Dr Tara Lomax is the Discipline Lead of Screen Studies in the Master of Arts Screen at AFTRS. She has a PhD in screen studies from The University of Melbourne, with research that examines entertainment franchising and the creative-industrial mechanisms and dynamics that drive its development and production. Tara is also an Alumni of AFTRS, The University of Sydney, and La Trobe University and has previously taught at The University of Melbourne, the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), RMIT University, and Monash University. She is currently the Teaching Staff Member on the Academic Board at AFTRS.
Alongside her commitment to screen studies teaching, Tara is a published researcher with expertise in contemporary screen media practices, including blockbuster cinema, multiplatform and transmedia storytelling, world-building, seriality, the horror and superhero genres, and visual effects. Her research can be found in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Senses of Cinema and Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and books including Starring Tom Cruise (2021), The Supervillain Reader (2020), Hannibal Lecter’s Forms, Formulations, and Transformations: Cannibalising Form and Style (2020), The Palgrave Handbook of Screen Production (2019), The Superhero Symbol: Culture, History, Politics (2019), and Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling (2017). She is on the editorial committee for Henry Jenkins’ rebooted blog, Pop Junctions: Reflections on Entertainment, Pop Culture, Activism, Media Literacy, Fandom and More and is a member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and the Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (SSAAANZ).
In addition to teaching and research, Tara has experience as a higher education course and curriculum developer and has ben involved in the TEQSA accreditation and reaccreditation of several undergraduate and postgraduate creative arts courses.