Ross Melnick

Profile

ACADEMIC HOST
Dr. Ohad Landesman
The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television

Lowy Distinguished Guest Professor
23.6.26-5.7.26

Education

B.A., Brandeis University, American Studies | Minors: Film Studies, Journalism (1996)
M.A., UCLA, Cinema and Media Studies (2994)
Ph.D., UCLA, Cinema and Media Studies

Professional Experience

Interim Director, Carsey-Wolf Center, University of California, Santa Barbara (2025 – Present)
Professor, Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara (2021 – Present)
Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara (2015 – 2021)
Assistant Professor, Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara (2012 – 2015)
Assistant Professor, English and Cinema Studies, Oakland University, Rochester, MI (2011 – 2012)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University, Atlanta (2010 – 2011)
Lecturer, History / Cinema and Media Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (2009 – 2010)
Lecturer, Arts & Humanities, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles (2008 – 2010)
Teaching Fellow/Assistant, University of California, Los Angeles (2003 – 2009)

Fellowships and Memberships

Academy Film Scholars Grant, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2017–2018)
Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities (2015–2016)
Regents’ Humanities Faculty Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara (2017–2018)
Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara (2014)
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Emory University Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry (2010–2011)
Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles (2008–2009)
Chancellor’s Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles (2004–2007)

Awards

Culbert Family Book Prize, International Association for Media and History (2024)
Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association (2023)
Robert Emmons Award, University of California, Santa Barbara (2017–2018)
Alumnus of the Year, University of California, Los Angeles (2012)
Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award, University of California, Los Angeles (2009)

Faculty

Framework of visit

Period of visit

Selected Publications

Books

Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World. New York: Columbia University Press (2022).
American Showman: Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry. New York: Columbia University Press (2012).
Rediscovering U.S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television, and the Archive. Co-edited with Mark Cooper, Sara Levavy, and Mark Williams. New York: AFI/Routledge (2018).
Cinema Treasures. Co-authored. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing (2004).

Selected Articles and Book Chapters

“Hollywood’s Muddle East: Political Change in Egypt and Israel and the Consequences for Hollywood’s Middle Eastern Movie Theaters.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (2017).
“Salisbury Stakes: Twentieth Century-Fox, Segregated Cinemas, and the Making of an International Crisis in Colonial Zimbabwe.” Cinema Journal (2016).
“Reality Radio: Remediating the Radio Contest Genre in Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour Films.” Film History (2011).
“Rethinking Rothafel: Roxy’s Forgotten Legacy.” The Moving Image (2003).
“A Prologue to Hollywood: Sid Grauman, Silent Era Exhibition, and the (Real Estate) Development of Hollywood.” In Oxford Handbook of Silent Cinema. Oxford University Press (2024).
“Any Given Sunday at La Cadena Metropolitana: Spanish-Language Theaters in Los Angeles and the Influence of Film Exhibitors, 1963–2001.” In Companion to American Film History. Routledge (2025).
“It’s A Kind of Soundtrack: Queen, Highlander, and the ‘Unofficial’ Soundtrack Album.” In The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media. Routledge (2020).
“An Army of Theaters: Military, Technological, and Industrial Change in U.S. Army Motion Picture Exhibition.” In Cinema’s Military Industrial Complex. University of California Press (2018).

Prof. Ross Melnick