Hamilton Gazetteer / Entities / Scott MacDonald

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person

Scott MacDonald

Overview

Scott MacDonald is a film scholar and art historian who served as Lecturer in Art at Hamilton College from at least 1981 through the early 1990s. He holds a B.A. from DePauw University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida, and he taught courses in film history, theory, and aesthetics at Hamilton. He is internationally known for his multi-volume work A Critical Cinema, a landmark series of interviews with avant-garde and independent filmmakers that established him as one of the leading scholars of experimental cinema.

Relevance to Research

MacDonald appears in course catalogs across at least 35 corpus files spanning from the 1981–82 academic year through at least 1990–91. He is consistently listed as a Special Appointment (Lecturer) in the Art Department, which offered concentrations in both the History of Art and Studio Art. His primary course at Hamilton was “Language of Film” (listed as Art 121F in the early 1980s and renumbered to Art 190F by 1990–91), described as an introductory survey of film grammar covering history, theory, and aesthetic principles through screenings, lectures, and readings. His long tenure as a lecturer — spanning at least a decade in the catalogs — reflects sustained institutional investment in film studies at Hamilton during a period when such offerings were not yet standard at small liberal arts colleges.

Notes

Role: Lecturer in Art; film scholar and historian
Key events: - B.A., DePauw University; M.A. and Ph.D., University of Florida - Joined Hamilton Art Department as Lecturer in Art by fall 1981 (first appearance: 1981–82 catalog) - Listed as Special Appointment in the Art Department throughout the 1981–82, 1984–85, 1985–86, and 1990–91 catalogs - Taught “Language of Film” (Art 121F / later renumbered 190F): an introductory survey of film grammar through screenings, lectures, and readings; described as requiring four contact hours and not open to second-semester seniors - Appeared alongside full-time Art faculty including Rand Carter (chair), John McEnroe, Steven Liebman, Robert Muirhead, Robert Palusky, and others - Became widely known for A Critical Cinema (University of California Press), a multi-volume series of extended interviews with avant-garde and independent filmmakers, considered a defining work in experimental film scholarship - His Hamilton position as a long-serving lecturer in art and film reflects the college’s approach to integrating film studies within an art department framework during the 1980s