Dr Tara Lomax is a screen studies educator and researcher, academic author, and creative practitioner with expertise in contemporary entertainment, media franchising, and multiplatform storytelling. She has a PhD in screen studies from The University of Melbourne, with research that contributes a comprehensive examination of entertainment franchising and the creative-industrial mechanisms and dynamics that drive its development and production.
Tara has published on topics such as media franchising, transmedia storytelling, stardom,world-building, creative licensing, seriality, the superhero and horror genres, adaptation, and digital visual effects. Her published research can be found in the journals Senses of Cinemaand Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and books including Starring Tom Cruise (2021),The Supervillain Reader (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.
At AFTRS, Tara is Discipline Lead of Screen Studies and is committed to strengthening connections between screen studies and screen practice. She has over a decade of experience in higher education, including academic leadership, teaching, research supervision, and curriculum development, with former roles at The University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), and RMIT University. Tara is also a graduate of AFTRS, TheUniversity of Sydney, and La Trobe University and is a member of the Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (SSAAANZ) and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS).