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Postlethwaite brings enthusiasm for film to Boldt Chair

By Marin Amundson-Graham '90
September 21, 2006

St. Olaf faculty member Diana Postlethwaite has been selected as the college's fifth Boldt Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities. The Boldt Chair, established in 1994 by contractor Oscar C. Boldt and his wife, Patricia Hamar Boldt, is offered to a current St. Olaf faculty member whose scholarship and professional endeavors advance the teaching and learning of humanities at the baccalaureate level. Postlethwaite's three-year appointment will run through 2009.

Postlethwaite, who came to St. Olaf in 1989, is a professor in the English department, with particular interest in 19th Century British literature and literature and film. She earned a Ph.D. from Yale University and her bachelor's from Harvard University.

"This is truly an honor. It's a wonderful opportunity for me to help showcase the humanities at St. Olaf and suggest ideas for new ways of teaching," says Postlethwaite. During her tenure as the Boldt Chair, Postlethwaite will concentrate on visual literacy as it applies to film studies, the use of film and media in the classroom and the college's commitment to fostering global citizenship.

"Visual literacy is an interdisciplinary focus in which the strong humanities programs at St. Olaf can take a leading role," she explains. "I believe that a liberal arts education in the 21st century should equip its graduates for a media-saturated world, in which images have become a dominant form of communication. And, as a truly global medium, film is a natural fit with the college's commitment to international studies."

Postlethwaite intends to include film screenings and discussions, pedagogy workshops, undergraduate courses, speakers and student activities. Plans for fall semester events are already underway. As part of St. Olaf's year-long college-wide theme of Global Citizenship, Postlethwaite is collaborating with the college's International and Off-Campus Studies office to co-sponsor a film series featuring international films and presentations, and discussions led by students returning from study abroad programs.

Events are underway

On Sunday, Oct. 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Buntrock Commons, Viking Theater, students who have participated in off-campus study programs in Australia will offer their perceptions of the Australia depicted in the 1971 movie Walkabout. The film focuses on two young children stranded in the Australian outback who are forced to cope on their own. The event is free and open to the public.

Planning is underway for faculty workshops for those interested in exploring ways to incorporate film into their teaching. Postlethwaite also is organizing a "faculty film forum" for faculty to view and discuss films of mutual interest. In partnership with St. Olaf's student-run film club, she intends to bring notable film critics and filmmakers to campus.

During the second and third years of her Boldt Chair term, Postlethwaite intends to teach undergraduate courses on American film history and global film. She hopes to culminate her academic promotion of film and visual literacy in an international film festival that would attract scholars and lovers of film alike to St. Olaf.

"My enthusiasm for film is about reaching out and bringing people into dialogue to explore what films teach and how the visual aspects of film can and need to brought into the classroom," she says.

Postlethwaite was the on-air film critic for Classical 89.3, broadcasting more than 300 film reviews from 1990 to 2002. She has reviewed contemporary fiction for publications including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Women's Review of Books, The Nation, Washington Post Book World and New York Times Book Review. She also has written a book and numerous articles on Victorian literature. She lives in Northfield with her husband, Paul Thiboutot, dean of admissions at Carleton College, and their two daughters, Lucy and Lily.

Previous Boldt Professors are James Farrell (history), Carol Holly (English) and Ed Langerak (philosophy) and Gordon Marino (philosophy).

Contact Carole Leigh Engblom at 507-786-3271 or leigh@stolaf.edu.