Retirement of Joseph Miller

Joseph Miller, a lecturer in the English Department since 1973, will retire at the end of the spring 2008 semester.

Joe earned an MA from the University of Rochester; did graduate work in film at the Maryland Institute of Art; and pursued doctoral course-work in film at New York University, before coming to the University of Maryland.  He has been a member of this department (where he was also awarded formal job security) for 35 years.  

For much of that time, Joe has himself been our undergraduate film program.  Semester after semester he has taught large, numerous, and extremely popular lecture courses in the evenings, courses sought after not only by our own majors but also by students from far and wide across campus.  He has created and taught over twenty different film courses:  on film auteurs such as Woody Allen, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock,  John Boorman, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron; on genre films such as film noir, screwball comedy, the western, detective film, and historical film; on film history such as film of the 40s and 50s; on cinematic "form and feeling"; on gender in film; and on film analysis, such as his "Rhetoric of Fictional Worlds."  In short, Joe has taught, sometimes single-handedly, film and film history to thousands of Maryland students.  Likewise in working with graduate technical assistants for his courses, he has helped to enhance the film knowledge of many of our MA and PhD graduates.  During this time, Joe has steadily altered and reshaped his offerings to fit new interests in cultural studies, keeping his work fresh and interesting to new cohorts of undergraduates.

Those who know Joe are familiar with his liveliness, good humor, and interested conversation.  Joe has decided against having a traditional retirement party (although there will be some private festivities).  I hope, nonetheless, that you will join us in expressing to Joe the gratitude of his faculty colleagues and of thousands of students for his three and a half decades of vital and dedicated instructional service to the department.