About Christian Long

I left academic work for the pleasures of a 9-to-5 bureaucrat's life, but I continue to publish in film studies, in particular late-20th century Hollywood, and American literature. Most of my research considers mass-audience cultural productions as horizon-setting documents. I'm interested in how movies and literature allow us not just to understand the eras from which they emerge, but also to diagnose the possible imaginings of the future. I'm a trailing spouse, which means that I left the USA behind for New Zealand and Australia for my partner's work; I've also worked (briefly, on my own bat) in Austria.

NBN Episodes hosted by Christian:

Alexander Sergeant, "Encountering the Impossible: The Fantastic in Hollywood Fantasy Cinema" (SUNY Press, 2021)

October 14, 2022

Encountering the Impossible

Alexander Sergeant
Hosted by Christian Long

Hollywood fantasy cinema is responsible for some of the most lucrative franchises produced over the past two decades, yet it remains difficult to find…

Peter Coviello, "Vineland Reread" (Columbia UP, 2021)

September 28, 2022

Vineland Reread

Peter Coviello
Hosted by Christian Long

Vineland is hardly anyone’s favorite Thomas Pynchon novel. Marking Pynchon’s return after vanishing for nearly two decades following his epic Gravity’…

Milton Santos, "For a New Geography" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

June 8, 2022

For a New Geography

Milton Santos
Hosted by Christian Long

Originally published in 1978 in Portuguese, For a New Geography is a milestone in the history of critical geography and it marked the emergence of its…

Jessica Hurley, "Infrastructures of Apocalypse: American Literature and the Nuclear Complex" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)

December 20, 2021

Infrastructures of Apocalypse

Jessica Hurley
Hosted by Christian Long

Since 1945, America has spent more resources on nuclear technology than any other national project. Although it requires a massive infrastructure that…

Bryan M. Santin, "Postwar American Fiction and the Rise of Modern Conservatism: A Literary History, 1945–2008" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

December 10, 2021

Postwar American Fiction and the Rise of Modern Conservatism

Bryan M. Santin
Hosted by Christian Long

In Postwar American Fiction and the Rise of Modern Conservatism: A Literary History, 1945–2008 (Cambridge UP, 2021), Bryan M. Santin examines over a h…