Peter
Decherney
Research Topic
Amplifying the Stories of African Jewish Communities through Photography and Film
Bio
Peter Decherney is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Chair in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is professor of Cinema & Media Studies and director of the Penn Global Documentary Institute. He holds a secondary appointment at the Annenberg School for Communication and an affiliation with the Penn Law Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition. An award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and author, his work focuses on global migration, African Jewish communities, and the political roles of artists. He has previously served as a U.S. State Department Arts envoy to Myanmar. His photographs of global Jewish communities have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and universities, and his documentary short film, Is It because I’m a Girl?, about South Sudanese Hip-Hop Dancer Nao.G, premiered at the 2024 Miami Film Festival.
Decherney received his Ph.D. from New York University.
Selected publications
- Hollywood: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2016).
- Hollywood’s Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet (Columbia University Press, 2012).
