Lisa M. Rabin

Associate Professor

Film history, "useful" and instructional film, mass media, political economy of culture.

Lisa Rabin is Interim Director of Cultural Studies and Associate Professor of Spanish at George Mason University.

Current Research

I am currently researching the productivity of the 16mm format for the intellectual formations of Area Studies and Ethnic Studies at US universities during the Cold War era.

Selected Publications

Rabin, Lisa. “Cold War “Useable Knowledge” on 16mm: Julien Bryan, the International Film Foundation and US Area Studies, 1945-1980.” Chapter in the forthcoming edited volume Sixteen at 100: Histories of a Radical Film Format, Gregory A. Waller and Haidee Wasson, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2025).

Rabin, Lisa. Screening ‘Good Neighbors’: The Educational Uses of Julien Bryan’s Latin American Shorts Along the US Circuits of 16mm, 1940-1947. TMG Journal for Media History 23.1-2 (2020): 1–34. doi: http://doi.org/10.18146/tmg.589

Rabin, Lisa. and Kridel, Craig. “Cinema for Social Change: The Human Relations Film Series of the Harlem Committee of the Teachers Union, 1936-1950.” In Educating Harlem: Schools and the Referendum on the American Dream (digital edition), eds. Ansley Erickson and Ernest Morrell. New York: Columbia UP, 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.7916/4vf3-zv07.

Rabin, Lisa. “A Social History of US Educational Documentary: The Travels of Three Shorts, 1945-1958.” Film History: An International Journal (Bloomington: U of Indiana P.) 29:3 (2017).

Rabin, Lisa. The Social Uses of Classroom Cinema: A Reception History of the ‘Human Relations Film Series’ at Benjamin Franklin High School, East Harlem, 1936-1955. The Velvet Light Trap 72 (2013): 58-70.

Rabin, Lisa. The Normals, the Questionables, and the Delinquents: East Harlem Youth and the Movies, 1931-1934. Illuminace: The Journal of Film Theory, History and Aesthetics, 28.1 (January 2015).

Rabin, Lisa. Service-Learning/Aprendizaje-servicio as a global practice in Spanish. Invited book chapter in Manel LaCorte (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Hispanic Applied Linguistics (New York: Routledge, 2014).

Rabin, Lisa. & Leeman, Jennifer. "Critical Service-Learning and Literary Study in Spanish." In Service Learning and Literary Studies, editors Roberta Rosenberg and Laurie Grobman. New York: Modern Language Association,

Rabin, L. “The Film Text as Cultural Matrix in The New Cinema History,” to be given at the History of Movie Exhibition and Reception Annual Conference. Virtual (hosted by University of Maynooth, Dublin, Ireland). May 25-28, 2021.

Rabin, L. “From Developmentalism to Difference: Julien Bryan’s World Films in International and Ethnic Studies Classrooms 1960-1980,” to be given at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference. Virtual. March 19, 2021.

Leeman, J., Rabin, L., & Román-Mendoza, E. (2012). Identity and Social Activism in Heritage Language Education. Modern Language Journal 95.4: 481-495.

Courses Taught

CULT 320: Globalization & Culture

SPAN 544: Introduction to Latin American Film & Television Studies

SPAN 512 | SPAN 482: Mass Media & Popular Culture in Latin America

FRLN 331 (World Cinema in Translation): Latin American Film & Television

SPAN 510: Methods in Literary & Cultural Studies in Spanish

SPAN 390: Introduction to Literary & Cultural Studies in Spanish

SPAN 375: Introduction to Spanish-language Film

SPAN 370: Spanish Writing and Stylistics

SPAN 335: Topics in Spanish (conversation): Latin American Film

SPAN 212 | 329: Intermediate Spanish in Local & Global Contexts

Education

Ph.D., Yale University, Spanish Literature (1993)

M. Phil., Yale University, Spanish Literature (1990)

M.A., Yale University, Spanish Literature (1988)

B.A. (cum laude), Spanish and French Literature, Pomona College (1986)

Recent Presentations

Rabin, L. “16mm and the Cold War University: Intersecting Mandates in Film Education and Area Studies, 1945-1980.” A Century of 16mm, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, September 2023.

Rabin, L. Leeman, J., Rabin, L. and Serafini, E. “Social justice and Spanish for heritage speakers: Activities for inside and outside the classroom. Foreign Language Association of Virginia Fall 2021 Conference, held virtually, October 2021.

Leeman, J. & Rabin, L. Promoting curiosity, collaboration and empowerment in Spanish teaching: Critical project-based learning modules. Greater Washington Area Teachers of Foreign Languages Fall 2021 Conference, held virtually, November 2021.

Rabin, L. “The Film Text as Cultural Matrix in The New Cinema History,” History of Movie Exhibition and Reception Annual Conference, virtual conference hosted by University of Maynooth, Dublin, Ireland, May 2021.

Rabin, L. “From Developmentalism to Difference: Julien Bryan’s World Films in International and Ethnic Studies Classrooms 1960-1980,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference held virtually, March 2021.