English alumna and accomplished scholar Jasmine Trice encourages students to gain broader scope of history, culture

By Arianna Bekas

Florida State University English department alumna Jasmine Trice’s achievements cannot be narrowed down to a short, bulleted list; doing so would be a severe injustice.

Without doing a research dive into her background or just simply printing out her curriculum vitae, you would never know how accomplished a scholar she is because of her calm, personable, and understanding demeanor.

This demeanor is an integral part of who she is: a woman devoted to cultivating knowledge and understanding in both her own life and the lives of students she interacts with as a professor. She takes the time to slow down, elaborates on her thoughts when asked, and she teaches through her statements and observations.

Out of all the interests that Trice has, however, one stands out and largely informs her work: the fascinating culture of the Philippines.

Trice spent time in the Philippines while working on her doctoral dissertation, and she became interested in the film and media culture that exists in Southeast Asia. That interest, she explains, was a “personal” one, as she lived in the Philippines until she was six years old, before she and her family moved to the U.S. Trice returned to her homeland because she wanted to familiarize herself with her mother’s, and her own, culture.

Trice’s academic career began in the film school at FSU, but after a study abroad trip to London, she realized that studying in the English department was the key to better understanding her passion for cinema.

She graduated from FSU in 2001, double majoring in film and English literature. She went on to earn her doctorate in culture and communication from Indiana University in Bloomington. She currently is an associate professor of cinema and media studies at UCLA.

During her time in the Philippines, Trice worked as a research associate for Io International, a feminist organization that focuses on the empowerment of women worldwide. Her work for Io International primarily revolved around a project called the People’s Communications for Development.

“This was a five-country study that looked at the kinds of communication tools that were most empowering for grassroots women,” Trice says. “It worked very closely with rural areas and urban poor communities.”

In addition to her time with Io International, she was involved with multiple other research positions, including a research grant with the Asian Cultural Council and the Council on Academic research, and fellowships with the American Association for University Women and the Hellman Foundation.

Trice’s experience in international realms is extensive, having worked with and in numerous cultural settings. She was a lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and during her time working with non-profits and conducting research, she collaborated with individuals of varying cultural backgrounds from Fiji to India.

I eventually came to the realization that I knew a lot about the how of making films, but relatively less about the why of making them. That seemed like a tremendous impasse, and for myself, I thought that a liberal arts education was one way to bridge that gap, from the how to the why.

— Jasmine Trice

Trice explains that her entry into the world of research was a “path that started in [FSU’s] English department.” Continuing, she says, “that was where I learned how to write, and how to articulate ideas in a way that was clear.”

The jump from studying film to English may seem interesting. As it turns out, though, earning a second degree in English at FSU was an integral learning experience for Trice, an experience that she called “vital.”

“I realized that I really wanted a broader understanding of culture, history, and the role of the arts within them,” she says. “I eventually came to the realization that I knew a lot about the how of making films, but relatively less about the why of making them. That seemed like a tremendous impasse, and for myself, I thought that a liberal arts education was one way to bridge that gap, from the how to the why.”

Touching on the content that she was introduced to while in FSU’s English Literature program—now renamed Literature, Media, and Culture (LMC)—Trice explains that “reading a wide range of works from poetry to fiction to theory and understanding the historical and cultural settings that originated them, was very powerful for me.”

“It made me want to understand how the cultural and aesthetic forms that circulate in the present—movies, TV, art—become meaningful in different ways, to different communities, at different historical moments,” she adds.

Trice says studying English literature opened a doorway to her thinking when it came to her film studies, explaining that her English degree gave her “different lenses for seeing the ways that power operates in the world, including through aesthetic forms like movies or books.”

In fact, writing a final paper on French philosopher and political activist Michel Foucault for an introductory critical theory course expanded her understanding of how power operates.

The operation of power in the world largely informs Trice’s current work, which examines theories of feminist and decolonial approaches to film studies and research as well as the importance of transcultural collaboration.

“Knowledge production is embedded in relations of power, whether this knowledge is coming out of the academy or elsewhere,” she says. “It’s critical to be reflexive about how knowledge is produced, within specific historical and cultural circumstances that have long histories. Bringing feminist, decolonial lenses to the work of research emphasizes this.”

Trice says what she learned in her English courses helped her to “develop a language to talk and write about these dynamics.”

And write she does, as Trice has had 11 different articles and essays published in academic journals. In March of 2021, Duke University Press published her first book, City of Screens: Imagining Audiences in Manila's Alternative Film Culture. These works focus on her research of film and media culture, homing in on the operation and politics of film production and its function in both historical and cultural contexts.

Reflecting on her experiences in FSU English department, Trice has words of advice for students.

“Try to think about what you can learn and glean from what the authors are getting at, the ideas, the concepts, and see how you can use those concepts to see the way things work around you in your everyday life,” she says. “Taking those concepts and trying to use them to get a better sense of what you value, then using that to think about how to take theory into practice.”

She understands the process of reading material in that context can be daunting for students. She admits it was for her as an undergraduate. She stresses the importance of doing so, though.

“Having a broader scope of history sort of puts your own position in the world into perspective,” Trice says. “It’s so critical, especially for FSU students now when Florida has been put at the frontlines of debates around knowledge production.”

She hopes that students, both undergraduate and graduate, will not look at their education as being separate from life in the real world. Especially when it comes to English, and film studies, Trice wants students to see that what you learn in the classroom can be greatly informative about life outside of the university campus.

Arianna Bekas is an English major on the editing, writing, and media track, with a minor in political science.

Follow the English department on Instagram @fsuenglish; on Facebook facebook.com/fsuenglishdepartment/; and Twitter, @fsu_englishdept

For more insight, please read this Q&A, which Arianna coordinated and takes a deeper dive into Trice's life, views, work, and practices.

Q&A With Dr. Trice

What drew you to Film and Cinematography?

My dad was a big cinephile. It was one of the things that we had in common, and I grew up watching a ton of movies on Turner Classics. He was a military guy, but he was really sentimental, so he loved movies that would make him cry, but he also liked war movies and westerns. I just grew up watching a lot of movies by hanging out and spending time with him.

Can you discuss what the focus of your current work is, and what made you interested in it?

At this point, my work has focused on examining film and media cultures, which at the broadest level means I’m interested in questions about the practice and politics of film production and reception within specific historical and cultural contexts. Sometimes it’s been categorized as “production studies” or “histories of exhibition and moviegoing” in the discipline of film studies. I’ve focused mainly on urban metros in Southeast Asia, though some of my work has been more LA-based as well.

My initial interest in this geographic area was partly personal because I lived in the Philippines as a kid before moving to the U.S. and had always wanted to spend more time there to get to know my mom’s culture and family more. But then, as I began reading more about Philippine film, I realized that there was this incredible history of film production there, starting from the early 20th century with people like José Nepomuceno, to the mid-century studio system, which was producing a couple hundred films per year at its height, and the anti-martial-law films that were made in the 1970s and ‘80s. This type of work wasn’t being taught in the film and media studies curricula that I’d experienced, so I wanted to delve more deeply into this area, and I happened to move to Manila for my dissertation research at a critical, transitional time in recent film history when alternative cinema was emerging and flourishing.

A lot of your work revolves around concepts of feminist and decolonial approaches to research and film, how do you put these practices into action?

I often return to the idea of redress to think about these ideas in practice. I see redress as a long-term vantage point that reveals our obligation to view immediate concerns in terms of long-standing, historical absences and inequities in our fields, in my case film and media studies. This perspective reminds me to consider the differences between “diversity” and “decoloniality” in research areas, citational practice, pedagogy, and administration.

I find redress critical for thinking about recruitment and admissions. When I served as a member of the undergraduate admissions committee, a colleague asked for my thoughts about having a cohort composed entirely of women-identified students; I pointed out that for decades, the gender breakdown at film schools like ours would have been skewed in a different direction. Accounting for long histories of inequality means building a student body whose diversity is measured against and materially compensates for historical, as well as immediate inequities.

Redress also informs my citational practice in both research and teaching, including academic publications and the screenings that I include in syllabi. Theorist Sara Ahmed describes citation as “a rather successful reproductive technology, a way of reproducing the world around certain bodies.” Whether on syllabi or in academic publications, citation is a way of reproducing or dismantling power relations, and I view it broadly as a critical practice that threads through both research and teaching. To avoid simply reinscribing existing canons in my teaching, I aim to include works that are not always on syllabi for introductory film courses or seminars. For example, in “Art and Technique of Filmmaking,” this large undergraduate lecture class, I include works by well-known auteurs such as John Ford, whose work we view with a critical lens, alongside films by media makers who wouldn’t necessarily be expected on an introductory syllabus, like Boots Riley and Issa Rae. We read classic works of film theory, like Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” but we also read more recent scholarship from thinkers like Kristin Warner on plastic representation and Lori Lopez on race and media.

In March of 2021, you had your first book published, “City of Screens: Imagining Audiences in Manila's Alternative Film Culture”, what is it about?

It looks at Manila film culture at this specific moment in the early early-aughts, when independent filmmaking in the Philippines was really on the rise for the first time in decades, due to new digital technologies for circulation and reception. Most of the films being made at that moment were playing in international festivals, but finding very few venues for distribution at home, and this became a point of public debate–who were these films for? So I became interested in circulation initiatives that aimed to reach local audiences. The book focuses on spaces of exhibition and distribution, including art house cinemas, the pirated DVD district, and the mall multiplex, examining how those spaces and initiatives construct what I call a speculative public for alternative Philippine cinema.

What made you want to become a professor?

I double majored in English and film at FSU, and a lot of my classmates ended up moving to L.A. or New York. I thought that I would do this [research] and then join the industry. I never really intended on becoming a professor per se; I was just eager to learn more.

I didn’t know anybody that was a professor growing up, so getting to know what that job was and realizing that that was a job option, just really suited me and I love working with students of different levels. You have a lot of autonomy, so it’s a really nice gig. There aren’t very many jobs in it so I am very aware of how lucky I am.

You have a lot of stability if you can get a tenure-track job. Once you have tenure you have a combination of stability along with autonomy in terms of your time and research. You don’t have to be in an office from 9-5 for most academic positions and you can pursue what seems compelling. It’s a really great job for certain people; it’s a really hard path and a long path but it’s a really nice position to be in.

What can FSU undergrad students do to open up their perspective on the world around them?

It doesn’t have to be around something like traveling, that not everyone has access to. I think there is so much that you can learn from just reading local news and finding out more about the history of the place where you are living- even if you’re not from there. Tallahassee is an interesting city, and right now Florida has been in the national news so much in terms of all of these debates around what curricula should and shouldn’t look like and what kind of knowledge is valuable, and what should and shouldn’t be circulated. So I think that keeping your curiosity open to the place where you live, the kinds of things that matter to you, and how they translate into what’s happening to people around you locally, translates into thinking about the world outside of campus.

College goes by really fast when you are an undergrad, and it’s really important to be immersed in the college culture, of course. But I would say to also take advantage of the opportunity to take what you are learning in your classes, and then think about how that translates into the world you’re living in.

How would you advise students who are looking to further cultivate their learning into real-life practices?

Since I am an academic, and that is the path that I took, I feel that there isn’t as much of a divide between what you’re learning and the real world. It is hard, the language is hard if you are not familiar with reading academic writing. But you do get used to it—it becomes more familiar. I would say to not think of it as something that is completely separate that lives in this classroom space. Try to think about what you can learn and glean from what the authors are getting at, the ideas, the concepts, and see how you can use those concepts to see the way things work around you in your everyday life. Taking those concepts and trying to use them to get a better sense of what you value, then using that to think about how to take theory into practice.

I know it’s daunting for sure, but it was for me too when I first started reading material that was in a more English department context. Because it's like "Oh this was written like 500 years ago" or it's theory, which is intimidating at first. But it was the theory stuff that really made me understand the world better, and reading the things from 500 years ago and realizing "Oh yeah, people still have a lot of these same concerns." Having a broader scope of history puts your own position in the world into perspective.