Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cinema within the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, specializing in Film Studies. Her academic leadership spans graduate supervision in Film and Moving Image Studies (MA/PhD) and Humanities (PhD) programs.

Her research expertise encompasses

• Cinephilia and archival film practices
• Japanese cinema and Naruse Mikio scholarship
• Experimental and ethnographic film
• Women's representation across Hollywood and global cinema
• Walter Benjamin's critical theory applications
• Urban narratives and melodrama studies

With a PhD from New York University, her methodological approach integrates cultural studies with media archaeology.

Russell's publication trajectory reveals deep engagement with archiveology and star studies, particularly through her Barbara Stanwyck scholarship spanning Westerns, melodramas, and postwar cinema. Recent work shows increasing focus on

• Decolonizing archival practices
• Indigenous media representation
• Difficult cinema aesthetics
• Black film history recovery
• Sensory dimensions of digital archives

Her 2023 monograph The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck exemplifies her signature blend of feminist critique and archival investigation.

Active in graduate education, she supervises thesis work across multiple programs while teaching specialized courses including Walter Benjamin seminars, Archiveology, and cinema-city relationships. Her editorial work includes guest-editing Frames Journal's special issue on sensory archives.