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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Jason Ney

Meet Dr. Jason Ney

Degrees and Experience
  • Ph.D., English - Literary Studies (University of Denver)
  • M.A., English and Comparative Literature (University of Cincinnati)
  • B.A., English (Cedarville University)
Biography and Professional Achievements

Dr. Jason Ney grew up in Pennsylvania and has lived in Colorado since 2010 when he began his Ph.D. work at the University of Denver. His dissertation focused on ethical issues within the genre of Creative Nonfiction, with particular attention paid to the intersection of truth and memory. Before joining CCU’s faculty in 2013 as both an English professor and the Director of the Writing Center, he taught at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Denver.

During his time at CCU, Dr. Ney has taught nearly twenty unique courses, with a focus on American Literature, Creative Writing, and Literary Criticism and Theory. His favorite course to teach is Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing; students have produced essays in it that have been published in The 3288 Review, 805 Lit, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Avalon Literary Review, The Baltimore Review, Bloodletters Literary Magazine, Heart of Flesh, HerStory, in(courage), Midwestern Gothic, The Mindful Word, Potato Soup Journal, Six Hens, Tales from a Small Planet, and Waymark Literary Magazine. He also teaches in the Augustine Honors Program, co-runs CCU’s annual film series with Professor Bernie Prokop, and maintains a sideline as a film scholar and critic. To date, he has provided audio commentaries for dozens of 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD releases, including film adaptations of canonical American novels such as The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and Sister Carrie.

Publications: Creative Nonfiction
  • “The Life of the Blood.” Wholeness: A Wising Up Anthology. Wising Up Press: Decatur, GA. 2023.
  • “Sinner’s Prayer.” How to Pack for Church Camp. July 2018.
  • “Until it Hurts.” The Kindness of Strangers: A Wising Up Anthology. Wising Up Press: Decatur, GA. 2016.
  • “Recovery.” Fiction Attic Press. Summer 2015.
  • “The List.” Little Did She Know: (de)tales. October 2014.
Publications: Film Criticism, Interviews, and Reviews
  • “A Poor Substitute for Wisdom: Finger Man, A Forgotten Crime, and the Impossible Hollywood Dream.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Issue 41. Summer 2024. 
  • “A Doll’s House: Silent Stardom, The Sound Age, and Second Acts.” Included in The Scarlet Letter Blu-ray. Film Masters. November 21, 2023.
  • “The Unkillable Killer Shrews.” Included in The Killer Shrews Blu-ray. Film Masters. September 26, 2023.
  • “The Case of the Forgotten Author: The Literary Conundrum of Mary Roberts Rinehart.” Included in The Bat: Special Edition Blu-ray and DVD. The Film Detective. October 25, 2022.
  • “An Abiding Triumph: The Everlasting Appeal of Sherlock Holmes.” Included in The Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection Blu-ray and DVD. The Film Detective. December 21, 2021.
  • “Under Surveillance: Edge of Fury (1958).” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Issue 33. Winter 2021.
  • “A Career at Stake: Angela Lansbury and the Last Days of the B Noir.” Included in A Life at Stake: Special Edition. Blu-ray and DVD. The Film Detective. September 7, 2021.
  • “Detour.” Keyframe. A Fandor Publication. August 13, 2021.
  • “I Know Who I Am! Amnesia and Identity, Postwar to the Present.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Issue 31. Summer 2021.
  • “The World of Tomorrow: Nuclear Noir in the Atomic Age.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Issue 27. Fall 2019.
  • Reviews: “The Big Combo, The Dark Mirror, Force of Evil, Secret Beyond the Door.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 12, No. 1. Spring 2018.
  • Reviews: “No Questions Asked, Count the Hours, Stakeout on Dope Street.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 11, No. 1. Summer 2016.
  • Reviews: “The Big Sleep, Key Largo.”  Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 10, No. 4. Spring 2016.
  • Reviews: “Beat the Devil, Hollow Triumph.”  Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 10, No. 3. Winter 2016.
  • Reviews: “The Clay Pigeon, He Ran All the Way, House of Bamboo, Riff Raff, Storm Fear.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 10, No. 2. Fall 2015.
  • Reviews: “Cover Up, Once a Thief, The Shanghai Story, The Whistler.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 10, No. 1. Summer 2015.
  • “The First ‘Funny Papers’ Film: Dick Tracy at RKO.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 9, No. 4. Spring 2015.
  • “The Original Tess Trueheart: A Conversation with Anne Jeffreys.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 9, No. 4. Spring 2015.
  • Reviews: “The Bride Wore Black, Ride the Pink Horse, The Weapon, World for Ransom.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 9, No. 4. Spring 2015.
  • Reviews: “Bait, The Girl on the Bridge, Possessed, Witness to Murder.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Vol. 9, No. 3. Winter 2015.
  • Reviews: “The Bigamist, Caught, Hollow Triumph, The Hunted, Incident.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 9, No. 2. Fall 2014.
  • Review: “Swerve.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 9, No. 1. Summer 2014. “Dark City High: The Neo-Noir of Brick and Veronica Mars.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 8, No. 3. Spring 2014.
  • “Keith Mars, Revived: A Conversation with Enrico Colantoni.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 8, No. 3. Spring 2014.
  • “Dark Roots: Christopher Nolan and Noir.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 8, No. 1. Summer 2013.
  • “Avatar of Future Noir: Warren Hammond.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 8, No. 1. Summer 2013.
  • “The Forgotten Man: Richard Fleischer’s RKO Years.” Noir City. San Francisco: FNF. Volume 7, No. 4. Spring 2013.
Publications: Anthologies
  • Noir City Annual #14: The Best of the Film Noir Foundation's Quarterly Magazine. San Francisco: FNF. January 2022. (Includes “I Know Who I Am! Amnesia and Identity, Postwar to the Present.”)
  • Noir City Annual #12: The Best of the Film Noir Foundation's Quarterly Magazine. San Francisco: FNF. January 2020. (Includes “The World of Tomorrow: Nuclear Noir in the Atomic Age.”)
  • Noir City Annual #8: The Best of the Film Noir Foundation's Quarterly Magazine. San Francisco: FNF. January 2016. (Includes my reviews of The Bride Wore Black, He Ran All the Way, Ride the Pink Horse, Witness to Murder, and World for Ransom.)
  • Noir City Annual #7: The Best of the Film Noir Foundation's Quarterly Magazine. San Francisco: FNF. January 2015. (Includes “Dark City High: The Neo-Noir of Brick and Veronica Mars.”)
  • Noir City Annual #6: The Best of the Film Noir Foundation's Quarterly Magazine. San Francisco: FNF. January 2014. (Includes “The Forgotten Man: Richard Fleischer’s RKO Years.”) 
Presentations
  • Panel Moderator: “The Friends of Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy.” NoirCon: Celebrating Noir in All its Artistic Incarnations, Virtual Conference (2022).
  • Creative Nonfiction: “The Life of the Blood.” Illuminating the Darkness: Conference on Christianity and Literature, Western Regional Conference, Colorado Christian University (2019).
  • “All Things to All Students: Revitalizing the Writing Center.” To Be of Use: The Challenges and Rewards of Writing Center Work, Writing Center Research Conference, Houghton College (2017).
  • “The Traveling Sign in the American West: A Semiotic Analysis of Robert Coover's Ghost Town.” Rocky Mountain MLA Conference, University of Colorado: Boulder (2012).
  • “Powerful, Gripping and Relentless: The Rhetorical Impact of Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report.” Composing Ourselves: A Graduate Conference in Literature, Composition and Rhetoric, University of Cincinnati (2010).
  • “Out of the Puritan Past: Hawthorne's Use of Biblical Symbolism in ‘Roger Malvin's Burial’.” The Ohio Festival of the Short Story, Cincinnati, OH (2010).
  • Invited Panelist: “How to Survive Graduate School.” Topographies of Introspection, Cedarville University (2010).