Charlene Regester

Charlene Regester is an Associate Professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on Slavery (pre-1865), African American cinema from 1900 to the present, and cultural studies. She holds a B.A. in English, M.A. in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures, and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction Design with an emphasis on Educational Media, all from UNC-Chapel Hill, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship there.

Dr. Regester’s work emphasizes historical visibility of Black artists and cultural narratives. She has authored seminal books such as African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900–1960 (2010), nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and co-taught a course on Race, Melodrama, and Cinema at Duke University. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Film and Video and contributes to journals like Film History and Popular Music and Society.

Her research bridges historical media analysis with contemporary cultural discourse, particularly through annotated bibliographies of African American newspapers. These works document underrepresented voices in entertainment and journalism, highlighting marginalized narratives in Black history.