Wesleyan portrait of Michael James Slowik

Michael James Slowik

Associate Professor of Film Studies

Center for Film Studies, 156
860-685-685-

Vice Chair, Film Studies

mslowik@wesleyan.edu

BA Wesleyan University
MA University of Chicago
MA University of Iowa
PHD University of Iowa

Michael James Slowik

Michael Slowik specializes in film sound and Hollywood cinema history from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is the author of After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era, 1926-1934—which was long-listed for the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Moving Image Book Award—and numerous articles on film history. Though specializing in Hollywood’s studio-era history, his work ranges across the history of U.S. cinema, with articles on the screening of early films in vaudeville houses, cinema’s representation of the September 11th attacks, and the films of Paul Thomas Anderson.

Michael earned his B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University in 2003, followed by an M.A. in the Humanities from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Iowa. He teaches an introductory-level course on the history of world cinema to the 1960s and upper-division courses on film history, genre and authorship. 

Academic Affiliations

Office Hours

Spring 2024: Mondays 12:15-2:15 p.m.

Courses

Spring 2024
FILM 304 - 01
History of Global Cinema

FILM 306 - 01
First Things Film

FILM 389 - 01
The Western

Fall 2024
FILM 390 - 01
History of Film Sound

FILM 391 - 01
American Film Under Censorship