about

I am a cinema and media studies scholar with interests in world cinemas, critical theory, ecological media, and early and avant-garde cinema. Since Fall of 2024, I have been conducting research at the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at University of Pennsylvania as a postdoctoral fellow. I have taught film and media studies courses at the University of Pennsylvania, Loyola Marymount University, Chapman University, and UC Riverside.

My current project is an extension of my Ph.D. dissertation, is titled Aqueous Image: World Cinema and the Blue Humanities. In it, I explore and argue for a rhetoric and epistemology of water in philosophical, literary, and filmic texts of the 20th century, and its significance as a motif for the conception of the human, the film form, and the ecological discourse.

Alongside the written research, I am developing a companion piece and a teaching tool in the form of an interactive map: Aqueous Earth Catalog. Aqueous Earth Catalog is a flagship project of a mapping tool I have designed at CARGC: Media Mapper. If you want to collaborate or make your own media mapper, please write to me. You can also check out the Media Mapper website for more information.

I hold a Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Southern California, and a BA from the University of Chicago.