Sarah Keller

Sarah Keller is a Professor in the Art Department at UMass Boston, specializing in Cinema and Media Studies. Her research bridges experimental film, feminist theory, and queer aesthetics, with a focus on historical and contemporary intersections of cinema, affect, and spectatorship.

• Books: Maya Deren: Incomplete Control, Anxious Cinephilia: Pleasure and Peril at the Movies, and Barbara Hammer: Pushing Out of the Frame.
• Edited Works: Co-edited Jean Epstein: Critical Essays and New Translations.

Her scholarship explores cinephilia as a cultural and emotional phenomenon, analyzing films through lenses of anxiety, desire, and technological change. She has contributed to journals like Camera Obscura, Cinema Journal, and Studies in French Cinema, often connecting experimental filmmaking to broader socio-political contexts.

Keller founded the Boston Cinema/Media Seminar, fostering academic discourse on film and media. Her work frequently engages with directors such as Maya Deren, Barbara Hammer, and Jean Epstein, emphasizing the enduring relevance of avant-garde practices in contemporary media landscapes.