Dr Jessica Balanzategui

Biography

Jessica Balanzategui is a Lecturer in Cinema and Screen Studies in the Department of Media and Communication. Jessica's research examines childhood, history, and national identity in global film and TV; vernacular storytelling and aesthetics in digital cultures (particularly the "digital gothic"); the impact of technological and industrial change on screen genres; and intersections between cultural institutions and entertainment industries. 

Jessica is currently leading two interdisciplinary research projects supported by Research Development Grants. One explores the histories and futures of cinema exhibition in Australia with a particular focus on the rise of the immersive experience and entertainment destination. The other examines how digital technologies are reshaping our understandings of children’s play, combining perspectives from media and childhood studies, neuroscience and education. Jessica's work has appeared in refereed journals such as Studies in Australasian Cinema, The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, Horror Studies, M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture and Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media, and in edited collections published by Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, McFarland and Lexington. Her book, The Uncanny Child in Transnational Cinema: Ghosts of Futurity at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century, will be published in 2018 with Amsterdam University Press/The University of Chicago Press.

Jessica welcomes applications from prospective PhD students in cinema and screen, digital cultures, and childhood studies.