Richard Barsam (born 8 November 1938), author and film historian, is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

The City University of New York , mottoeng = The education of free people is the hope of Mankind , budget = $3.6 billion , established = , type = Public university system , chancellor = Fél ...

(CUNY).W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.: Richard Barsam
Retrieved 22 September 2016.

Early life and education

Barsam was born in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

. He attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, earning a PhD degree in English literature in 1967.Barsam, Richard Meran (1967).
A Critical Edition of Elkana Settle's ''Cambyses, King of Persia''
" Unpublished PhD dissertation. University of Southern California. Concurrently, he was encouraged by two film professors (Arthur Knight and Richard Dyer MacCann) to attend without credit film history and other courses in the USC School of Cinema (now the

School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

), an experience that was to influence his further academic career significantly.

Career

In 1967, he joined the faculty of Richmond College, CUNY, where initially he taught courses both in English literature and film studies, eventually specializing exclusively in the latter. Between 1984 and 1991, he held executive management positions at CUNY, including University Dean for Faculty and Research and University Dean for Executive Search and Evaluation. Between 1991 and 1992, he served as Provost of

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

. In 1994, he resumed his teaching career as Professor of Film Studies at Hunter College, CUNY, and retired in 2001.

Selected publications

*''Nonfiction Film: A Critical History'', 1973 (revised and expanded edition published in 1992) *''Filmguide to'' Triumph of the Will, 1975 *''Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism'', 1976 *''In the Dark: A Primer for the Movies'', 1977 *''The Vision of Robert Flaherty: The Artist as Myth and Filmmaker'', 1988 *''Nonfiction Film: A Critical History'', 1973 (revised and expanded edition published in 1992) *''Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film'', 2003 (sixth edition published in 2019)

Personal life

Barsam's partner of thirty-nine years was the art historian

Edgar Munhall Edgar Joseph Munhall (March 14, 1933 – October 17, 2016) was an American art historian and Curator Emeritus of the Frick Collection. Early life and education Munhall was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He initially trained as an artist and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barsam, Richard 1938 births Film theorists American film historians Writers from Glendale, California USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Hunter College faculty City University of New York faculty Living people Historians from California