Brooklyn College is pleased to announce that Paula J. Massood will serve as the new dean of the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts (SVMPA) as of July 2025. Massood has served as interim dean since July 2024 and will continue working with the SVMPA’s talented staff and faculty. In this role, she will oversee the school’s academic departments—Art; Conservatory of Music; Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema; Film (undergraduate); Performance in Media Arts; Television, Radio & Emerging Media; and Theater. Massood, who has served on the college faculty since 1999, became a full professor in 2019 and was appointed to the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. “Paula’s visionary leadership and profound insight into the evolving role of the arts in higher education—particularly her dedication to amplifying underrepresented voices—make her uniquely qualified to lead SVMPA into its next chapter,” said Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs April Bedford. “We are excited for the growth, creativity, and innovation her leadership will bring to our dynamic arts community.” “I’m thrilled to carry forward this important work as we empower the gifted student-artists, performers, and filmmakers who make the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts a truly dynamic and inspiring community,” Massood said. “With the expertise and dedication of our outstanding faculty, I’m confident we can work together to help our students realize their full potential.” Bringing a distinguished record of scholarship, leadership, and dedication to the arts, Massood is a noted expert in film studies and visual culture. She has published extensively, including the books Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film (2003) and Making a Promised Land: Harlem in 20th-Century Photography and Film (2013), while serving as the editor of The Spike Lee Reader (2007) along with other co-edited collections and journal issues. She is the past president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the leading scholarly organization for film, media, and visual studies, and has long been committed to fostering academic excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration across CUNY and with other public and private institutions of higher learning. Her leadership roles include serving as chair of the Department of Film, chair of the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and interim director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Brooklyn College, as well as acting coordinator of the Certificate in Film and Media Cultures at the CUNY Graduate Center. Massood earned a B.A. in communications from the University of New Hampshire, an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and a Ph.D. with distinction in cinema studies from New York University.
