Robert Baird is Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Coordinator of Instructional Development for CITES EdTech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has published essays on literature, film, and cognition. One essay, "'Going Indian': In and Around Dances with Wolves," has been anthologized in four volumes. His 1995 dissertation, "A Cognitive Poetics of the Threat: How Movies Scare Us," uses cognitive psychology to address why film viewers can be frightened by film scenes they know are fictional. Baird's current research and teaching focuses on how traditional Hollywood cinema is adapting to the new media environment. His nonacademic film experience includes three years in Hollywood as an assistant film editor. Currently, he is web master for Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. Off campus, Baird coaches and plays soccer; jams on the guitar and drums with his son, Sean; and watches movies with his daughter, Becky, and his wife, Cathy.