Michael W. Thomas

My research focuses on cinema in Ethiopia with my doctoral thesis theorising a culturally specific Ethiopian melodramatic imagination and its impacts on the system of genres in the Amharic film industry. I have co-edited and contributed chapters and an interview to the first book on the cinemas of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, Cine-Ethiopia: The History and Politics of Film in the Horn of Africa (Thomas, Jedlowski and Ashagrie 2018); I have also presented papers in conferences in Ethiopia and Europe, as well as contributing chapters on Amharic films to various academic publications along with my writing appearing in academic journals such as the Journal of African Cultural Studies, Black Camera: an International Film Journal, African Studies Review and Bulletin of SOAS. Most recently, I began work on a few fictional and non-fictional film projects relating to my research and wider interests.