Matthew Omelsky

Matthew Omelsky is an Associate Professor of English, Black Studies, and Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester. He also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies for Black Studies and is a faculty affiliate in Film & Media Studies. His research focuses on global Black cultural studies, particularly exploring how 20th-21st century Black artists express utopian desires through music, visual culture, and literature across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas.

Education includes a PhD in English from Duke University (2018), MPS in Africana Studies from Cornell (2011), and BA in Africana Studies and Politics from NYU (2007). Notable awards include the 2023 G. Graydon Curtis Teaching Excellence Award and Mellon postdoctoral fellowships.

Current research projects include Black Speculative Experiments, examining contemporary art forms that reimagine societal conditions through formal innovation. He teaches courses on African American literature, speculative aesthetics, Black film collectives, and digital cultures. Professional service includes executive roles in MLA's Africa Since 1990 Forum and organizing interdisciplinary seminars on migration and cultural production.

Publications include the 2023 monograph Fugitive Time and over a dozen journal articles in venues like Small Axe, Cultural Critique, and The Black Scholar. His work bridges literary analysis with visual studies, film theory, and critical theory, emphasizing temporality and freedom's radical possibilities.