Professor Kevin Sanson
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication
Biography
Dr Kevin Sanson is Professor of Media Studies and Head of the School of Communication at Queensland University of Technology. He also is a chief investigator in the Digital Media Research Centre's Transforming Media Industries Program. Additionally, he is co-founder and current editor of Media Industries, an open access, academic journal for critical media industries research. Previously, he was the Research Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Media Industries Project at University of California Santa Barbara. He researches the business practices and cultural dynamics of the global film and television industries, focussed especially on the changing nature of work and working conditions for talent, craft workers, and technicians.Prof. Sanson is the author of Mobile Hollywood: Labor and the Geography of Production (UC Press 2024 [Open Access]). He also is co-editor of Voices of Labor: Creativity, Craft, and Conflict in Global Hollywood (UC Press 2017 [Open Access]), Precarious Creativity: Global Media, Local Labor (UC Press 2016 [Open Access]), Connected Viewing: Selling, Streaming, & Sharing Media in the Digital Era (Routledge 2014) and Distribution Revolution: Conversations about the Digital Future of Film and Television (UC Press 2014). Other publications appear in International Journal of Cultural Studies, Television & New Media, and the Sage Handbook of Television Studies, among others.
Personal details
Positions
- Head of School
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication - Professor
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication
Keywords
media industries, globalization, creative labour, creative industries
Research field
Communication and media studies, Cultural studies
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Texas at Austin)
Professional memberships and associations
Dr Sanson is an active member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and the International Communication Association (ICA). As a graduate student, he was elected to serve on the SCMS Board of Directors. He continues to volunteer for committee work and regularly presents at the annual conference. He also serves as a member of the review board for the Humanities and Social Sciences Panel of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and an external academic advisor for Lingnan University's postgraduate course on Creative and Media Industries.
Teaching
Kevin has taught courses on creative labor; global media; cinema history; media and cultural studies; and race, ethnicity, and the media, among others. At QUT, he teaches into the School of Communication's Entertainment and Media Industries degree program. Kevin welcomes post-graduate students with interests in critical media industry studies, including projects on but not limited to labor, globalization, and internet distribution. Past and current supervisions include topics such as:
- Digital distribution and Nollywood
- Political economy of Bangladesh media
- Advertising, technological change, and entrepreneurial careers
- 'Blockbuster' museum exhibitions
- Myanmar music industry and copyright regulations
- Chinese social media influencers
- Indian content creators and streaming media services
He also supervises two highly successful international experiential learning opportunities (i.e., "study tours"):
- How Hollywood Works (June) takes undergraduate students to Los Angeles where we meet with film and television professionals, all at different points in their career and working for different organizations, and visit a number of cultural sites with significance to the entertainment industry to learn about how Hollywood works as both a place and industry. The experience includes attending the annual 'Produced by Conference.'
- Buying and Selling Global Entertainment (October) takes students to Cannes, France, where they attend the annual MIPCOM international television sales market and conference to learn about the global trends shaping the entertainment marketplace. The experience includes close mentorship from Australian broadcasters and distributors at the market, and time spent in London and Paris.
Experience
As part of his research, Kevin regularly engages with leading screenwriters, directors, craft workers, and producers, union and guild representatives, and executives in the US, UK, and Australia. In his previous post as Research Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center's Media Industries Project at UC Santa Barbara, he facilitated the project's relations with industry partners and funders, including a collaboration with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment that focused on changes in the home entertainment market.
Publications
- Lotz, A., Potter, A. & Sanson, K. (2020). Response to Supporting Australian Stories on Our Screens Options Paper. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/204530
- Sanson, K. & Steirer, G. (2019). Hulu, streaming, and the contemporary television ecosystem. Media, Culture and Society, 41(8), 1210–1227. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/125739
- Sanson, K., (2018). Stitching it all together: Service producers and the spatial dynamics of screen media labor. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 21(4), 359–374. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/222995
- Curtin, M. & Sanson, K. (2017). Voices of Labor: Creativity, Craft, and Conflict in Global Hollywood. University of California Press. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/105479
- Curtin, M. & Sanson, K. (2016). Precarious creativity: Global media, local labor. University of California Press. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/90584
- Curtin, M. & Sanson, K. (2015). The division of labour in television. In H. Gray, T. Miller, M. Alvarado & M. Buonanno (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of television studies (pp. 133–143). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/86103
- Sanson, K., (2015). Corresponding geographies: Remapping work and workplace in the age of digital media. Television and New Media, 16(8), 751–768. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/85153
- Holt, J. & Sanson, K. (2014). Connected Viewing: Selling, Streaming, and Sharing Media in the Digital Era. Routledge. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/86101
- Curtin, M., Holt, J. & Sanson, K. (2014). Distribution Revolution: Conversations About the Digital Future of Film and Television. University of California Press. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/86102
- Sanson, K., (2011). We don't want your must-see TV: Transatlantic television and the failed 'coupling' format. Popular Communication, 9(1), 39–54. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/86100
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Kevin, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Selected research projects
- Title
- Making Australian TV in the 21st Century
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP210100849
- Start year
- 2021
- Keywords
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.