Board Member, 2024–2027

Biography

Ross Melnick is Professor of Film and Media Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He was named an Academy Film Scholar and NEH Fellow for his book, Hollywood's Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World (Columbia University Press, 2022), which received the Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association. He is also the author of American Showman: Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry (CUP, 2012), which was awarded "Book of the Year" by the Theatre Historical Society of America. He is the co-editor of Rediscovering U.S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television, and the Archive (AFI/Routledge, 2018) and co-author of Cinema Treasures (MBI, 2004), inspired by the website (cinematreasures.org) he co-founded 25 years ago. His research has also appeared in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Film History, The Moving Image, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and in numerous edited collections. He received his Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA.

Degrees

Ph.D., Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA

Teaching & Research Interests

Film and Media History, Film Exhibition and Moviegoing, Media Industries, Film and Media Archives, Moving Image Journalism

Selected Publications & Works

Hollywood's Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.

Editor, Rediscovering U.S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television, and the Archive. New York: AFI/Routledge, 2018. (Co-editors Mark Cooper, Sara Levavy, and Mark Williams.)

American Showman: Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

Other Activities & Awards

Richard Wall Memorial Award for "Hollywood's Embassies," Theatre Library Association, 2023
Academy Film Scholars Grant, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2017–2018
Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2015–2016

SCMS Board & Committee Service

Member, Professional Development Committee, 2023–2024
Member, Katherine Singer Kovács Essay Award, 2022–2023
Ex-Officio Member, Media Archives Committee, 2022–2023
Co-Chair, Media Archives Committee, Society, 2021–2022
Chair, Media Archives Committee, 2018–2020

Contact

University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Film and Media Studies
Social Sciences and Media Studies 2405
Santa Barbara, CA 93117

rmelnick@ucsb.edu
Facebook: rossmelnick