Ruari Elkington

For over a decade, Dr Ruari Elkington’s industry engagement and academic research has been driven by questions around how screen content connects with discrete audiences in markets increasingly under pressure through creative and commercial tensions. His screen industry experience centred on the acquisition, marketing and distribution of documentary, feature film and innovative digital content to theatrical and online audiences.

He is a Chief Investigator with QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre and has published in the field of screen distribution, screen studies and education. Ruari is a Fellow, and Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2021 he was nominated and approved by Council as a member of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

In 2018 Dr Elkington was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate new initiatives connecting Creative Industries students and online video creators in collaborative work. His real-world engagement is evidenced in his 2019 peer reviewed appointment to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Expert Network (Future of Information and Entertainment) building on his 2016 AMP “Tomorrow Maker” award and funding.

Over the last five years external leadership work within the screen sector has also included National Executive Committee Membership (2019) to the Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA), and institutional membership and ongoing student mentorship and screening facilitation for the Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts (AACTA) /Australian Film Institute (AFI).

He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology’s Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice Faculty. QUT is currently ranked as Australia's best young university in the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings and was the world’s first University to establish a Creative Industries faculty in 2001.