In Memory of Linda Williams, December 18, 1946 - March 12, 2025

In Memoriam

The faculty, students, alumni, and staff of the Departments of Rhetoric and Film & Media mourn the passing of our brilliant colleague, mentor, and friend, Linda Williams. Williams was a groundbreaking film scholar whose research helped establish and shape the fields of feminist film theory, pornography studies, documentary studies, and melodrama studies. Williams graduated with a B.A. from UC Berkeley’s Department of Comparative Literature in 1969 and went on to earn her PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder (1977). Before her appointment as a Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and the Film Studies Program (now the Department of Film & Media) in 1997, Williams taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago (1977-1989) and the University of California, Irvine (1989 – 1997), where she played a central role in establishing the Program in (later Department of) Women’s Studies. She authored five books—Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film (1981), Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible (1989), Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson (2002), Screening Sex (2008), and On the Wire (2014), along with several edited volumes and numerous articles on horror, body genres, melodrama, documentary, spectatorship, and surrealist film. Williams researched and partially wrote her most recent book project, Melodrama as Provocateur, while she was on fellowship at the Institut d’études avancées de Paris (2019-2020). Edited by Christine Gledhill, Laura Horak, and Elisabeth Anker, this work-in-progress will be published by Duke University Press as a volume that includes essay responses by scholars in the field.

Beyond her wider influence, Williams was the heart of the Film & Media and Rhetoric departments for many years, and she and her husband, Paul Fitzgerald (whom she married in 1968) generously opened their home to faculty, students, and alums, fostering a dynamic intellectual community that was singular in its commitment to collegiality, curiosity, and the sheer pleasure of rigorous, scholarly engagement with moving image culture.

Linda Williams was the glue that held us together for so many years in Rhetoric and in Film & Media, and we will remember her—and miss her terribly—every day.

You can read more about Linda’s life and accomplishments in the Linda Williams memorial tribute, which was written by Kristen Whissel and Damon Young.