Dr. Philana Payton is a Scholar-Activist and a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African-American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the Cinema and Media Studies master’s and doctoral program at the University of Southern California and received her bachelor’s degree from Claflin University. Her research focus uses Black Studies, Performance Theory and Film Theory to explore blackness and visual culture through Black women’s performances. Philana has also done extensive archival research on early 20th century Black Silent Cinema and has conducted race and gender analyses on classical era films through today's cinema, television, and media.
