.A. in Film Scholarship at Ohio University in 1992, where his thesis was entitled The Present Personal Truth: Three Properties of Video and Their Effect on the Reception of Contemporary Narrative Cinema. Much of that thesis was published in two journal articles: “Present Personal Truths: The Alternative Phenomenology of Video in I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing”Wide Angle, vol. 15, #3, July 1993, pp. 37-55 and “Video as Accessible Artifact and Artificial Access: The Early Films of Atom Egoyan”.Film Criticism, vol. 19, #3, spring 1995, pp. 2-29

In 1998, Shary earned his Ph.D. in Communication at the University of Massachusetts, with a dissertation entitled Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in American Cinema, 1981-1996. This study would be the foundation for his first book in 2002.

As Shary completed his doctoral studies and began teaching at Clark University, he published articles and reviews such as "The Teen Film and its Methods of Study" (Journal of Popular Film and Television),{{cite journal|title=The Teen Film and its Methods of Study: A Book Review Essay|first=Timothy|last=Shary|date=7 August 1997|journal=Journal of Popular Film and Television|volume=25|issue=1|pages=38–45|oclc = 4901322673|doi = 10.1080/01956059709602748}} "Reification and Loss in Postmodern Puberty: The Cultural Logic of Fredric Jameson and Young Adult Movies" (Postmodernism in the Cinema),{{cite book|title=Postmodernism in the Cinema|editor-first=Crisina|editor-last=Degli-Esposti|date=1 July 1998|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn = 1571811060}} and "Film Genres and the Cinematic Image of Youth– A College Course File" (Journal of Film and Video).{{cite journal|url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-734715881/course-file-for-film-genres-and-the-image-of-youth|title=Course File for "Film Genres and the Image of Youth"|first=Shary|last=Timothy|date=1 April 2003|journal=Journal of Film and Video|volume=55|issue=1|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

Shary had argued for the legitimacy of teen movies as a codified and potent American film genre throughout his early work, as evident in his anthologized essay “Teen Films: The Cinematic Image of Youth”, first published in Film Genre Reader III (ed. Barry Keith in 2003 and reprinted in 2012).{{cite book|url=http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/grafi4|title=Film Genre Reader IV Edited by Barry Keith Grant|publisher=Utpress.utexas.edu|date=2 October 2012|accessdate=7 August 2018}} He also began specific studies of gender representation and youth with articles such as “The Nerdly Girl and Her Beautiful Sister: Torments of Intelligence for Teen Movie Girls” (Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Cinemas of Girlhood){{cite web|url=http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/sugar-spice-and-everything-nice|title=Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice - Wayne State University Press|website=Wsupress.wayne.edu|accessdate=7 August 2018}} and “Bad Boys and Hollywood Hype: Gendered Conflicts in Juvenile Delinquency Depictions” (Where the Boys Are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth).{{cite web|url=http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/where-boys-are|title=Where the Boys Are - Wayne State University Press|website=Wsupress.wayne.edu|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

His work on gender continued in studies of youth cinema such as “Virgin Springs: A Survey of Teen Films' Quest for Sexcess” (Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Inexperience in Film),{{cite web|url=http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/virgin-territory|title=Virgin Territory - Wayne State University Press|website=Wsupress.wayne.edu|accessdate=7 August 2018}} “Buying Me Love: 1980s Class-Clash Teen Romances” (The Journal of Popular Culture),{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00849.x | volume=44 | title=Buying Me Love: 1980s Class-Clash Teen Romances | journal=The Journal of Popular Culture | pages=563–582 | author=Shary Timothy| issue=3 | year=2011 }} and “‘The only place to go is inside’: Confusions about Sexuality and Class from Kids to Superbad,” which has been published in numerous editions of Popping Culture since 1996.{{cite book|title=Popping Culture|first1=Murray|last1=Pomerance|author-link1= Murray Pomerance|first2=John|last2=Sakeris|date=5 September 2012|publisher=Pearson Learning Solutions|isbn = 978-1256840169}}

Shary continued with The Films of Amy Heckerling, which he co-edited with Frances Smith as part of the ReFocus series by the University of Edinburgh Press in 2016.{{cite web|url=https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-refocus-the-films-of-amy-heckerling.html|title=ReFocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling|website=Edinburgh University Press Books|accessdate=7 August 2018}} He edited the collection Millennial Masculinity in 2013, based on his wider interests in gender on screen.{{cite web|url=http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/millennial-masculinity|title=Millennial Masculinity - Wayne State University Press|website=Wsupress.wayne.edu|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

In recent years, Shary began studying older characters in American cinema. His first publication of this research was “The Politics of Aging in the May–December Romance Plot” (Quarterly Review of Film and Video).{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/10509208.2012.710519 | volume=31 | title=The Politics of Aging in the May–December Romance Plot | journal=Quarterly Review of Film and Video | pages=669–678 | author=Shary Timothy| issue=7 | year=2014 | s2cid=153855868 }} He completed a new book with Nancy McVittie, Fade to Gray: Aging in American Cinema, which was published by the University of Texas Press in September, 2016.{{cite book|url=http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/shary-mcvittie-fade-to-gray|title=Fade to Gray Aging in American Cinema Timothy Shary and Nancy McVittie|publisher=Utpress.utexas.edu|date=2 October 2016|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

Shary authored a book-length study of the 2014 Richard Linklater film Boyhood (part of the Routledge series Cinema and Youth Cultures),{{cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/Cinema-and-Youth-Cultures/book-series/CYC|title=Cinema and Youth Cultures - Routledge|website=Routledge.com|accessdate=7 August 2018}} which was published in 2017. He recently co-edited another collection in the ReFocus series with Frances Smith, on the films of John Hughes, and edited Cinemas of Boyhood: Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality, both in 2021.

• Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema (2002)[http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-292-77752-1 "GENERATION MULTIPLEX: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema"]. Publishers Weekly.
• Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen (2005){{cite book|title=Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen|date=7 December 2005|publisher=Wallflower Press|isbn=1904764495}}
• Youth Culture in Global Cinema (2007) co-edited with Alexandra Seibel [http://jar.sagepub.com/content/25/6/885.extract "Book Review: Timothy Shary and Alexandra Seibel (Eds.) Youth Culture in Global Cinema."]. Journal of Adolescent Research
• Millennial Masculinity: Men in Contemporary American Cinema (2013), editor {{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=Aaron|title=Millennial Masculinity: Men in Contemporary American Cinema|last2=Benson-Allott|first2=Caetlin|last3=King|first3=Claire Sisco|last4=Greven|first4=Professor David|last5=Marchetti|first5=Gina|last6=Filippo|first6=Maria San|last7=Gallagher|first7=Mark|last8=Donalson|first8=Melvin|last9=Chopra-Gant|first9=Mike|date=17 December 2012|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0814334355|first10=Neal|last10=King|first11=R. Barton|last11=Palmer}}
• Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in American Cinema Since 1980 (2014){{cite book|title=Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in American Cinema since 1980|date=1 April 2014|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0292756625}}
• Collection on filmmaker Amy Heckerling with Frances Smith (2016)
• Fade to Gray: Aging in American Cinema{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/fade-to-gray-aging-in-american-cinema-timothy-shary-and-nancy-mcvittie/|title='Fade To Gray' Is an Insightful Study of Aging in American Cinema|date=26 September 2016|website=Popmatters.com|accessdate=7 August 2018}} with Nancy McVittie (2016)
• Boyhood: A Young Life on Screen (2017)
• Collection on filmmaker John Hughes{{cite web|url=https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-refocus-the-films-of-john-hughes.html|title=ReFocus: The Films of John Hughes|website=Edinburgh University Press Books}} with Frances Smith (2021)
• Cinemas of Boyhood: Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality{{Cite book|url=https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SharyCinemas|title=Cinemas of Boyhood: Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality|date=January 2021 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78920-993-8 }}(2021), editor

• The Ohio University College of Fine Arts awarded Shary its Distinguished Alumni of the Year honor from its School of Film in 2004.{{cite web|url=http://www.ohio.edu/finearts/film/alumni/distinguished-alumni.cfm|title=Distinguished Alumni|website=Ohio.edu|accessdate=7 August 2018}}
• Shary gave the featured interview in the Independent Film Channel documentary Indie Sex: Teens (2007).{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970496/|title=Indie Sex: Teens|date=4 January 2008|accessdate=7 August 2018|website=IMDb.com}}{{better source needed|date=August 2018}}
• Shary was a delegate to the inaugural Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2008.{{cite web|url=http://seejane.org/|title=Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media|website=Seejane.org|accessdate=7 August 2018}}
• In December 2016, Shary was invited to present four American teen films in a series entitled The Tender Age, organized by the Russian publishing house Séance at the Rodina Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia.{{cite web|url=http://seance.ru/blog/echoes-of-james-dean/|title=Джим Старк, тинейджер с экрана: эхо Джеймса Дина в образах молодых бунтарей|website=Seance.ru|date=14 December 2016 |accessdate=7 August 2018}} While in attendance, he presented a lecture for the first class of the St. Petersburg School of New Cinema entitled "Adolescence on the Outskirts: The Liminal Nature of Youth in American Teen Cinema.”{{cite web|url=http://spb.newcinemaschool.com/|title=Главная|website=Spb.newcinemaschool.com|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

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Category:Clark University faculty

Category:1967 births

Category:Living people

Category:University of Massachusetts faculty

Category:American film historians

Category:American male non-fiction writers