Owen R. Horton

About Me

I teach Film, Literature, and Composition at Indiana University. Currently, I teach courses in Trauma and Memory in Film, a course in Gender, War, and Disability in American Literature, and a course in Composition. My courses, like my research, focus on the intersections between multimedia (particularly visual) and culture (particularly masculinity).

I received my PhD in English (focusing on Film and Masculinities) from the University of Kentucky in 2018. My dissertation, titled "Rebooting Masculinity After 9/11: Male Heroism from Bush to Trump," examines traditionally masculine film genres such as the Bond film, the War film, and the Superhero film. In it, I argue that the rebooting of the American identity after 9/11 mirrors a rebranding of masculinity in films during the same time frame, and that each genre offers insights into the fears and fantasies of Americans in the aftermath of the attacks.