Kareem Estefan

Dr. Kareem Estefan is an Assistant Professor of Film and Screen Studies at the University of Cambridge's Department of History of Art and a Fellow and Director of Studies in History of Art at Christ’s College. His research focuses on contemporary visual culture, particularly Arab moving-image practices, Global South cinema, and activist engagements with colonialism. He is currently on research leave during Lent Term 2025.

Estefan holds a PhD from Brown University (2022), where he completed a dissertation supported by the Mellon/ACLS and Darat al-Funun Fellowships. He also earned an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts (2012) and a BA in Comparative Literature from New York University (2008). Prior to Cambridge, he taught at Brown University, the American University of Beirut, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts.

His research explores decolonial processes in Palestinian art and cinema, framing witnessing as a form of worldbuilding and world repair. He co-edited Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (2017) and is completing a book manuscript on Palestinian moving-image practices.

Estefan’s writing appears in Artforum, Frieze, Journal of Visual Culture, and other venues. His work bridges scholarly and general-audience discourses, emphasizing art’s role in confronting colonial legacies and imagining alternative futures.