American Studies Program
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Charles Musser

Charles Musser is Professor of American Studies, Theater Studies and Film Studies as well as co–chair of the Film Studies Program. His books include The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 (1990), High–Class Moving Pictures: Lyman H. Howe and the Forgotten Era of Traveling Exhibition, 1880–1920, with Carol Nelson (1991), and Edison Motion Pictures, 1890–1900: An Annotated Filmography (1997). He also co–edited Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African–American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era (2001) with Pearl Bowser and Jane Gaines. He recently edited a special issue of Film History on "Documentary before Verité (2006). He has published a number of essays on different aspects of Paul Robeson's film career and is currently writing a book entitled Truth and Documentary in the Age of George W. Bush. His graduate courses concentrate on film historiography, documentary, and American cinema.