Roderick Coover is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Media Arts. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University (1989), a M.A. in English with a specialization in cross-cultural film and performance from Brown University (1994) and a Ph.D. in the History of Culture with a specialization in media arts and anthropology from the University of Chicago (1999).

His documentary and experimental films and new media works been shown at venues such as Documenta Madrid, SIGGRAPH, and DAC. These works include films such as The Language of Wine: An Ethnography of Work, Wine and the Senses and From Vérité to Virtual: Conversations on the Frontier of Visual Anthropology, interactive media such as the interactive CD-Rom Cultures in Webs: Working in Hypermedia With The Documentary Image, and museum installations such as Inside/Outside, currently on exhibition at the Museum of the Philosophical Society of America. A keynote speaker at the conference Text-Image-Narrative in Switzerland in 2006 and a plenary speaker at the Whitney Biennial/University of Colorado sponsored conference, Rethinking the Visual, Coover is also the author of papers published in Visual Anthropology, Visual Studies, Film Quarterly, Film International, Cineaste and elsewhere. His awards include a USIA Hays-Fulbright Fellowship, a Whiting Fellowship, a Chicago Group on Modern France Fellowship, and an LEF foundation grant.

Coover teaches a wide range of courses that integrate production and theory with an emphasis on cross-cultural and experimental production methods. These include courses in cinematography, post-production, digital narratives, and visual theory. His courses, which combine critique, group and individual project work, screenings, and readings from across the disciplines, challenge students to test issues of film and media theory through original and innovative productions.

Professional Affiliations: American Anthropological Assoc., Soc. for Visual Anthropology, Soc. for Cinema Studies, College Arts Assoc., University Film & Video Assoc.