John Caldwell is seemingly a jack-of-all-trades in the study of media: he is a cinema and media studies professor, filmmaker, author, editor, keynote speaker, producer and director. Now he is also the recipient of the UCLA Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching award for 2010, commending him for excellence in his field.
“It was kind of a relief,” Caldwell said about hearing the good news. “I had been nominated two other times and didn’t get it, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I think we kind of just wore (the committee) down.”
Born in St. Louis, Mo. and raised in rural southern Illinois, Caldwell has lived and studied in major cities across the country before settling in Los Angeles.
Since 1978 he has been creating independent films, and motivated from his work in this area, he started producing experimental video art, which evolved into documentary films and then ethnographic films. He said these types of theoretical works allow people to critically understand culture, and offer innovative insights into the world.
In a 75-page dossier, Barbara Boyle, chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, nominated Caldwell, writing in her letter that the department continued to nominate him due to his many accomplishments and devotion to his work and students.
“He’s concerned about his family, his students, his department, his school and the world. Of course, his distinguished teaching award recognizes one aspect; that is, how concerned he is for his students,” Boyle said. “He cares, and they learn and they expand. This expanding occurs not only when they are students, but through the rest of their lives.”
Within these 75 pages was Caldwell’s curriculum, courses taught, course syllabi, statements regarding his teaching, recommendations for the award, and other evidence such as dozens of lectures, seminars, books and films. Course evaluations have shown that he continually receives an instructor rating of 8.63 or higher (on a nine-point scale), several quarters of which he received ratings of a perfect 9.
“As a professor, John is careful to listen to his students, guiding them to relate their insights to the concepts under discussion, and as such he actively encourages his students’ engagement with the learning process,” said Harrison Gish, a doctoral candidate in cinema and media studies. “As a TA, I know that, while this may sound simple, it is really quite difficult to achieve, and John does so masterfully.”
Former students and colleagues would likely state that the professor has been the right candidate for the award all along.
“He is simply one of the finest teachers there is, at UCLA or anywhere else,” said Jennifer Holt, a former student and current assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara. “He has endless energy and enthusiasm for teaching, and a devotion to his students that is unparalleled.”
Along with teaching, Caldwell has been working on his next project for the last five years, exploring the impact of all the vast changes that have been occurring inside the creative work of the media industry. With online content and instant streaming of episodes and clips, the entertainment industry has been struggling to keep up while keeping profit. Caldwell’s interest lies in production labor and what he calls below the line crafts.
“There are so many people involved in generating these artistic concepts,” Caldwell said. “You can do a lot if you observe the way things get made and it gives you insights you wouldn’t get if you just trusted the press releases.”
Although he is skilled and trained in numerous areas, Caldwell said his passion lies in teaching the art form that he loves.
“Teaching is the one thing in academic life that I will forever trust. I know what the value of it is … I feel good about it. I feel like I’ve done an honest day’s work when I teach well and when I see the work that students do,” Caldwell said. “Teaching is the one thing I really am a believer in, and everything else that I do probably comes out of that environment.”