Roger Hallas

Roger Hallas is a Professor of English at Syracuse University’s College of Arts & Sciences, specializing in documentary media, LGBTQ studies, and photography studies. He holds a BA from the University of Oxford and a PhD from NYU’s Cinema Studies program. His research explores visual culture’s role in bearing witness to historical trauma, particularly through documentary film and photography. He co-directed the Syracuse University Human Rights Film Festival (2010–2023) and co-founded the Turning the Lens collective, which develops inclusive archives via community-based family photography projects.

Key publications include A Medium Seen Otherwise: Photography in Documentary Film (Oxford UP, 2023) and Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness, and the Queer Moving Image (Duke UP, 2009). Awards include the Seinfeld Distinguished Faculty Fellowship (2011) and Howard Foundation Fellowship (2016). His teaching focuses on world cinema, documentary theory, and queer visual culture.

Recent grants include funding for Black Family Photography in Syracuse (NY State Archives, 2024–2025) and projects on engaged humanities and social justice. He advises students on media studies, queer theory, and archival practices.