Newsletters #3 (2025)
RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
From October 31, 2025 non-financial members will no longer receive newsletters, access to member-only events, and information about upcoming opportunities. This change helps us maintain a sustainable organisation that keeps delivering benefit to members. Thank you for your understanding and continued commitment!
SSAAANZ Annual Membership runs from 1st July to 30th June, regardless of when a member joins. If you have not done so already, please renew your membership.
Membership price for 12 months:
$60 (AUD) for continuing salaried academics or industry personnel.
$20 (AUD) for precariously employed academics, industry personnel, ECRs and students.
SSAAANZ membership provides…
Connection with Screen Studies colleagues nationally and internationally;
Participation in Screen Studies Association conference;
Access to Hub activities and connect with Scholarly Interest Groups
Participation in the SSAAANZ Mentoring Program;
Access to support for professional activities, including book launches, promotion of major research projects, creative outputs, and research in progress;
A platform for screen studies related collective advocacy and policy engagement;
A chance to disseminate and access to information about professional opportunities, including academic positions and funding;
Connections between industry, media, researchers and commentators.
SSAAANZ Online Conference 2025
We’re in the final stages of preparation for our Online Conference in November!
The conference theme is “Emerging and Dispersed Scholarship”, putting a spotlight on new screen research projects, under-covered and novel areas of screen research, developments in screen practice and craft, and the excellent work of HDR students and Early Career Researchers. We’ve organised two full days of fantastic panels from over thirty scholars of all levels from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
We’re delighted to announce our two conference keynote speakers: Associate Professor Jani Wilson (University of Canterbury) and Senior Professor Sue Turnbull (University of Wollongong). We’ll also be awarding two prizes for presentations across both days, The Sue Turnbull Award for Best Pop Culture Paper and The Steven Gaunson Award for Best HDR/Independent Scholar Paper. Details on these awards and how to nominate will be released with our conference program.
We invite all interested scholars to attend the conference on Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 November, held via Zoom. There is no cost for the conference itself but all presenters and attendees must be current registered SSAAANZ members in order to attend: please head here if you need to renew your membership. Please get in touch with the working group at ssaaanzonline2025@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Our conference program, details for the awards and links to the presentations will be released shortly, so keep an eye on your inbox!
Opportunities
3x PhD Scholarships and 1 x Postdoctoral Fellowship opportunity are available through the below two projects at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, being led by Associate Professor Jessica Balanzategui:
ARC Fellowship Project: "Enhancing Discoverability of Australian Children's TV in the Streaming Era" examines how children and young people use streaming video platforms to access entertainment content. The research is designed to inform new industry, policy and cultural solutions to improve young people's access to quality, local and age-appropriate screen content in the streaming era. The work is conducted in partnership with the Australian Children's Television Foundation and the Australian Centre of the Moving Image.
ARC Discovery Project: "Understanding Children’s Mobile Gamble-Play Cultures: Gateways to Gambling", aims to minimize the harms involved in children's access to gambling by developing an understanding of how Australian children use mobile phones to engage in "gamble-play". It will generate a new evidence base to inform evolving regulation around children and gambling, and to improve child and parent literacies about the ways mobile media content introduces children to gambling-like play behaviours.
Research Participants Needed
Jessica Ford and Rebecca Feasey are seeking 18-29 year old participants for a survey on male feminist celebrities. Contribute to new understandings of the parameters, strengths and limitations of male feminist celebrities in relation to advocacy and impact.
Complete the 10-minute survey here and please share with your networks.
If you have questions about the study, you can contact the research team: Dr Jessica Ford and Dr Rebecca Feasey.
Coming Soon…
Following on from their workshop at last year’s SSAAANZ Conference, David Balfour (Victorian College of the Arts) and Duncan McLean (Australian Film Television and Radio School) are about to launch an international survey project, ‘Reframing Screen Studies: Rethinking Curriculum Design for Emerging Filmmakers.’ With dual surveys – one targeting convenors of screen production programs and one targeting teachers of Screen Studies units containing production students – the project aims to analyse the content, delivery modes and intended contribution of Screen Studies subjects in screen production courses around the globe with a view to identifying themes and opportunities for better integrating Screen Studies into production-based curricula. Keep an eye out for an email in the coming weeks.
Something you want to promote or share with the SSAAANZ Community? Email ssaaanz@gmail.com