Research Bio

Nicholas Baer’s work examines film and digital media in dynamic relation to vital traditions of modern thought, with a particular emphasis on aesthetics, critical theory, and the philosophy of history. His research interests also include film theory and historiography, media theory and archaeology, and the philosophy of technology. At Berkeley, Baer is affiliated with the Department of Film & Media, Program in Critical Theory, Program in Dutch Studies, Center for Jewish Studies, Berkeley Center for New Media, and Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society.

In his book Historical Turns: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism (University of California Press, 2024), Baer reassesses Weimar cinema in light of the “crisis of historicism” widely diagnosed by German philosophers in the early twentieth century. His current book project examines the concept of aesthetic perfection across global film and media theory, engaging with thinkers including Walter Benjamin, Dziga Vertov, Julio García Espinosa, and Hito Steyerl. He has co-edited three volumes: The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907–1933 (University of California Press, 2016), Unwatchable (Rutgers University Press, 2019), and Technics: Media in the Digital Age (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).

Baer has co-edited special issues of German Life and Letters ("Provincialising Weimar Culture") and NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies ("#Rumors"), and his articles have appeared in journals such as Film Quarterly, Krisis: Journal for Contemporary Philosophy, Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Seminar, and Qui Parle. He was awarded the Karsten Witte Prize for best film essay of the year from the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, and his writings have been translated into seven languages. A series editor of “The Key Debates: Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies” (Amsterdam University Press), he also serves on the editorial boards of “Configurations of Film” (meson press), Cultural Critique, Film History, German Screen Studies, Research in Film and History, and WeimarCinema.org.

Baer’s research has been supported through yearlong grants from the Fulbright Program, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and Leo Baeck Institute / German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung). He has been an invited fellow at the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Cologne, Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study in Greifswald, and Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen. In 2022, he delivered one of the annual Siegfried Kracauer Lectures in Film and Media Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt. He has been a Visiting Professor at Lund University and the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. 

Baer received his B.A. in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in Film & Media and Critical Theory from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago, and he held faculty appointments at the State University of New York at Purchase, University of Groningen, and Utrecht University before joining the Berkeley faculty in 2023.

Research Expertise and Interest

film theory and history, digital media, aesthetics, critical theory, philosophy of history, technics, media theory and archaeology