Dissertation Fellow

Kameron Copeland

Kam Copeland is ABD in the Division of Cinema
and Media Studies at the University of Southern California School of
Cinematic Arts. His dissertation, “Muhammad Gazes: Islam, Blackness, and
Resistance Cinema in the US,” is a representational history of US Black
American Muslims in cinema. This project also explores how Black
Muslims have developed alternative gazes and liberatory cinematic
practices to resist dominant framings of Muslimness in the US media.

AADS5526 Islam in African American Cinema

This course is a historical exploration of Islam in African American cinema
from the 1960s to the present. In this course, we will simultaneously
trace the evolution of African American cinema alongside social,
cultural, and political developments in U.S. Black American Muslim
communities to understand how Black Muslims have historically and
theoretically defined the cinematic. In addition to focusing on
representation, we will explore the various ways Islam and the Islamic
has been understood by Black filmmakers while investigating how Black
Muslims have used cinema to resist dominant narratives. Representation,
production history, and audience reception are approached through a
cultural studies framework that emphasizes critical analyses of race,
class, and gender.