Professor Francis specializes in the history and aesthetics of African Diaspora cinema, literature and culture. Her current project is “The Josephine Baker Body–Museum: Blackness, Power and Visual Pleasure,” which foregrounds her concern with race, gender and cinema. Further research includes studies of Jamaican film culture and African American home movies. Professor Francis’ courses include “American Experimental Cinema,” “Blaxploitation Re–examined,” and “Close Analysis of Film and Spike Lee.”