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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Emilia King
PhD

Assistant Professor

Communication and Digital Media Studies

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Contact information

Bordessa Hall - Room DTB 305
Downtown Oshawa
55 Bond Street East
Oshawa, ON

905.721.8668 ext. 3790

emilia.king@ontariotechu.ca
Dr. Emilia King


Background

Dr. Emilia King (nee Zboralska) is a Canadian Screen Award nominated creator, researcher and institution builder with a focus on challenging the status quo in Canada’s media system. She has a unique profile that combines professional creative practice with award-winning, rigorous research on media entrepreneurship and policy. Emilia firmly believes that innovation should be reflexive and ethical, and is on a mission to make entrepreneurial education and the entrepreneurial mindset accessible to everyone.

Emilia undertakes critical research on the industry, policy, technology and practice of digital media platforms, the anti-meritocratic barriers to achieving equity, diversity and inclusivity in communication and digital media sectors, and the conditions and experiences of new media workers and creator-entrepreneurs. 

She is the winner of the Toronto Metropolitan University-York University Communication and Culture PhD Dissertation Prize, as well as the prestigious Toronto Metropolitan University Gold Medal, the university’s highest award recognizing outstanding achievement, involvement with the university, and one’s profession and community. 

Emilia has also won more than $100,000 in grants and awards, has authored and co-authored journal articles and chapters, policy reports and popular news articles, and has delivered more than 50 public presentations and workshops in domestic and international academic, creative, policy, community and industry contexts.

A co-founder of Pink Moon Studio, an end-to-end production company focused on cutting-edge storytelling, Emilia collaborates with researchers and communities alike to create commercial fiction and non-fiction content (podcasts; feature films; documentaries) that engages social justice issues in captivating, accessible and entertaining ways.

She also has extensive leadership experience in her role as Chair of the Independent Production Fund, as former President of Web Series Canada, and as Expert Juror for the Canada Media Fund

Prior to joining Ontario Tech, Emilia led Toronto Metropolitan University’s Transmedia Zone, a media innovation incubator focused on helping artists think like entrepreneurs. During her tenure, she successfully steered the incubator to surpass sector norms, with more than 50 per cent of founders being people of colour and more than 50 per cent identifying as women.

A passionate educator, Emilia is obsessed with finding new ways to engage students through the use of new platforms and processes, including design thinking. She has been involved in the development and delivery of cutting-edge course design that includes international collaboration and co-creation, with partners including Hong Kong Baptist University (Hong Kong), Stuttgart Media University (Germany) and Seoul Institute of the Arts (South Korea). 

Education

  • PhD, Communication and Culture Toronto Metropolitan University & York University

Courses taught

  • Entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries
  • Media Entrepreneurship
  • Canadian Entertainment Media
  • Global Campus Studio
  • Creative Industries Research Methods
  • Managing Creative Enterprises

Research and expertise

Dr. Emilia King's research interests and expertise include: critical political economy of digital media & digital media entrepreneurship; interactive and digital media storytelling and production; the media business; media policy; emergent industry trends; independent production strategy; design thinking; podcasting; television and film strategy, production & analysis.

Involvement

  • Current research projects

    Valuing Web Series is the first multi-country research project on web series, focusing on Australia, Canada and France. The project investigates the value of web series as a form of online screen entertainment characterized by original and diverse content produced by emerging creatives. It deploys the theoretical frame of ‘total value’ to assess the role and viability of web series: value accrued as career-development opportunities for digital content makers; value accrued by the audiences who consume web series; and the value accrued by the screen industry as web series contribute to innovation in a rapidly evolving global screen ecology. 

  • Research creation

    A collaboration between Pink Moon Studio and Toronto Metropolitan’s Dr. Cheryl Thompson, 'Blackface Nation' seizes the opportunity for genuine discussion and unravels Canada's post-race brand by looking to our roots: the hidden history of Blackface in Canada, which serves as an important entry point into understanding how modern day racism operates in this country. This project is partially funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and based on the research of Dr. Thompson.

  • Current creative projects

    Check out pinkmoon.studio for more on Emilia’s production company, her creative partners and her creative practice. Her company’s investigative true crime podcast, Catch Him if You Can, was recently No. 1 in Canada.