Dr Sebastian Svegaard
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication
Biography
Sebastian is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) at the Queensland University of Technology, working under the Digital Publics program on Professor Axel Bruns's Australian Laureate Fellowship project "Determining the Drivers and Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate".He holds a PhD in Media Studies from Birmingham City University (United Kingdom), where he studied the use of affect and music to communicate critical textual readings in fan-made music videos (vids). Previously, he obtained both his MA (research) and BA at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) in the field of Musicology with a minor in history and a special study focus of gender studies.
Sebastian's current research focuses on applying a fan studies lens to the problems of partisanship and polarisation. He is currently leading the project's branches on populism and propaganda as well as continuing his research of audio-visual content. His wider research interests sit across fields, with a unifying focus on the interplay between notions of identity, affect, fandom, belonging, and how such factors influence and interact with publics, politics and polarisation.
He teaches and co-coordinates the MA Communications unit Debates in Digital Culture, and has previously taught on Popular Culture, Fan Culture and Subculture, Celebrity Studies, and Introductions to Media Studies.
He retains his connections to music and culture through participating in the editorial board of Riffs.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Pronouns: he / him
Personal details
Positions
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication
Keywords
Digital media, Polarisation, Fan studies, Partisanship, Cultural studies, Subcultures, Discourse, Textual analysis, Film music, Ethnography
Research field
Communication and media studies, Screen and digital media, Language studies
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy (Birmingham City University)
Professional memberships and associations
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of the Association of Internet Researchers
Member of the International Association of Media and Communication Researchers
Member of the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association
Teaching
- Debates in Digital Culture, MA (unit coordinator, lecturer, tutor)
- Popular Culture, BA (tutor)
- Introduction to media theory, BA (tutor)
- Celebrity studies, BA (lecturer)
- Fandom and Subcultures, BA (leading module, including updating and modifying content)
- Introduction to critical theory through fandom (for The Brilliant Club, designed, updated and delivered course 6 times over 4 years)
Experience
- Contributing to the DMRC consultation on the social media ban for teens
- Contributing to TikTok Australia/New Zealand guardrails against election misinformation
Publications
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/sebastian.svegaard