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.
Queerly Different 
It seems impossible NOT to succeed in literature with a name like T. J. West III.
I’ve been a documentary addict since childhood (YouTube, where have you been all my life?) and have noticed with amusement how easy it is to pin down the decade a documentary was filmed in by the attitude it takes towards its subject matter. (Don’t even get me started on Hollywood’s latest rash of “historical action movies.” I call them comedies.) I’d be interested to hear your take on how society puts its big, fat stamp on the retelling of history. Can you believe Denver students actually have to protest the glossy patriotization of America’s history in their textbooks in order to get the school board’s attention? What the–? Next, the science books will be reduced to pamphlets because, you know, only 6000 years.
Speaking of society, have you encountered the book “Deep secrets : Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection,” by Niobe Way? It’s an illuminating study of how young men are conditioned by current societal expectations to discard their emotional selves in order to become the stereotypical action figure hero type. It’s chock-full of eye-opening quotes from the kids, themselves.
The thing that stuck me deepest was how aware they were that the close friends they were “allowed” to have as children were no longer acceptable when they became teens because any perceived closeness or dependency might signal weakness or homosexuality, and how sad and lonely they felt having to leave those friendships behind. I gained a whole new appreciation of what most men go through and can only imagine the confounding aspects growing up gay might add to that.
Anyway, it helped me understand certain aspects of society a little better. You may enjoy it, too.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072428