Amerikanisches Geisterfest (an Auto-Archaeology)

Ruth Halaj Reitan (Ph.D, International Relations, American University) is a scholar of international political economy and sociology, left- and right-wing movements, critical and poststructural theory, and participatory and reflectivist research methods. She is author of three books on transnational social movements (Global Movement, Global Activism, and The Rise and Decline of an Alliance: Cuba and African American Leaders in the 1960s) and several articles. In recent years her interests have turned toward critical media studies and production, including screenwriting, film-making, blogging, drama, narrative, and poetry, as increasingly salient methods of socio-political research, communication, and presentation of her work. In this vein she has written four feature-length, historical screenplays, two of which have won writing awards, and has completed her first short film (Hard Corn, 2014) and is working on a second. Since 2005 she has taught in the University of Miami's International Studies Department in Coral Gables, Florida, and is pursuing an MFA in Motion Pictures at the University of Miami, while continuing to lecture in International Studies. She can be contacted at ruthhalajreitan@gmail.com or r.reitan@miami.edu