William Cummings
Professor of Humanities & Cultural Studies at the University of South Florida, Dr. Cummings received his PhD in History from the University of Hawaii. His research focuses on the broad area of historical consciousness and production, studying the ways in which perceptions of and narratives about the past are constructed. His particular interest is in better understanding the mechanisms by which language and the mind make available specific tools, categories, narratives, genres, metaphors, rules, and models that we use to understand the past. His main publication field is as a textual scholar of 16th- and 17th-century Indonesian historical manuscripts, but he also teaches and publishes on a range of topics that all relate to historical consciousness and production, ranging from Vietnam War films to archetypes of manhood to Christianity in film.