People Details

Colin Williamson is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Cinema Studies at Rutgers. He also serves on the Executive Committee of Domitor, The International Society for the Study of Early Cinema, and as a Reviews Editor for animation: an interdisciplinary journal (ANM). His research focuses on early cinema and media archaeology, film theory, animation, and the history of science. He is the author of Hidden in Plain Sight: An Archaeology of Magic and the Cinema (Rutgers UP, 2015), which maps an overlooked history in which special effects function as vehicles for teaching audiences about techno-scientific innovations. His new book project, Cinematic Wonderlands, explores the impacts of natural history and popular science on the aesthetics of American animated films throughout the 20th century. His articles and essays have appeared and are forthcoming in such edited collections and journals as Thinking in the Dark: Cinema, Theory, Practice (Rutgers UP, 2016), ANM, Leonardo, The Moving Image, Imaginations, Film History, and Early Popular Visual Culture. His research has been supported by fellowships and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in cinema and media studies from the University of Chicago.