Dr Amanda Coles

Research Impact

In July 2019, Women in Film and Television Vancouver presented me with the Please Adjust Your Set Award at their 20th anniversary gala. My body of research was recognised for providing “essential analysis and data that has assisted in launching new policies and programs designed to address structural impediments to gender equity and inclusion”  in the Canadian film and television industry.

The recommendations in the 2018 Gender Equality and the Arts Evidence Review for VicHealth, led by A/Professor Kate MacNeill at the University of Melbourne, have been adopted by VicHealth and form the architecture for the Gender Equality Through the Arts Project Grants. A summary of the research report is available as part of the supporting documentation for the $300,000 grant program which provides local government councils, in partnership with local and international arts organisations, with up to $85,000 for projects designed to“raise awareness of and promote gender equality” through the arts.

The 2017 Skipping a beat: assessing the state of gender inequality in the Australian music industry report, led by A/Professor Rae Cooper at the University of Sydney, received national attention in print, radio and television media, including widespread coverage by trade and industry organisations. The report was also a key reference document in the 2018 launch of the inaugural Australian Women in Music Awards.

The 2016 CUES Report, What’s wrong with this picture? generated articles in the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood; local and national online and print media outlets across Canada; a feature live interview on national evening news; and coverage by leading industry advocacy bodies. The report is also referenced in the following policy and regulatory contexts:
• Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Women and Leadership in the Cultural Sector Hearings, 2018
• Canadian content in a digital world, Department of Canadian Heritage, 2016
• Telefilm Canada gender parity measures for feature film production, November 2016
• CBC Breaking Barriers Fund, November 2016

Publication of the 2013 CUES report Focus on Women resulted in an invitation from the Chair of the federal broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to present my research to the Commission. Regrettably, I had to decline this opportunity as I was unable to travel internationally at the time.

• Creative industries
• Workforce Development
• Labour Market Regulation
• Public Policy
• Equity and Diversity

• Co-Researcher, Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalisation and Work.
• Member, Industrial Relations Society of Victoria
• Member, Association of Industrial Relations Academics in Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)

• Creative Industries
• Work and Employment Relations
• Equity and Diversity

• MMM 349 - Employment Relations
• MMM 707 - Creative Industries
• MMM 793 - Managing Cultural Projects and Events
• MMM 312 - Event Management
• MMM 905 - Philosophy of Research

• Cultural Policy 
• Creative Industries
• Inclusion and Diversity 
• Work and Employment Relations
• Unions

Invited presentations, conferences & public engagement

Coles, A. (2019). Organising for equality? Unions and equity politics in the creative industries. Escaping the 'Noose': Freelancers and diversity work in the UK screen industries. Symposium hosted by the Institute for Screen Industries Research. September 4. University of Nottingham, UK.

----. (2019). Panelist - Policy for the new decade. With Alison Croggon (critic and novelist), Adrian Collette (Australia Council), Justin O’Connor (University of South Australia). Australian Cultural Policy: The Next Decade. April 8, Melbourne.

----. (2019). Gender and Inclusion: Seeking Solutions Through Redefining Risk. Keynote address. Vancouver Women’s International Film Festival, 2019. March 9, Vancouver.

----. (2018). Closing plenary: The Challenges of Organizational and Institutional Experimentation for World of Work Actors. CRIMT International Conference: What Kind of Work for the Future? Disruption, Experimentation and Re- Regulation. October, HEC Montréal, Montreal, Canada

----. (2018). Facilitator, Brainstorming the future of the DGC. All-elected National Delegates Meeting, Directors Guild of Canada. October, Toronto, Canada.

----. (2018). The Status of Women in the Canadian Arts and Cultural Industries. Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies National Speaker Series. October. McMaster University.

----. (2018). Gender at work: unions and equity politics in the media, entertainment and arts industries. Keynote address at the UNI-MEI Executive Board meeting, Toronto, Oct 2018.

----. (2017). Inequality is the symptom, not the problem. Keynote address and industry panel discussion, Directors Guild of Canada, Vancouver, November 2017.

----. (2017). Not business as usual; conceptualizing inequality in cultural industries. Radical Social Innovation Colloquium, Queen Mary University, London, May.

----. (2016). What’s wrong with this picture? Directors and gender inequality in the Canadian screen-based industries. Public lecture, School of Creative and Cultural Industries, Ryerson University, Toronto, October.

----. (2016). Women in Film and Television Victoria Annual General Meeting. Plenary discussion on gender inequality in the screen-based production industry. September, Melbourne, VIC.

----. (2015). Everything old is new again: 21st century content for 19th century labour markets. Plenary session – Public policy, labour market governance and economic innovation. CRIMT International Conference, May 2015, Montreal, PQ.

----. (2013) No More Mr. Nice Guy: Conservatives, ‘Canada’ and International Cultural Relations. Paper presented at the Twentieth Annual York Centre for International and Security Studies Conference, March, 2013

----. (2012) Panelist – Promoting Equality and Non-Discrimination in the Workplace. International Federation of Actors (FIA) Congress, September 2012, Toronto, ON

----. (2012) Panelist – Getting Our Dues: Women Work and Unions in the Screen-based industries. Women in Film and Television Atlantic Women Making Waves Conference, March 2012, Halifax, NS

----. (2008) Focus on Youth: Youth Arts and Policy in Canada and the UK. Paper presented at the Eighth Annual National Forum on Public Policy and the Third Sector, 2008, The School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, Kingston ON

----. (2008). Unintended Consequences: Analyzing the impact of labour tax credits and regional competition on labour markets in the Canadian English language film and television production sector. Paper presented at the International Forum on the Creative Economy, Co-sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage, March, Gatineau, PQ

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=HRZ6-A0AAAAJ&hl=en

Guest expert, The Minefield, ABC Radio National. Is it time to end simulated sex on television? April 29, 2020.  https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/amanda-coles/11972188

Keynote interview. Status of Women in the Canadian Arts and Cultural Industries. MC Minds – Mass Culture Canada, 2019.  https://youtu.be/a-4La54t-RA

Co-Investigator, Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) http://www.crimt.org/EN_Index.html

Recipient, Please Adjust Your Set Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research and Policy Impact. Women in Film and Television Vancouver, 2019.

Honorable mention, Best Dissertation, Labour and Employment Relations Association, 2013