AJ Christian founder of OTV | Open Television and associate professor in the Departments of Communication Studies and RTVF

Aymar Jean “AJ” Christian is an associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the political economy of legacy and new media, cultural studies and community-based research. He published his first book, Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood and the Rise of Web Television, on New York University Press in 2018, and is currently writing his second book, Open Systems, which explores how to repair systemic harm and discrimination in media, technology and research. His scholarship has been published in numerous academic journals, including theInternational Journal of Communication, Television & New Media, Social Media & Society, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, among other journals and edited collections. Dr. Christian engages industry and community-based organizations as part of his research. He has given lectures for and collaborated with the Sundance Institute, Vimeo, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Black Public Media, and more. He has juried television and video for the Peabody Awards, Gotham Awards, and Tribeca Film Festival, among others. (For full bio visit https://communication.northwestern.edu/faculty/aymar-jean-christian/.)