Kiki Loveday

Kiki Loveday serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Film & Media Studies at Smith College, where they bridge scholarly research and creative practice through interdisciplinary work at the intersections of queer and feminist media historiography. Their award-winning scholarship and gallery installations have been featured at venues including Union Docs in Brooklyn and The Femmes Video Art Festival in Los Angeles.

Education:

• Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz
• M.F.A., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• M.A., The Ohio State University
• B.F.A., Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Loveday's research centers on femxle authorship, feminist, queer, intersectional and anti-racist historiographies, with particular focus on the development of individual voice in early cinema. Their current book project examines silent-era Sappho films (1900-1931) to trace the historical emergence of the motion picture director, revealing how these works shaped queer representation and cinematic authorship through overlooked feminist and lesbian perspectives.

Analysis of their publications shows consistent engagement with early cinema's queer undercurrents, particularly through re-examination of canonical films like 'The Kiss' and Victorian-era visual culture. Their work systematically challenges traditional film historiography by centering lesbian reproduction, Sapphic sexuality, and anti-racist methodologies, demonstrating how silent-era films encoded radical gender and sexual politics through metaphorical frameworks like 'cabbages' and 'fairies'.

Scientific Awards:

• Society of Cinema and Media Studies Dissertation Award (2023)
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies Gender and Feminisms Caucus Graduate Student Writing Prize (2021)
• President’s Fellowship, University of California Santa Cruz
• Two Feminist Media History Initiative Fellowships
• Artist Residency at The Huntington Library

Loveday co-founded NYU's Women in the Director’s Chair Oral History Project, documenting women directors' experiences, and currently serves on Women in Film History International's steering committee. Their research has received significant grant support including UC Santa Cruz's President’s Fellowship and Feminist Media History Initiative funding, enabling archival work on silent-era Sappho films at institutions like The Huntington Library.

They actively contribute to collaborative initiatives including The Women in the Director’s Chair Oral History Project and Women in Film History International, which preserve marginalized cinematic histories through oral documentation and international scholarly networks focused on recovering women and queer filmmakers' contributions to cinema.