Patrick Keating Honored with Guggenheim Fellowship

Trinity University Communication Professor Patrick Keating, Ph.D., has been awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the nation’s most prestigious honors for scholarship in the arts.

Awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the fellowship recognizes Keating’s research on the aesthetics of global cinematography. His current book project, The Luminists: On the Art of Film Lighting after Neorealism, explores how postwar cinematographers developed distinctive styles of lighting that challenged Hollywood conventions and captured unique aspects of local cultures.

“In selecting Dr. Keating for this fellowship, the Guggenheim Foundation recognizes what the Trinity community has known for nearly two decades: Dr. Keating’s work illuminates the world of cinema in the classroom and on the page,” says Megan Mustain, Ph.D., provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “This is a transformative moment for his scholarship, and a proud one for our University.”

Drawing on a career that bridges film production and critical scholarship, Keating has published four books, including The Dynamic Frame and Film Noir and the Arts of Lighting, and he has received honors from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Harry Ransom Center.

“I’m deeply honored to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship,” said Keating. “It affirms the importance of thinking historically and globally about the aesthetics of film, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring attention to cinematographers whose artistry has shaped how we see the world on screen.”

The Luminists project and Keating’s upcoming book will focus on five influential cinematographers whose work helped define a new visual language in international art cinema from the 1940s to the 1970s: James Wong Howe, G. R. Aldo, Subrata Mitra, Sven Nykvist, and Néstor Almendros. The fellowship will support a full sabbatical year (2025–26) to complete the manuscript.

Keating highlighted the impact this honor will have on his work with students at Trinity when he returns to the classroom. “After learning through this fellowship, I will return to teaching and research with new ideas, stories, and perspectives from global cinema history,” Keating says.

Keating joins the 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows, a group of 198 distinguished individuals selected on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise. The 2025 Fellows represent 53 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 83 academic institutions, 32 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces.

A member of Trinity’s faculty since 2007, Keating has taught extensively in film history, critical media studies, and video production. He is also an innovator in videographic criticism—a growing form of scholarship that uses audiovisual essays to explore film form and meaning.