Rate My Professor Chuck Jackson

Chuck Jackson is Professor of English in the Department of History, Humanities, and Languages at the University of Houston-Downtown, where he serves as Degree Coordinator for the B.A. in English and oversees concentrations in Creative Writing, Film Studies, and English Education. He joined the faculty in fall 2005 and coordinates the Film Studies minor. Jackson's research focuses on U.S. film studies, U.S. literary studies, critical theory, and critical prison studies. His scholarship examines intersections of race, waste, emergencies, institutions, and culture in film and literature. He has published articles in leading journals, including 'Star Hole (for Courtney Love)' in Camera Obscura (2007), 'Blood for Oil: Crude Metonymies and Tobe Hooper's Texas Chain Saw Massacre' in Gothic Studies (2010), 'What blooms: The jailhouse, inside out' in Studies in Law, Politics, and Society (2015), and 'Texas / Chain Saw / Atmospheres' in Post45 (2024). Other publications appear in Black Camera, Pedagogy, Modern Fiction Studies, African American Review, The Faulkner Journal, and The Journal of Popular Film and Television.

Jackson has made significant contributions to community-engaged scholarship through UHD's University-Jailhouse Literacy Project, which he codirected from 2014 to 2017. This interdisciplinary initiative facilitated a book circle program for faculty and readers incarcerated at Kegans State Jail in downtown Houston. In 2024, he received a $20,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Awards for Faculty program to support research and writing on filmmaker Jessie Maple's early films, including Methadone: Evil Spirit or Wonder Drug? (1975-76), Black Economic Power: Reality or Fantasy? (1977), and Will (1981), utilizing materials from the Black Film Center & Archive. He was also selected as a 2023-2024 recipient of UHD's Outstanding Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) award for the project 'Jessie Maple’s Early Films: Moody Close-Ups on Harlem, 1975-1981.' These efforts underscore his impact on film history, prison education, and literary pedagogy within the field of Literature.