Michael Slowik specializes in film sound and Hollywood cinema history from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is the author of Defining Cinema: Rouben Mamoulian and Hollywood Film Style, 1929-1957; 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 global cinema to the 1960s and upper-division courses on film history, genre and authorship.