Joshua Yumibe

Joshua Yumibe is a Professor of Film & Media Studies at Michigan State University (MSU), specializing in the aesthetic and technological history of cinema, particularly focusing on color. He holds the title of MSU Research Foundation Professor and is an editor of Screen and the Contemporary Film Directors Series. His research explores color's role in modernism, avant-garde cinema, and archival practices.

Yumibe earned his PhD in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago (2007). He previously taught at Oakland University and the University of St Andrews, and served as Director of MSU’s Film Studies Program (2013–2021). His collaborations include the Davide Turconi Project, which digitized early cinema nitrate frames, and the exhibition “Dreaming in Color” (2018) at the George Eastman Museum.

His research interests center on color’s materiality and cultural significance, particularly in African and diasporic cinemas. Key works include Chromatic Modernity (2019), co-authored with Sarah Street, which won the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award and the IAMHIST-Michael Nelson Prize. He also co-edited Global Film Color: The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury (2024), advancing studies on mid-20th-century cinematic technology.

Yumibe’s recent projects include a book manuscript, Chromatic Blackness, examining race and color in moving images. He has received prestigious awards, including the MSU Teacher-Scholar Award (2016) and the IAMHIST Prize (2021). His teaching spans courses on film theory, color cinema, and archival studies, linking pedagogy to his research.

He has held leadership roles in organizations like Domitor (International Society for the Study of Early Cinema), serving as vice-president (2016–2018). His work bridges historical analysis with contemporary media discourse, emphasizing color’s transformative role in cultural narratives.