Dr. Miranda Campbell
TMU Graduate Program Director: The York/TMU Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture
Biographical Statement
Dr. Miranda Campbell is an Associate Professor in the School of Creative Industries. Her research focuses on creative employment, youth culture, and small-scale and emerging forms of creative practice. She is the author of Reimagining the Creative Industries: Youth Creative Work, Communities of Care (external link) (Routledge, 2022) and How to Care More: Seven Skills for Personal and Social Change (opens in new window) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). Her book, Out of the Basement: Youth Cultural Production in Practice and in Policy (external link) (McGill Queen’s University Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the Donner Prize for the best public policy book by a Canadian. Her involvement with creative communities includes coordination and Board of Director roles with Rock Camp for Girls Montreal, a summer camp dedicated to empowerment for girls through music education, and with WhipperSnapper Gallery, an artist-run centre focusing on emerging artists in Toronto.
Connect via Twitter (external link)
| Education | Degree |
|---|---|
| Education, McGill University (Montreal, CA) | Ph.D |
| English Literature, Concordia University (Montreal, CA) | MA |
| English Literature, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, CA) | BA |
| Diversity and Inclusion, Cornell University (online) | Certificate |
The challenges of entering and making a living in the creative industries are increasingly well documented, but further understanding of both the sources and potential solutions to the problems of diversity, equity, and inclusion in this sector is needed. My research agenda investigates this need, seeking to better understand both organizational structures and cultural policy, while also mapping emerging responses, lived realities, and experiences of creative work. My research broadly examines the creative industries in Canada, but this research also demonstrates an awareness that the Canadian creative industries are embedded in a globalized world, where digitization has both enabled and constrained meaningful opportunities for creative work across national contexts. Methodologically, I primarily work qualitatively, informed by phenomenological, oral history, and cultural mapping frameworks. With this cultural mapping lens, I seek to better register both tangible and intangible cultural values, and have also employed quantitative means to measure and assess emerging cultural forms and labour market experiences. As I increasingly work with communities to better understand their needs, I also work with participatory action research, co-creation, and arts-based methodologies. My research is interdisciplinary, working across the fields of youth studies; creative industries; and feminist economics. I work from a creative ecology framework for the creative industries, providing the conceptual means to make bridges across sectors (economy, culture, social life); to highlight the instrumental and the intrinsic values of culture; to map the relationships between sectors of the creative economy (large vs. small; established vs. emerging); and to register the lived experiences and embodied processes of engaging with culture. I am guided by three focuses in my research agenda: 1) Emerging Cultural Trends in the Creative Industries; 2) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Creative Industries Work; and 3) Fostering Connected Communities
Youth culture
Cultural policy
Creative Labour
Critical pedagogy
Gender studies
Small-scale Cultural Production
Creative industries
2013. Out of the Basement: Youth Cultural Production in Practice and in Policy (external link, opens in new window) . McGill Queens’s University Press. 283 pages.
2022. Reimagining the Creative Industries: Youth Creative Work, Communities of Care (external link, opens in new window) . Routledge, 228 pages.
2022. How to Care More: Seven Skills for Personal and Social Change (external link, opens in new window) . Rowman & Littlefield. 196 pages.
2022. Creative Industries in Canada (external link, opens in new window) . Co-edited with Cheryl Thompson. Canadian Scholars’ Press. 300 pages.
2018. “Tavi Gevinson: Empowerment for Teenage Girls.” In S. Steinberg, ed. 30 Activists Under 30: Global Youth, Social Justice, and Good Work. Brill Press. pp. 32-39.
2016. “Girls Rock!: Best Practices in Collaborative Creative Processes at Rock Camp for Girls Montreal.” In A. Gandini and J. Graham, eds. Collaborative Production in the Creative Industries. University of Westminster Press. pp. 177-196.
2015. “Creative Entrepreneurship in the Cultural Industries: Rhetoric and Realities of Youth Creative Work.” In S. Malliet, A. Dhoest, J. Haers, and B. Segaert, eds. The Borders of Subculture: Resistance and the Mainstream. Routledge. pp. 37-54.
2012. “Youth Cultural Production and Creative Economies.” In M. Hoechsmann and S. Poyntz, eds. Media Literacy: A Critical Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. pp. 102-104.
2023. Keynote address. “Youth and Emergence, Research and Care Ethics.” Intersections / Cross-sections Communication and Culture graduate student conference. Toronto Metropolitan University.
2022. Keynote address. “Care Ethics for the Creative Industries.” Engage Journal Issue 46 launch.
2019. Keynote address. A Collaborative Turn: Youth-led Organizing and Communities of Care.” Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies graduate conference. York University, Toronto, Canada.
2018. Organizer and moderator of panel discussion. “Fostering Inclusive Spaces and Scenes: Lessons from the Community Arts Sector.” Pop Montreal Symposium, Montreal, Quebec.
2018. Presentation of research project and preliminary results. “Community Youth Arts Programs as Creative Industries Incubators.” City of Toronto, Economic Development and Culture Division.
2017. Moderator of panel discussion. “The Future of Hip Hop Festivals in Canada.” One Hundred and Fifty Futures of Hip Hop in Canada conference, Toronto, Canada.
2016. Keynote Address. “Creativity, Commerce, and Community in an Era of Economic Decline: Emerging Directions in Youth Entrepreneurship.” Teaching and Learning Cultural Entrepreneurship conference. Telemark University College, Bø, Norway.
2014. Moderator and Organizer. “Can Anyone Be a Rock Star?: The Gendered Landscape of Music Scenes and Rock Camp for Girls Montreal.” Panel Discussion and Workshop. Pop Montreal Symposium, Montreal, Quebec.
2014. Panel Discussion. “Producteurs culturels et artistes indépendants du Mile End, quelle cohabitation?” Mémoire Mile End, Montreal, Quebec.
2013. Keynote Address. “Creative Entrepreneurship and the Cultural Industry.” Youth Subcultures: Download the Drivers conference at University Centre Saint Ignatius, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
2022. “Strategies for Social Engagement: Arts-Service Organizations and Organizational Intermediation.” Miranda Campbell, Calla Evans, and Lucy Wowk. Poetics. 92(B), 1-12.
2022. “Tending the Garden: Possibilities and Limitations of Developing Inclusive Environments in the Arts and Culture Sector.” Miranda Campbell and Erika Chung. Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change. 7(1), 1-14.
2021. “Making Community Knowledge Visible: Mapping Canadian Arts-Service Organizations as Cultural Research Conduits.” Miranda Campbell, Calla Evans, and Lucy Wowk. Canadian Journal of Communication. 47(1), 79–99.
2021. “Reimagining the Creative Industries in the Community Youth Arts Sector. Cultural Trends. 30(3), 263-282.
2019. “From Youth Engagement to Creative Industries Incubators: Models of Working with Youth in Community Arts Settings.” Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies. 41(3), 164-192.
2019. “Theorizing Comic Cons.” Journal of Fandom Studies. Benjamin Woo, Bart Beaty, Miranda Campbell, Brian Johnson. 8(1): 9-31.
2018. “’Shit is Hard, Yo’: Young People Making a Living in the Creative Industries.” International Journal of Cultural Policy. 26(4): 524-543
2016. “Downward Mobility and the Individualization of Youth Struggle: Girls as Public Pedagogy.” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures. 8(1): 180-201.
2007. “The Mocking Mockumentary and the Ethics of Irony.” Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. 11(1), 53-62.
General Audience Publications
2020. (PDF file) What Does the Arts-Service Organization Sector Look Like in Canada Today? A Research Snapshot. (external link) Research Report. Miranda Campbell, Calla Evans, and Lucy Wowk, in collaboration with Mass Culture.
2018. Scaffolding and Springboarding: Final Report on the Community Youth Arts Programs as Creative Industries Incubators Research Project (external link) . Research Report.
2018. “Art Work (external link) .” Maisonneuve Magazine. Issue 69. pp. 16-21.
2016. “Mic Drop (external link) .” Maisonneuve Magazine. Issue 60. pp. 28-35.
2016. Every Day We’re Hustling (external link) . Podcast (6 episodes).
2015. “Culture Isn’t Free: Expecting Artists to Work for Free Hands the Reins of Cultural Production to Ruling Elites (external link) .” Jacobin.
2015. “Moms to the Front: The Joys and Pains of Touring with Kids (external link) .” Noisey.
2015. “Montreal’s Howl! Arts Collective is Leading a Dance Dance Revolution (external link) .” Noisey.
2019-2020: Mapping Canadian Arts-Service Organizations as Cultural Research Conduits (SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant; Principal Investigator, in collaboration with Mass Culture).
2017-2019: Community Youth Arts Programs as Creative Industries Incubators (SSHRC Insight Development; Principal Investigator)
2017-2020: Comic-Cons: An Urban Media Industry (SSHRC Partnership Development Grant; Co-Investigator with Principal Investigator Ben Woo and Co-Investigators Brian Johnson and Bart Beaty)
Current Research Projects
Principal Applicant and Project Co-Director. “Mapping the Music Industries.” SSHRC Partnership Development Grant.
Principal Investigator, “Peer-to-Peer Learning for Inclusive Environments for the Creative Industries.” Justice, Equity, and Community Initiatives grant, The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University.
Past Research Projects
2019-2020: Mapping Canadian Arts-Service Organizations as Cultural Research Conduits (SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant; Principal Investigator, in collaboration with Mass Culture).
2017-2019: Community Youth Arts Programs as Creative Industries Incubators (SSHRC Insight Development; Principal Investigator)
2017-2020: Comic-Cons: An Urban Media Industry (SSHRC Partnership Development Grant; Co-Investigator with Principal Investigator Ben Woo and Co-Investigators Brian Johnson and Bart Beaty)
2020. Ryerson University YSGS Award for Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education
2014. Out of the Basement shortlisted for the Donner Prize for the Best Public Policy Book by a Canadian
2014. Out of the Basement shortlisted for the Gertrude Robinson Book Prize for the Best Communication Studies Book in Canada