Nicole Pacelli is a first-year PhD student in Film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She studies how black mixed race identities are constructed and perceived in cinema, with a focus on contemporary film and black diasporic cinema across national contexts. Her work explores how films connect mixed race experience to broader histories and how U.S. and postcolonial cinemas articulate questions of selfhood, memory, and belonging. She is particularly interested in how moments of racial misrecognition and ambiguity shape how audiences understand race and identity.
Upcoming and Recent Conference Presentations:
- 2026 – Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS), “The Sonic Color Line: The Aural Landscape of Racial Liminality in Nathaniel Martello-White’s The Strays”
- 2025 – Music and the Moving Image (MaMI), “Sonic Representations of the African Diaspora in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King”
- 2025 – Midwest Graduate Film Studies Symposium (MGFSS), “The Paradox of Belonging: The Pluralities of Identity in Safina Uberoi’s My Mother India”
- 2024 – Annual Conference on South Asia (ACSA), “In Search of Belonging: Documenting the Pluralities of Identity in Safina Uberoi’s My Mother India”
- 2024 – Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS), “Invisibility, Visibility and Mixed-Race Representation in Marvel’s Ant-man and the Wasp”
- 2024 – Midwest Graduate Film Studies Symposium (MGFSS), “Mixploitation and the Representation of ‘Free Women of Color’ in Jack Weis’s Quadroon”
Honors/Awards:
- Baxter Inclusive Excellence Awards, UW-Madison, Spring 2025 (awarded to students who make significant contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusivity initiatives in the department, on campus, within the discipline, and/or in the community through their research, service, or teaching)
- Sharon Sites Award, UW-Madison, Spring 2024 (awarded to outstanding women in Film & Media and Cultural Studies areas of Communication Arts)
- Brommel-Hanson-Ijams-Hayward Scholarship, NEIU, Fall 2022
- McNair Scholar, NEIU, 2020-2022
- Fall Merit Tuition Scholarship, NEIU, Fall 2021
- Communication, Media, and Theatre Distinguished Student Award, NEIU, 2019-2021
Education:
- M.A. Film – Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2024
- B.A. – Communication, Media, and Theatre, Northeastern Illinois University, 2022
Courses:
Teaching Assistant:
- CA 100 – Introduction to Speech Composition
- CA 355 – Introduction to Media Production
Service:
- Graduate Student Organization Representative, 2024-2026