The Film Studies Working Group aims to bring together graduate students and early, mid-career, and senior faculty who work on film at Penn State. Fostering a series of conversations across departments about the filmic medium, this project will create a vibrant network for scholars to meet each other, share their research, receive constructive input, and develop collaborative work.

Toward this end, the group will host a series of seven symposia in the spring 2026 semester. Each symposium will feature joint presentations by a faculty member and a graduate student on films central to their research. The format will include film screenings, presentations, and moderated discussions. We present this model to animate an ongoing dialogue across career stages and to demonstrate the possibilities of collaborative engagement.