Djoymi Baker (she/her)
Djoymi Baker is a Lecturer in Media & Cinema Studies at RMIT University, Australia. She is a prize-winning writer, and has published numerous articles on film and television, on topics such as fandom, myth in popular culture, and genre studies. She is the author of To Boldly Go: Marketing the Myth of Star Trek (2018) and the co-author of The Encyclopedia of Epic Films (2014). Recent work appears in The Age of Netflix (2017) and The New Peplum (2018), and in The Soundtrack journal (2019).
Daniel Binns (he/him)
Research and studios: Cross-platform storytelling, media philosophy, cinema studies
Daniel Binns served as Media Program Manager from 2017 to 2021, and is currently Media Studios Coordinator. He is a screenwriter, producer, and teacher of film and media studies. His creative practice is primarily short-form drama, observational essay films and smartphone filmmaking, and his theoretical bent is film genre and media philosophy. Daniel has produced documentary and lifestyle television across multiple continents and for several networks including Fox Sports and National Geographic. He is the author of The Hollywood War Film (Intellect, 2017) and Material Media-Making in the Digital Age (2021), and is currently writing about algorithmic media and creative technologies.
Adrian Danks (he/him)
Research: Cinema and screen studies; film history; film genre; film technologies.
Associate Professor Adrian Danks has taught an array of Cinema and cultural studies courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and is supervising numerous students at both MA and PhD levels. He has edited the internationally recognised journal, Senses of Cinema, and is co-curator of The Melbourne Cinémathèque.
His research interests include Australian, American and Iranian cinema, home movies, film criticism, auteurism, experimental cinema, found footage and recycled cinema. He has published widely in a range of books and journals including, and is currently writing several books including one on the history and practice of home moviemaking in Australia.
Heather Jarvis (she/her)
Heather Jarvis is a radio & podcast producer, journalist and lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. As a practitioner, educator and researcher, Heather’s interests centre on the ways that audio storytelling can help raise awareness and promote positive social change. Her radio documentary Fallen Angels, co-produced for the ABC with journalist and academic Margaret Simons, was a finalist in the 2017 Amnesty International Australia Media Awards, and the 2017 United Nations Media Awards.
Heather’s PhD research is exploring the potential of podcasting as a way to advance social change agendas, particularly in Pacific Islands region.
Alexia Kannas (she/her)
Research and studios: Cultural industries, film genres and industries, Italian Cinema, criticism, writing
Alexia Kannas is a writer and academic in the Media Program in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, who works principally in the area of Cinema Studies. Alexia completed her PhD in Film Studies at Monash University, where she also taught into English Literature and Creative and Academic Writing. She is the author of Deep Red (Columbia University Press/Wallflower, 2017) and Genre, Modernity and the Italian Giallo Film (forthcoming 2019, SUNY Press), and has written for a wide range of print and online media. She writes (or has written) about cult cinema, film sound, cinematic modernism, food, memory and nostalgia.
Seth Keen (he/him)
Research and studios: Digital audiovisual media, interactive documentary, community collaborations
Seth Keen is a new media educator, researcher, and designer in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University. Seth brings together media and co-design practices to engage with contemporary wicked problems His track record of expertise is in the design of audiovisual media and image-based platforms. He has worked on collaborative projects with academic and industry research partners in the areas of development aid, cultural geography, social services and disaster resilience. Seth is a winner of a prestigious Good Design Australia Award in Social Impact, 2018.
Shweta Kishore (she/her)
Course Coordinator: COMM1035 Asian Cinemas
Shweta Kishore is a filmmaker, curator and lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT. Her research focuses on Asian media and documentary, activist and grassroots media, women’s film making, and practices of independent and alternative cinema production and circulation. Shweta is the author of Indian Documentary Film and Filmmakers: Independence in Practice (2018: Edinburgh University Press). In her current video-based research project, Shweta examines the relation between the field of contemporary art, gender and feminist discourse in Vietnam. She curates the screen based workshop Moving Reels: A Social Dialogue at the Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
Alan Nguyen (he/him)
Research and studios: Storytelling; new media; speculative fiction; climate change; mixed realities.
Dr Alan Nguyen is an international-award-winning writer and director working across television, film, theatre, comics and XR. He has penned scripts for SBS Television, Melbourne Theatre Company, Matchbox Pictures and December Media. He served as VR Designer for a film-opera (supported by Vitalstatistix, PADA and Nexus Arts); and as Editor for two groundbreaking AR comic book anthologies published by EyeJack. His directorial film work has won multiple international awards and screened at several international film festivals. He wrote for the SBS and Screen Australia-commissioned Matchbox Pictures/NBC Universal miniseries Hungry Ghosts, currently in postproduction.
Paul Ritchard (he/him)
Research and studios: Filmmaking practice, location, ecomedia
Paul Ritchard lectures in film production and is a member of the nonfiction lab and the Screen and Sound Cultures group at RMIT University. His research focuses on film/media production as well as its intersections with teaching practice. His PhD is titled THE RIVER PROJECT A Poetics of Eco-Critical Film-Making where he is producing a series of films located around the Snowy River. They are investigating place, the poetics of rivers and the body in water. He is looking at eco-aesthetics, eco-cinema and sustainability in film production. Of importance, is how the environment affects the methods of production and the made film. His work is guided by his principle of making film that treads lightly on the landscape both literally and figuratively.
Liam Ward (he/him)
Studios and research: Political documentary history and practice, communicating complex ideas
Liam Ward is a film-maker, historian and activist who lectures in the Media program of RMIT’s School of Media and Communication. His creative practice and research interests centre on non-fiction, documentary media with a particular focus on methods of communicating history. He is also interested in collaborations with scientists and others in exploring ways of communicating complex ideas through various media platforms.
Rachel Wilson (she/her)
Studios and research: Media and place, cinema studies, student experience and cohort belonging
Rachel Wilson is the current Program Manager of the B.Comm(Media), a role she returns to, having also previously served as the program’s, Studios Coordinator, Selections Officer and Careers Officer. She has also received a number of teaching awards.
Rachel’s professional background is as a media practitioner, and she has been teaching within the higher education sector for 18 years, specialising in the Screen Production discipline. She is currently teaching media production and applied research in the School of Media and Communication. Rachel’s current research includes archiving, memory and representations of trauma. She served as the President of the peak discipline body ASPERA (Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association) from 2010 to 2011, and she currently holds the position of National Secretary.