Graduate Student Representative, 2025 – 2027

Biography

Thomas Farrenkopf (they/them) is a doctoral student and graduate teaching assistant at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Institute of Communication Research, within the Department of Media and Cinema Studies. Prior to beginning their PhD, they spent two years as a teaching assistant at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where they led multiple discussion sections in film and television studies. Alongside their academic work, they have earned film credits as a cinematographer, producer, and writer, contributing to both documentary and narrative projects. They also produce videographic essays through their ongoing YouTube series Tom Talks Film, which blends critical analysis with accessible media scholarship.

Degrees

Ph.D., Communication and Media Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (in progress)
M.A., Cinema and Media Studies, University of Southern California
B.S., Cinema Studies, University of Oregon
A.A.S., Video Production, Portland Community College

Teaching & Research Interests

Film and Television Studies; Media History and Theory; Cultural Studies; Labor and Representation in the Media Industries; Visual Sociology; Third and Fourth Cinemas as tools for anti-colonial critique; Cinematic Authorship and Resistance; Videographic criticism and creative media analysis

Selected Publications & Works

Farrenkopf, Thomas. “Written Out of the Frame: How IATSE Local #600 Fails Underrepresented Cinematographers.” YouTube, June 2025. https://youtu.be/SkDXU2IEG7E.

Farrenkopf, Thomas. “Indigenous Voices Reshaping Cinema: Native American Representation in Dances with Wolves (1990) and Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher (2021) .” Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: McNair Special Issue 21, no. 3 (August 2023): 29–45. https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/ourj."

Contact

Institute of Communications Research
Department of Media & Cinema Studies
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
810 S. Wright Street, 119 Gregory Hall
Urbana, IL 61801
Office phone: 217-333-1549

thomasf9@illinois.edu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thomasfarrenkopf
YouTube (Tom Talks Film): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaZBtdHqsL-5R77VwqApQIyJFmGvlxKyh
They/Them