David Pettersen

David Pettersen is Professor and Director of the Film & Media Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh's Dietrich School. His research bridges film and media industry studies with formal analysis of style, contextualized within cultural, historical, and theoretical frameworks. He has established scholarly collaborations with the University of Lyon 2 and organized international conferences on French film and media.

Pettersen's research focuses on national identity in French media, particularly cinema and long-form serial television within the globalized media ecosystem. He examines how new production, distribution, exhibition, and educational models affect France's diasporic communities in French media industries. His work spans French cinema history, postcolonial studies, urban studies, and digital humanities, with particular attention to universalism, suburban spaces, and Hollywood's influence on French filmmaking.

His publications reveal consistent engagement with French cinematic identity, the adaptation of Hollywood genres to French contexts, and the evolution of French media in the streaming era. Pettersen's scholarship demonstrates how French filmmakers negotiate universalism while representing marginalized communities in postcolonial France.

Scientific Awards:

• Pitt Humanities Center Fellow (2018)
• University of Pittsburgh A&S Type I Research Grants (2011, 2013, 2018)
• Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (2017)
• Rhône-Alpes Regional Government COOPERA ACCUEIL PRO Grant (2015)

Pettersen actively mentors graduate students and advanced undergraduates in film and media studies and French cultural studies. He has directed dissertations across 20th century literary studies and film/media studies, and coordinates the film and media research network in the department. His international collaborations include an ongoing scholarly exchange program with the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Lyon 2, through which he has co-edited special journal issues and organized conferences.

He is currently researching French television's evolution in the streaming era and working on long-term projects about casting practices in the French film industry and the history of film production education in France, particularly regarding diversity initiatives both in front of and behind the camera.