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Creative Industries

Dr. Miranda Campbell

Professor
EducationPh.D, Education, McGill University (Montreal, CA); MA, English Literature, Concordia University (Montreal, CA); BA, English Literature, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, CA); Certificate, Diversity and Inclusion, Cornell University (online); Certificate, Brief Coaching, OISE

My research and creative projects investigate how creativity and cultural production enable resilience and strength in communities. With these projects, I aim to raise the visibility of emergent and community-based responses to social, economic, political, and cultural problems. I am invested in community pedagogies, community arts, and enhancing the wellbeing of individuals and communities.  

The challenges of entering and making a living in the creative industries are increasingly well documented, but further research is needed to investigate both the sources and potential solutions to the problems of diversity, equity, and inclusion in this sector. My research agenda has investigated this need, seeking to better understand both organizational structures and cultural policy, while also mapping emerging responses, lived realities, and experiences of creative work.

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. Additionally, as I collaborate with communities to better understand their needs and amplify the work that they do supporting arts and culture, I employ participatory action research, co-creation, and arts-based methodologies.

With my research, I create platforms to connect constituents and stakeholders across creative sectors to better share knowledge about the creative industries, such that good work in this sector can be more sustainable and more equitably spread. I see academic research as having a key role to play here in contributing the investigative means, connective capacities, and knowledge mobilization strategies to bring together academic, policy, and practitioner sectors. I seek to communicate with both academic, policy, practitioner, and general audiences, as reflected in my research dissemination strategies.  I aim to create research cultures that engage undergraduate and graduate students as well as community, industry, and policy partners.

  • Youth culture
  • Cultural policy
  • Creative Labour
  • Critical pedagogy
  • Gender studies
  • Small-scale Cultural Production
  • Creative industries

Books

Journal Publications

  • 2026. “Not only Hardships: Community Music and Raising the Visibility of Black and Racialized Musicians Through Participatory Arts-Based Reserach.” Miranda Campbell, Nala Haileselassie, and Maia Taruc-Pilling. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research.
  • 2026. “Community Music as a Relational Conversation.” Miranda Campbell, Salman Rana, Nala Haileselassie, Maia Taruc-Pilling, and Mark Campbell. Rubix Journal.
  • 2024. “Gender Pay Gap in the Early- Stage Careers of Canadian Creative Workers.” Marilena Vecco, Miranda Campbell, and Roberto Zanola. International Journal of Arts Management. 26 (3). 4-16.
  • 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.
     

Book Chapters

  • 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.

Guest & Keynote Speaking

  • 2026. Keynote Lecture. “The Practice of Learning.” KISMIF conference. Porto, Portugal.
  • 2024. Guest Lecture. "Raising the Visibility of Community Arts Practices: Inclusive Models in Small-Scale and Emerging Cultural Production." Faculty of Education, University of Lisbon. Guest Lecture.
  • 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.
     
General Audience Publications

Research Projects


Current Research Projects
  • 2026-2027: “AI and the Arts: Affective Responses to Technology Beyond Anxiety?” Knowledge Synthesis Grant. Co-Applicant with Principal Applicant Sandra Jeppesen and Co-Applicant Neven Lochhead
     
Past Research Projects
  • 2023-2026: Principal Applicant with Project Co-Director Cheryl Thompson. “Mapping the Music Industries.” SSHRC Partnership Development Grant.
  • 2023-2024: “Peer-to-Peer Learning for Inclusive Environments for the Creative Industries.” Justice, Equity, and Community Initiatives grant, The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University.
  • 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