Noelle Griffis
Dr. Griffis
Title
Associate Professor & Assistant Division ChairDepartment
Communication and Media ArtsPhone
212-774-4864About
Noelle Griffis, PhD is Associate Professor of Film & Media Studies and Assistant Division Chair, Communication and Media Arts. Her teaching and research interests include film and television history and aesthetics, American independent cinema, New York City filmmaking, industry studies, race and gender in media, production cultures, and media policy.
Noelle’s research has recently appeared in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Black Camera, and edited collections including The Routledge Companion to Media and the City, Media Crossroads: Intersections of Space and Identity in Screen Cultures, and Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film. She is currently working on a collaborative oral history project on the history of women’s film collective organizing (1970s-90s), and drafting a manuscript on the relationship between urban development and film production in 1960s and 70s New York. Noelle is the co-chair of the Urbanism/Geography/Architecture Scholarly Interest Group for the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and serves on the editorial board of Mediapolis: a Journal of Cities and Culture.
Degree(s)
Ph.D. Indiana University
M.A. New York University
B.A. University of Alabama
Recent Work
“Can a Television Series be a Good Neighbor? The Bear’s ‘Delicate Ecosystem’,” Critical Studies in Television, forthcoming 2026 (article abstract accepted for special issue on gentrification and television, edited by Heike Steinhoff and Maria Sulimma).
“Open the Door and I’ll Get it for Myself: Minority Apprentice Programs and the Politics of the Urban Location Shoot.” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 62 no. 3 (Spring 2023): 60-85.
“What am I Supposed to do with All These White People?: Fifty Years of Gentrification Anxiety on Screen” in The Routledge Companion to Media and the City. Edited by Erica Stein, Germaine Halegoua, and Brendan Kredell. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge, 2022.
“Rebranding the Music City: The Televisual Tourism of ABC’s Nashville” in Media Crossroads: Intersections of Space and Identity in Screen Cultures. Edited by Pamela Wojcik, Angel Matos, and Paula Massood, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Spring 2021.
Teaching
Comm 131: Introduction to Cinema Studies
Comm 227: Styles and Genres in Film and Television
Comm 308: Cinema & the City (special topics)
Comm 330: Film & History
Comm 357: Contemporary World Cinema
Comm 367: American Independent Cinema
Professional Experience
EVENT ORGANIZING/ FILM PROGRAMMING
2026 Co-organizer “Women’s Work: Preserving Independent Film & Video Histories, Connecting Media Futures. Vassar Institute Signature Program, Feb 26-28. https://www.vassar.edu/institute/signature-programs
RECENT CONFERENCES
2025 “Third World Cinema’s Claudine: Brought to You by HUD and Model Cities, American Studies Association (ASA) Conference, San Juan (accepted).
2025 “William Greaves’s Radical Playground,” Screen Conference, Glasgow.
2025 “Can a Television Series be a Good Neighbor?” Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), Chicago.
Office Hours
Fall 2025: Tuesdays & Thursdays noon-2pm or by appointment