Dassanowsky was named CU Distinguished Professor of Film Studies and Languages & Cultures by the University of Colorado System in November 2020. He has been professor of German and Visual and Performing Arts, and founding director of film studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs since 1993, and has become particularly known for his influential scholarly work on Austrian author Alexander Lernet-Holenia, German filmmaker and photographer Leni Riefenstahl, and on Austrian and Central European film. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Media Communication at Webster University Vienna and is an Affiliate Faculty of the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS) New York since 2017 and member of the Board of Directors of the GCAS Research Institute Dublin since 2019.