useful-cinemaThe Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the oldest and most prestigious organization for film and media scholars, has awarded USEFUL CINEMA (Duke University Press, 2011) an honorable mention in its 2013 Best Edited Collection Award competition. USEFUL CINEMA was edited by Charles Acland (CURC Communication Studies) and Haidee Wasson (Cinema Studies), and the volume grew out of an SSHRC-funded workshop held at Concordia University in 2006. The book consists of fourteen essays that explore how mid-twentieth-century institutions, including libraries, museums, classrooms, and professional organizations, helped to make moving images an ordinary feature of American life. The SCMS awards committee praised the volume for helping to open up a new research domain and noted the consistently high quality of the historical research across the essays. This is the first time an SCMS Best Edited Collection Award committee has recognized work from scholars at a Canadian university. The award ceremony will take place in Chicago in March.