Rate My Professor Charles Bane

Charles Bane, Ph.D., serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at Harding University, a position he assumed in the 2024-2025 academic year following his promotion to full professor in 2023. He joined the faculty in 2014. Bane earned his Ph.D. in Film History, Theory, and Criticism from Louisiana State University in 2006, with a dissertation titled 'Viewing Novels, Reading Films: Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation as Interpretation.' His eclectic professional background encompasses roles as a country music disc jockey, oil refinery demolition specialist, movie critic, television producer, eighth-grade English teacher, and award-winning filmmaker. Bane's films have been screened at the Three Minute Film Festival, WorldFest-Houston, and the Bare Bones International Film Festival. He emphasizes hands-on learning, with students crewing film sets and studying screenwriting, and has accompanied them to events like the Sundance Film Festival.

Bane has contributed to scholarly discourse through articles in edited volumes including Stephen King and Philosophy, Jane Austen and Philosophy, Hollywood’s America: Twentieth-Century America Through Film, Stanley Kubrick: Essays on his Films and Legacy, Papa, PhD: Essays on Fatherhood by Men in the Academy, and the Encyclopedia of Documentary Film. He co-authored A Primer of the Novel: For Readers and Writers Revised Edition (Scarecrow Press, 2006) with David Madden, Sean M. Flory, and Paulette Bane. Recent creative outputs include directing the short film Second Childhood (written by Terry Engel, produced by the Harding Film Department in 2023 and screened at The Art of Recovery Film Festival), co-authoring the screenplay Irish Rose (purchased by Enlighten Entertainment in 2023 and in pre-production as of 2024), and producing Family Tradition: The Story of Raney Recording (with David Robison, 2023). His work bridges film theory, criticism, and practical production, influencing students and contributing to academic and festival circuits in film studies.