John Hoffman

Candidate statement

I am currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature and the Humanities at Chapman University. My first book Modernism, Aesthetics and Anthropology was published by Cambridge University Press earlier this year, and I've published articles
in Modernism/modernity, Film History, New Literary History and elsewhere. I’m the founder and co-organizer, with Hayley O'Malley, of the Film Studies SIG at the MSA, which is now over 100 members strong and growing. Through my work for the SIG, I've collaborated with the board on conference programming and served on the peer-review committee for the past two conferences. Recently, we've teamed up with the Grad Student Rep to create a mentoring program for graduate students under the auspices of the SIGs. Besides these activities for the MSA, I was principal investigator for a large, multi-year grant from the
German Research Foundation, which prepared me well for the o'ice of treasurer. Budget oversight, personnel management, and attention to procedural detail in the Kafkaesque world of a German university were all part of my daily routine for the duration of the three- year grant. During that time, I also learned the ropes of working with accounting departments and other institutional actors such as conference hotels and vendors.