In CCI, we believe that our faculty members act as great allies and can offer the benefit of their professional and personal experiences during a student's time as an undergraduate in the program. In our department we are lucky to have professors who are passionate about what they teach and are eager to help their students by offering guidance, support, opportunities, advice, and mentorship. For that reason, we are launching a new blog series called Professor Profiles, where we will provide CCI students the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into their professors' careers and interests in and outside of the classroom, which we hope will help foster a more conducive learning environment for our students.
First in our series is Dr. Patrick Fuery, Founding Director, and Professor in the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries in Wilkinson College.
Dr. Patrick Fuery is a graduate of Murdoch University, Australia, with a BA (Hons), MPhil and PhD in Comparative Literature. Before coming to Chapman, he held positions at the University of London (Royal Holloway College), Sussex University, and the University of Newcastle (Australia). He is the author of nine books that have been translated into Chinese, Italian, French, and Korean. His research interests include psychoanalysis, semiotics, literary and cultural theory, gender studies, film and visual studies, medicine and the arts.
## Start of Interview with Dr. Patrick Fuery
PC: Where did the idea for developing a Creative and Cultural Industries program at Chapman stem from?
PF: I was driven by my experience in other countries to develop a unique program that focused on international and local creative and cultural industries. CCI was and still is an incredibly influential and lucrative sector in the UK and now just about every university in England has a department dedicated to the exploration and teaching of the creative and cultural industries. As does Australia, Europe, China, Most of Asia, Canada. A few years ago I learned that there wasn’t one in the United States and I always found that to be ironic given that the U.S. is regarded as the creative capital of the world, and California in particular is the capital of that capital. So that is largely where the idea for developing the CCI program and the center of creative and cultural industries here in the U.S. came about.
PC: Where do you see the program going in the future?
PF: When we first introduced the minor we were aiming for an enrollment total of 50 students but fast forward, we now have over 200 students enrolled in the minor across a mix of disciplines at Chapman.
We’ve experienced an unfathomable increase in demand for a larger program within the last few years, therefore the CCI department is currently working with the university to create a degree program that will allow students to pursue CCI as a major instead of just a minor.
PC: What does a typical day look like for you?
PF: A typical day consists of responding to a lot of emails and meeting with at least 4-5 students a day. This fall, I taught two classes so I would usually take some time on Fridays and Mondays to prepare lectures and activities for the following week. The other key part of my life involves not only applying for funding for my own research but also funding for student research– which is where the majority of the funding I apply for goes.
Additionally, I love writing. I make sure to dedicate some time in my schedule to write as much as I can. Recently I finished my ninth called “Intimacy and the Anxieties of Cinematic Flesh: Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis.” The summary is the following: everytime we enter into a relationship with something, it involves some form of intimacy. For example when we go to the shops and love a clothing item– we say “I love this shirt or shoe”, when we get a haircut– we say “I love my hair”, when we go to Disneyland- we say “I love this ride,” In all these scenarios we begin to engage in a version of intimacy with that object or space. Therefore what the book suggests is that whenever we do this there’s always a subsequent anxiety because what we’ve done is engage with something that we now say we love and fear losing.
The book takes two big critical theories: psychoanalysis and phenomenology and seeks to find out if they can co-exist with one another because many people argue that they can’t, however the book aims to challenge those traditional beliefs.
PC: What courses will you be teaching in Spring 2022?
PF: Next semester I am teaching CCI 100: Intro to Creative and Cultural Industries and CCI 305: Cultural Studies.
My version of the CCI 100 course is Nuts! In week 3 I ask my students to download a ghost hunting app and go ghost hunting, and they have absolutely no idea why they’re doing it. CCI is really good at creating spaces that are quite unique. Museums, music festivals, fashion shows, etc. are all examples of unique spaces created by CCI. And while we create experiences within these places, we also create different emotional relationships in each one. So the purpose of this exercise is to get students to take a space that they're familiar with and think that there is a ghost living in it, this then inevitably changes the way they interact with that space. I’m very much interested in how students can be active agents in CCI as opposed to just passively examining or consuming it. When you give students the capacity to think outside of their major or discipline then they produce different work.
The cultural studies course is an interesting one. The first half of the course deals with all kinds of theories ranging from feminism to what it is to be a person. While the other half deals with strategies and activities to help students develop a more creative mind. My hope for this course; once covid permits, is for the students to conduct a case study in CCI of their choice which would involve researching, interviewing, recording, and photographing a creative business of their interest; one that they would like to work in after they graduate, and see if that area of CCI is one they would be interested in pursuing after college.
PC: What has been your favorite part about teaching at Chapman or favorite memory so far?
PF: Simple. The students. The students are great and I’ve taught so many of them all around the world. However, there’s something quite unique about Californians and Chapman students in particular that I love.
PC: What’s one thing you hope that CCI students take away from the program after graduation?
I would like students to emerge from the program with divergent minds. However, the most imperative thing that I want students to do is to enjoy themselves. I hope that students emerge from the program saying: “I learned something and I enjoyed it as well” because quite frankly life is too short, your degree is too short, and If you don’t enjoy it then it’s just not worth it.
## End of Interview with Dr. Patrick Fuery
Thank you, Dr. Patrick Fuery
We hoped you enjoyed learning more about Dr. Fuery and were able to gain a deeper insight into his career, passions, and projects outside of the classroom. If you are interested in reading more about how Dr. Fuery started the CCI program at Chapman, you can read about it on our CCI History webpage. Stay tuned for more CCI Professor Profile interviews coming soon on the CCI Collective.