Boukary Sawadogo, an author and leading scholar of African cinema, is CCNY's new Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Humanities & the Arts.
Boukary Sawadogo, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Black Studies in the Division of Humanities and the Arts, is The City College of New York’s 2024-2025 Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Humanities & the Arts. The endowed professorship is supported by a $1 million gift to CCNY by distinguished alumnus Stuart Z. Katz, Esq., a 1964 graduate.
A highlight of Sawadogo’s new appointment will be the Katz Lecture that he will deliver on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at CCNY’s Advanced Science Research Center Auditorium. Entitled “Of Here and Afar: The World in Me," his talk begins at 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Click here to register.
Sawadogo is a leading scholar of African cinema, an author and founder of the Harlem African Animation Festival. His multifaceted work seeks to give voice and presence to film/media productions that developed outside of the Hollywood cinema model. As a writer, Sawadogo interrogates the place and trajectory of Africa in the world through the diasporas.
As Katz Professor, Sawadogo plans to conduct archival and field research toward his latest book on African animation. It will focus on the history, aesthetics, theory, and the emerging market for animation in Africa. “Animation studies as an academic field is relatively recent, having only been fully established in the 1990s,” he said. “Within this field, attention to African animation is glaringly absent. My book aims to fill this gap.”
About Dr. Boukary Sawadogo
In addition to his faculty position at CCNY the Ivorian-born Sawadogo, is also affiliated with the Graduate Center, CUNY. His latest research interests include the study of comedy and digital technologies in African cinema. Sawadogo has written extensively on African cinema, including film reviews, articles, book chapters, and books. Most of his books are required reading in several courses on African cinema that are taught in American universities. His books are:
- African Film Studies: An Introduction;
- West African Screen Media: Comedy, TV Series, and Transnationalization;
- Les Cinémas Francophones Ouest Africains, 1990-2005; and
- Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story.
Sawadogo’s documentary, Salut Y'al: African Teachers on the Bayou, was selected for screening at the 2013 African World Documentary Film Festival. He launched the Harlem African Animation Festival in November 2020. It is exclusively devoted to animated films and series from Africa and is the first of its kind in the U.S.
About Stuart Z. Katz Professorship
The Stuart Z. Katz Professorship in the Humanities & the Arts was established in 2017 by a generous gift from Stuart Z. Katz, a 1964 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The City College. The endowment supports one outstanding professorial faculty member in the Division of Humanities & the Arts for an academic year, providing the professor up to two months of summer salary plus $10,000 to support research and creative activity. A retired attorney, Katz established the gift for the importance of the study of humanities and the arts for a thorough education and life.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
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jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu
View CCNY Media Kit.