Research Bio

Nicholas Baer’s work examines film and digital media in relation to vital traditions of modern thought, with an emphasis on aesthetics, critical theory, and the philosophy of history. His research and teaching interests include film theory and historiography, the Frankfurt School, media theory and archaeology, the philosophy of technology, and psychoanalysis. At Berkeley, he holds a joint appointment between the Department of Film & Media and Department of German, and he is affiliated with the 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 reinterprets 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 in global film and media theory, engaging thinkers including Walter Benjamin, Dziga Vertov, Julio García Espinosa, and Hito Steyerl. He is co-editor of 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"). 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 received the Karsten Witte Prize from the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft for the best film essay of the year, and his work has been translated into seven languages. He is a series editor of “The Key Debates: Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies” (Amsterdam University Press) and 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 by 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 (Cologne), Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study (Greifswald), and Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (Bremen). In 2022, he delivered the Siegfried Kracauer Lecture in Film and Media Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt. He has also 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 UC Berkeley. He was a Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago, and he held faculty appointments at SUNY Purchase, University of Groningen, and Utrecht University before joining Berkeley in 2023.

Research Expertise and Interest

film theory and history, digital media, aesthetics, Frankfurt School Critical Theory, philosophy of history, technics, media theory and archaeology, psychoanalysis