Nicholas Davis

Nicholas Davis serves as Associate Professor of English at Northwestern University, with appointments in the Literature faculty, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program—where he formerly directed—and a courtesy role in Radio/Television/Film. Holding a Ph.D. from Cornell University, his scholarship centers on narrative film analysis, feminist and gender studies, queer theory, and 20th- and 21st-century American literature. In his acclaimed book, The Desiring-Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2013), Davis develops innovative frameworks for understanding queer cinema post-HIV/AIDS, employing Deleuzian concepts of desire and becoming to examine films like Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, The Watermelon Woman, Shortbus, Brother to Brother, Beau travail, and Velvet Goldmine. He has authored essays on works such as Julie Dash's Illusions, Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también, Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk, Todd Haynes's I'm Not There, Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s They, William Friedkin's The Boys in the Band, Pixar's The Incredibles, and James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie, alongside studies of actresses Julie Christie, Vanessa Redgrave, and Kristen Stewart.

Davis’s forthcoming publications include a monograph on Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women (University of Texas Press) and Millennium Approached: Reframing the Movies of 1999. Since 1998, he has published over 1,300 film reviews and essays on his website and was Contributing Editor at Film Comment magazine for four years. Recognized for teaching excellence, he received the Alumnae of Northwestern Teaching Professorship from 2017 to 2020, one of the university’s highest awards for distinguished teaching and curricular innovation. As Associate Programmer for the Chicago International Film Festival, he delivers free monthly downtown lectures on contemporary films, directors, or cinematic traditions. His courses encompass graduate seminars like "Queer Theory and Queer Cinema" and undergraduate offerings including "Introducing Queer Cinema," "Introducing Trans Cinema," "Sexual Subjects," "Futuresex: Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment in 21st-Century Sci-Fi Cinema," and advanced seminars in cinema and sexuality. He is a member of the graduate faculty and advises Ph.D. students pursuing Screen Cultures.

Professional Email: nicholas-davis@northwestern.edu