Jacqueline Najuma Stewart is a

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

professor of cinema studies and director of the nonprofit arts organization, Black Cinema House. She has written about the history of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s in filmmaking in ''Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity'' (2005), co-authored, ''L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema'' (2015), and with Charles Musser co-curated the DVD set '' Pioneers of African-American Cinema'' (2016). Stewart has served on the

National Film Preservation Board The United States National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The National Film Regis ...

(NFPB) of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

and chaired the NFPB Diversity Task Force. In 2005, she founded the South Side Home Movie Project, which collects, preserves, as a cultural and historical resource, the homemade films of residents of South Side, Chicago, together with interviews of creators. In September 2019, Stewart also became the first African-American host of

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

, as host for Silent Sunday Nights. Taking a sabbatical from the university, in 2021 she was named the inaugural artistic director at the

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a museum in Los Angeles, California constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which is devoted to the history, science, and cultural impact of the film industry. It is the f ...

. Stewart was raised on Chicago's South Side and graduated from Kenwood Academy High School. She received her BA from Stanford University, and her AM and PhD both from the University of Chicago (UC). She taught at the university from 1999 to 2006, and then moved to an associate professorship at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, returning to UC in 2013. In 2018, she was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. In 2021, she was awarded a

MacArthur Foundation Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

. On July 6, 2022, the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures announced Stewart's appointment as director and president of the institution.

References

External links

*: interview * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Jacqueline Living people University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago alumni Stanford University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Northwestern University faculty American Academy of Arts and Sciences MacArthur Fellows African-American academics