Research Projects, Presentations, and Invited Talks
Sustainable Subsea Networks - Internet Society Foundation (Greening the Internet Grant) - 2021-2023
I am Co-PI on the Sustainable Subsea Networks research initiative of the SubOptic Foundation. We are investigating the sustainability of the global subsea telecommunications network, a system that transports almost 100% of transoceanic internet traffic. We are an academic-industry partnership, with members spanning the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and China, and industry representation from both the supply and operational sectors. We currently have three primary activities: generating a catalogue of sustainable practices, assembling carbon footprint of a cable system, and investigating policy and regulation.
Global Green Media Production Network Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - UK, 2019-2021
Presenting the interdisciplinary goals of the GPN at our first workshop, London October 2019
This global network grant, on which I am the International PI working with Pietari Kääpä (University of Warwick), to facilitate the development of green production initiatives with local media professionals, policy makers, interdisciplinary scholars and environmental advocates, with ongoing collaborations across Europe and the UK and upcoming pilot studies in India, Argentina, and Hong Kong. The GPN provides a platform for scholars, media practitioners, environmental advocates, and NGOs to explore the environmental footprint of media production, to develop shared research methods and vocabulary to address how systems of cultural values and everyday social habits influence environmental practices and policy, and to facilitate dialogue between these industries to generate innovative approaches for positive change that guides the industry as a whole but accommodates local cultural and environmental specificity.
Mediated Heritage
An ongoing research project on the use of site-specific digital media installations in museum, heritage institutions, and archaeological sites in Italy. This study focuses on the role played by new media in heritage sites and cultural institutions, analyzing the use of audio-visual and screen technologies (such as 3-D projections, drones, immersive media, and augmented and virtual reality) in the practice of archaeology, in educational contexts, and in the construction of local identity and the communication of local history by public institutions in the era of globalization.
Short Form Sea-Level Rise Focus Group Messaging Studies Pilot Grant, Center for Communication, Culture, and Change (University of Miami), 2018-2019
As the video formal analyst and ecocinema expert for this reception study of short-form sea level rise messaging in South Florida, I broke down YouTube’s 50 most viewed short form (<4mins) videos on sea-level rise, built a formal media typology based on the correlation between aural and visual practices, their connotative meanings, and larger genres of messaging tone; building a sample set, these were shown to a small student focus group, then run through a wide Qualtrics survey to identify relationships between form, tone, media spreadability, and engagement with sea level rise issues.
Team members included: Juliana Fernandez, Lisa Johns, Cameron Riopelle, and Meryl-Shriver Rice.
Upcoming publications:
Vaughan and Johns, “Beyond Frame Analysis: Formal Analysis and Genre Typology in the Communication Study of Short-Form Environmental Video Messaging”, Journal of Environmental Media, forthcoming 2021
Shriver-Rice, Fernandez, Johns, Riopelle, & Vaughan, “An Audience Study of Formal Variables in Digital Short-Form Environmental Media”, under review for 2021
Rachel Carson Fellowship Rachel Carson Center (Munich Germany), Fall 2017
Member of a four-person team given a fellowship to develop a journal on media and the environment. This grew into the formation of two journals: Journal of Environmental Media (Intellect Books, eds. Hunter Vaughan and Meryl Shriver-Rice) and Media + Environment (University of California Press, eds. Alenda Chang, Adrian Ivakhiv, and Janet Walker).
Book Talks, Invited Talks, & Keynotes
“Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret,” book talk, Boulder Bookstore, Boulder CO: January 30, 2020
“Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret,” book talk, Books & Books, Coral Gables FL: April, 2019
“Mental Maps and Climate Apps,” invited talk for Screening Environmental Justice workshop, University of South Florida, Tampa: January, 2018.
“Imaging and Imagining Environmental Change in the 21st Century,” invited keynote talk for Visualizing Climate Change Workshop, Georgia Tech University, Atlanta: November, 2017.
“Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret: the Hidden Environmental Costs of Film Culture,” invited guest talk for ‘Sip of Science’, Science Barge, Miami: February, 2017.
Selected Recent Conference Presentations
“Projecting the Dead: a Study of Media Use at the Cerveteri Necropolis and Other Mediated Etrurian Sites and Exhibits”, with Meryl Shriver-Rice, Archaeological Institute of America, Washington D.C., 2020.
“Hollywood as Invasive Species: An Environmental Look at Local Media Communities and Cultures”, American Anthropological Association, Vancouver, 2019.
“Eco/Eco: “Economics and Ecosystem in Miami’s Underwater Cinematography Culture” (As panel chair), Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Toronto, 2018.
“Screening Sea Level Rise: Issues of Global Mediation and Local Justice,” Tidally United Summit, Seminole Native Learning Center in Hollywood, FL: August, 2017.
“Mediated Heritage: Digital Humanities Practices in Italian Archaeological Sites,” Archaeological Institute of America, Toronto: January, 2017.