Richard Abel (cultural historian)

Richard Abel is Professor Emeritus of International Film and Media in the Department of Film, Television, and Media at the University of Michigan. He is a specialist in the history of silent film and pioneered the academic study of French silent film in the United States. Abel has authored numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics including the rise and eclipse of French cinema, the early history of the U.S. cinema industry, early film exhibition, the emergence of film culture in newspapers, the contributions of early women writers and critics, and, more recently, the role of early westerns in re-enacting settler colonialism.