Charlie Keil
Professor Charlie Keil has been a Professor at the University of Toronto since 1996 and became Director of the Cinema Studies Institute in 2005. During his time as Director, he oversaw the expansion of Cinema Studies from an undergraduate College program to a free-standing institute offering MA and PhD degrees. He is currently the Principal of Innis College, a position that he has held since 2015.
Professor Keil received his BA from the University of Toronto and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
His publications, which include eight books and more than 50 journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries, have consistently focused on early and silent American cinema, though he has also published on later periods, on topics as diverse as documentary, stardom, and modernism/modernity.
Many of his publications have examined what he has termed the “transitional” period of early American cinema, understood to coincide with the single-reel era of production and stretching into the years of the early feature film. His most recent publication is the Oxford Handbook of Silent Cinema (2024), co-edited with Rob King of Columbia University.
A frequent interview subject for a broad range of media outlets, Professor Keil provides expertise on all aspects of the film and culture industries. He has appeared on shows such as The Current, The Agenda, and Here and Now, and has been interviewed for stories appearing in national newspapers and Maclean’s, among other print publications.
His teaching awards include the President’s Teaching Award in 2022, the Distinguished Pedagogy Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies in 2019, and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts & Science in 2015; he was also a top 20 finalist for TVO’s Lecturer of the Year in 2006.