Eric Schaefer, Ph.D., is a professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 and film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. He is an associate professor at Emerson College

Emerson College

Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...

 and interim chair of the visual and media arts department.

He has a B.A. from Webster University

Webster University

Webster University is an American non-profit private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Webster University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools...

, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin.

He is best known for his book on exploitation film

Exploitation film

Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...

making, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959, published by Duke University Press

Duke University Press

Duke University Press is an academic publisher of books and journals, and a unit of Duke University. It publishes approximately 120 books annually and more than 40 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections...

 in 1999. He has been described as "the go-to academic source on the genre of exploitation films."

He is a member of the Northeast Historic Film board of advisors and a member of the editorial board of the journal The Moving Image.

Selected works

• Bold! Daring! Shocking! True": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959 (1999) - Duke University Press.
• "Plain Brown Wrapper: Adult Films for the Home Market, 1930-1970", In the Absence of Films: Towards a New Historiographic Practice, Eric Smoodin and Jon Lewis, editors, Duke University Press.
• "Gauging a Revolution: 16mm Film and the Rise of the Pornographic Feature". Cinema Journal
  Cinema Journal
  The Cinema Journal is published by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies . It features articles on film studies, television studies, media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, film and media history, and moving image studies....
  
  - 41, Number 3, Spring 2002, pp. 3–26.
• "Dirty Little Secrets: Scholars, Archivists, and Dirty Movies". The Moving Image - Volume 5, Number 2, Fall 2005, pp. 79–105