Peter Decherney, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities, is a professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Studies, director of the Penn Global Documentary Institute, and faculty director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation. He holds a secondary appointment at the Annenberg School for Communication and an affiliation with the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition at Penn Law School.

Decherney has authored or edited seven books including Hollywood’s Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet and Hollywood: A Very Short Introduction, and has written for The New York Times, Forbes, Inside Higher Ed, and other publications. His first book of photography, Endless Exodus: the Jewish Experience in Ethiopia, is forthcoming. In addition, Decherney is an award-winning documentary and virtual reality filmmaker who has directed films about global migration and the political role of artists in Myanmar, Kenya, Ethiopia, and the U.S. Decherney has been an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholar, a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, and a U.S. State Department Arts Envoy to Myanmar.