Kalani Michell

Kalani Michell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Previously, she held positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the Configurations of Film research collective and as an Assistant Professor in Media Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her work spans diverse media including photography, comics, installation art, film theory, and sound studies.

• Education
  • Ph.D. in German Studies with a minor in Moving Image Studies, University of Minnesota
  • M.A. in German Studies, University of Minnesota
  • B.A. in German Studies and International Affairs, University of Nevada, Reno

Her research interrogates the messy, non-linear processes of media production, focusing on overlooked elements like paperwork, packaging, and copyright battles. She is completing her monograph Media Among Themselves: Unboxing Audiovisual Media from the 1960s and 1970s, which challenges traditional views of artistic creation by analyzing interactions between media processes.

Recent publications include studies on video conferencing interfaces in remote learning (Video Conferencing, 2023), Antiguan studio photographs in Frank Walter’s paintings (liquid blackness, 2023), and disciplinary yearbooks in German studies (New German Critique, 2023). Her work traces themes of surveillance, invisibility, and media historiography across European cinema and transcultural contexts.

• Scientific Awards
  • UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows (2022-2023)
  • Council on Research Faculty Research Grant (2022-2023)
  • Fulbright Research Grant (2014-2015)
  • Max Kade Fellowship (2008-2009)

She has taught courses like Transatlantic Bauhaus, Media Environments and German Palm Tree Dreams, and Comparative Media Studies, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to European and transcultural media.