WELCOME
This is a place for me to store links to all my work, write when I want to write, and generally keep track of what I’m up to. Thanks for stopping by.
I am a PhD candidate in the department of Film & Moving Image Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. My SSHRC-funded research focuses on digital media and platforms, and how they interact with, help shape, and transform the art created there and the audiences that live there every day. I look at theories about the future, and how the cult of Silicon Valley has sought to control the narrative of the future. I have been recognized as a 2023-4 Concordia University Public Scholar in further support of this work.
Below, you’ll find a running list of my cultural criticism, reporting, and other published work. I had a column with Catapult called “Digital Hope,” and you can find every edition here. I’ve been published at The Globe and Mail, Pitchfork, The Atlantic, Jacobin, Columbia Journalism Review, VICE, Polygon, Lapham’s Quarterly, and elsewhere. You can find my academic work and more about my research under the heading “Academia.”
I also have a Substack, Unwanted Utopias, where I share my thoughts on the futures that the tech industry tries to force on us, and the work we can do to fight back.
published work
“Fantasia Fest 2023 — Dispatch 4” (August 14, 2023)
“Fantasia Fest 2023 — Dispatch 2” (August 1, 2023)
“Who Wants the Metaverse?” JSTOR Daily (December 28, 2022).
“The Eerie Comfort of Liminal Spaces,” The Atlantic (November 1, 2022).
“Longtermists ask: What do we owe the future? A better question is: Who owns the future?” The Globe and Mail (October 15, 2022).
“The Internet Doesn’t Have to Be This Bad,” Jacobin (July 29, 2022).
“Jean Harlow and Red-Headed Woman,” In The Mood Magazine (February 14, 2022).
“Why Massachusetts is ground-zero for the fight against facial recognition,” The Daily Dot (January 28, 2022).
“A new surveillance state is here: Inside your own home,” The Daily Dot (December 6, 2021).
“Frasier was never about making fun of the rich,” Mic (October 28, 2021).
“Every Kristen Stewart performance, ranked,” i-D (October 26, 2021).
“Smartness and Innovation: a dystopian technological vision in democratic governance,” Public Parking (May 14, 2021).
“When It Comes to Big Tech, Antitrust Is a Distraction. Our Focus Should Be Workers,” Newsweek (April 20, 2021).
“Gig Economy, Tech Workers Are Ignored And Abandoned In Economic Recovery Plans,” Observer (March 24, 2021).
“Reel Life,” Maisonneuve (December 29, 2020).
“A Vitalising Cinema in an Agitated Age: The 58th New York Film Festival,” Senses of Cinema (October 18, 2020).
“How Legend of Korra’s Queer Ending Changed Cartoons Forever,” Them (October 2, 2020).
“The Most Extreme 5G Conspiracy Theories and How COVID-19 Blew It All Up,” Observer (August 7, 2020).
“A Union’s Opening Credits,” Lapham’s Quarterly (July 6, 2020).
“The Shortcomings of Netflix’s Documentary House Style,” Hyperallergic (June 9, 2020).
“‘Doomscrolling’ is anxiety-inducing, but we should not look away,” The Globe and Mail (June 6, 2020).
“When queer TikTok memes get political,” Xtra (May 19, 2020).
“Binging Less Netflix Isn’t Going To Stop Climate Change,” Motherboard (February 18, 2020).
“The New York Times’s Embarrassing Presidential Endorsement Reality Show,” Hyperallergic (January 29, 2020).
“Netflix’s ‘The Circle’ isn’t dystopian, it’s real life,” Mic (January 23, 2020).
“Trent Reznor's Music Was the Perfect Soundtrack to the Dark, Disorienting 2010s,” VICE (December 20, 2019).
“The Empty Promise of Relationship Apps,” OneZero (December 5, 2019).
“How Humans Betray the Environment and One Another Throughout History,” Hyperallergic (November 29, 2019).
“‘Ad Astra’ and a New Masculinity,” Wisecrack (November 19, 2019).
“Is TikTok a looming political disaster?” Mic (November 19, 2019).
“Police Are Trying to Predict the Future,” OneZero (October 16, 2019).
“Steven Universe Will Have a Long-Lasting Impact on Young People,” Teen Vogue (October 14, 2019).
“Google is Old Enough to Drink,” JSTOR Daily (September 4, 2019).
“For a Freelancer in the Gig Economy, There’s More at Stake Than a Paycheck,” Catapult (August 14, 2019).
“Finding Human Interest Stories in Virtual Reality,” Hyperallergic (August 14, 2019).
“How Disney has Turned the Film Industry Into a Small World, After All,” Public Seminar (August 12, 2019).
“Ten years of Shark Tank, the show that explains America,” The Outline (July 22, 2019).
“For many queer writers, Pride Month presents a dilemma,” Columbia Journalism Review (July 12 2019).
“Why are men who have sex with men still banned from donating blood?” The Agenda, TVO (June 10 2019).
“In a New Docuseries, the New York Times Struggles to Defend Journalism,” Hyperallergic (May 30 2019).
“An Algorithm May Decide Who Gets Suicide Prevention,” OneZero (May 23 2019).
“How Social Media Profiles Act as Bizarre Digital Gravestones,” Hyperallergic (May 17 2019).
“It’s not about the million: how superfans changed Survivor,” FanSided (May 1 2019).
“Do Memes Change How We Remember History?” Catapult (April 22 2019).
“A Critical Theory of Binge Watching,” JSTOR Daily (April 10 2019).
“How The Matrix has gone from men’s rights dream to formative trans masterpiece,” SYFY Wire (March 27 2019).
“We can’t afford to be in the dark about digital self-harm,” The Globe and Mail (March 22 2019).
“Surviving the boom and bust of queer media,” Columbia Journalism Review (March 19 2019).
“What Does It Mean to Be a Bad Fan on Social Media?” Catapult (March 4 2019).
“Schitt’s Creek Strikes a Balance Between Revision and Reformation,” Slant Magazine (February 22 2019).
“Hollywood Alien: Nicolas Roeg’s Definitive ’70s Run,” We Are The Mutants (February 6 2019).
“The Weird, the Nerdy, the Horny: What Tumblr Gave Us Before It Changed for the Worse,” Catapult (February 4 2019).
“Is this really the queerest Oscars ever?” Wussy (January 29 2019).
“Wussy’s 2019 queer media survival guide,” Wussy (January 22 2019).
“Superstore is the modern sitcom done right,” Polygon (January 9 2019).
“How Tumblr’s porn ban affects LGBTQ2 users,” DailyXtra (December 6 2018).
“Is ASMR being punished for being pleasurable?” A Beautiful Perspective (November 13 2018).
“Boy Erased’s Understated Score Softly Tugs at Audiences’ Emotional Heartstrings,” Teen Vogue (November 6 2018).
"How Boy Erased Fails Its Central Gay Character in an Appeal to Straight Audiences," Them (November 5 2018).
“Being queer on Tumblr: Privacy and anonymity in the age of social media,” Archer (October 30 2018).
“Lady Gaga May Never Find a More Perfectly Meta Role Than A Star Is Born,” Pitchfork (October 3 2018).
“How Truthful Depictions of Suicidal Ideation Help Me Resist My Own,” Catapult (September 10 2018).
“Crazy Rich People Are All Over Our Screens,” Buzzfeed News (August 28 2018).
“How (or How Not) to Build a Labor Movement,” Lapham’s Quarterly (August 22 2018).
“Does social media actually decrease anxiety?” The Globe and Mail (August 3 2018).
“Why cuffing my pants is not part of my bisexual identity,” DailyXtra (August 2 2018).
“A Problem Without a Solution: On Alex Garland’s Annihilation,” Vague Visages (August 2 2018).
““RuPaul’s Drag Race” Has Lost Its Free Queer Spirit in Its Lip Sync Songs,” Pitchfork (June 29 2018).
Education
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
PhD, Film & Moving Image Studies
Ongoing
Carleton university
MA, Film Studies
Graduated May 2018
Carleton university
Bachelor of Journalism
Graduated May 2016