Dr. Jean Bruce is Associate Dean of Graduate Education and responsible for The Creative School’s high-quality graduate programs and its student experiences. In her role of overseeing and maintaining our graduate programs, Jean works collaboratively with each school within our faculty and the Yeates School of Graduate Studies.
In 2021, Jean guided the addition of two new graduate programs—Scriptwriting & Story Design (MFA) and Media & Design Innovation (PhD). A total of nine graduate programs ensures The Creative School’s prominence at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and beyond. Currently underway are two new graduate programs: Interior Design and Sustainable Packaging.
Jean’s academic home is the School of Image Arts (IMA), where she is a professor of film, media and cultural studies. Curriculum development is her specialty and Jean previously played a lead role in revising the school’s programs during her tenures as a two-term Associate Chair and as Interim Chair. Jean currently teaches graduate courses in communication and cultural studies, visual culture and television. She supervises graduate students in Documentary Media; Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management; and in the joint (York/TMU) Program in Communication and Culture.
A recipient of the Dean’s Service Award, Jean has served as an IMA representative on several university committees. Among them, she was a member of TMU’s Academic Standards, Senate Appeals and Liberal Studies committees.
Her research specializations are film and television affect, including documentary, melodrama and reality TV. Jean has written popular and academic books and articles and served as editor for themed journal issues in Canada and Europe. Her contributions to scholarly anthologies cover Canadian and queer cinema and reality television. Recent publications include a co-authored book Forbidden Love (Arsenal Pulp Press/McGill-Queen’s Press, 2016); an article on “Queer Visibility and the Archive” for the blu-ray re-release (2022) of Forbidden Love; and an interview with filmmakers Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman on the DVD’s audio track. As part of SSHRC-funded research, Jean has convened international symposia on reality television. She is currently working on a book about advertising and consumer culture.