Morgan Adamson

Morgan Adamson serves as Professor and Chair of Media and Cultural Studies at Macalester College, where she bridges scholarly research and creative practice through film and media theory. Her leadership encompasses curriculum development, departmental administration, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration within the institution.

She earned her PhD in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature from the University of Minnesota, following which she held an ACLS New Faculty Fellowship at Duke University before joining Macalester.

Adamson's research interrogates cinema as a form of collective resistance, examining intersections of documentary and experimental film with urban spaces, architectural politics, and social reproduction. Her work critically engages race, finance capital, and geographies of displacement through archival research and collaborative filmmaking practices that animate hidden histories. Current projects extend these investigations into the political economies of infrastructure and crisis.

Her major creative-scholarly outputs—including the 2023 film Brutal Utopias and the 2018 monograph Enduring Images—demonstrate consistent interdisciplinary movement across film studies, critical political economy, and urban anthropology. These works collectively analyze visual media's capacity to contest dominant historical narratives while revealing suppressed social struggles.

Her recognition includes:

• ACLS New Faculty Fellowship

Adamson actively contributes to Macalester's Interdisciplinary Media Lab, guiding student projects that merge media production with critical social analysis. Her teaching portfolio includes advanced courses on documentary theory, oppositional cinemas, and video production that emphasize technical skill development alongside political consciousness.