My name is T.J., and I’m currently an independent scholar of film and media studies. I received my Ph.D. in English from Syracuse University in 2018. My dissertation, “History’s Perilous Pleasures: Experiencing Antiquity in the Postwar Hollywood Epic,” explored the ways in which this particular film genre provided a deeply affective experience of the terrifying nature of 20th Century modernity via the ancient world. I have published scholarly articles and book chapters on a number of films and TV series related to the ancient world, including The Robe, the 2016 Ben-Hur, Rome, and the Starz television series Spartacus.
Though my academic training is in film studies, I maintain extensive ongoing interest in a wide variety of subjects, including TV, history, politics (I’m unashamedly liberal), queer and feminist studies, and pornography. If you browse my archives, you can see my thoughts and reflections on these subjects. I am available (for hire!) to write about these subjects, so if you’d like to see my prose grace your own website, please feel free to e-mail me at Thomas.West3@gmail.com.
As my alter-ego, KC Winters, I am also the co-author (with Kellen Darcy) of the ongoing erotic epic fantasy series “The Filliquian Chronicle,” which is currently on sale an Amazon (you can find it here). If you want to learn a bit more about us–and to read our musings on all things fantasy–feel free to visit our website.
TJ West 