Email: mh131@illinois.edu
Research Interests
- Film Studies
- Popular Culture Studies
- Blockbuster and Contemporary American Cinema
- Nostalgia and Pastiche
- Animation History and Aesthetics
- Media Convergence
- Metatextuality
- Genre Studies
- Fandom and Audience Studies
Matthew Huh is a first-year Ph.D. student in Communications and Media at the Institute of Communications Research. His research focuses on cultural and audience shifts found in contemporary pop culture, animation, and nostalgia, along with the impact of blockbuster media in film culture. Using techniques of historiography, his goal is to recognize how contemporary Hollywood goes beyond the multiplex and instead, to study the changes and impact on audience reception.
He earned a B.A. in Cinema and Screenwriting from The University of Iowa, and later earned an M.A. in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University, where he completed a master’s thesis entitled “Comparative Pastiche and Nostalgia in Contemporary Hollywood: The Lion King (2019) Dangers and Spider-Verse Reinventions”.
Recent Publications/Presentations
“Comparative Pastiche and Nostalgia in Contemporary Hollywood: The Lion King (2019) Dangers and Spider-Verse Reinventions”, Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2026 Annual Conference, Chicago, IL – March 2026
“Through the Multiverse: The Nostalgic Reinvention of Spider-Verse”, The Superhero Project: 9th Global Meeting, Eastbourne, UK – September 2025
Courses Taught
- MACS 100: Introduction to Popular TV and Movies