Aurélie Petit

Aurélie Petit is a PhD Candidate in the Film Studies department at Concordia University, Montréal. She specializes in the intersection of technology and animation, with a focus on gender and sexuality. Her thesis examines the role that U.S.-based Japanese animation online communities played in shaping toxic technocultures on social media. During the Summer 2023, she was a PhD Intern at Microsoft Research where she worked on the limits of applying live-action governance frameworks to animated pornographic media. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow in AI and Inclusion at the AI + Society Initiative (University of Ottawa), working with Professor Jason Millar and the CRAiEDL on the ethics of Generative AI pornography. Her research has been published in English and French in various publications, including Porn Studies, Internet Histories, and Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication.

Supervisor: Dr. Marc Steinberg

Thesis: It all began with Japanese anime From Usenet to 4Chan: Online anime fandom and the Alt-right

Research Interests:

animation; digital media; pornography; platform; governance; moderation; Generative AI

Teaching

• FMST 320: Digital Media and Animation (Instructor Fall 2022)
• FMST 398: Studies in Fandom (Instructor Winter 2022)
• FMST 392: Queer Cinema (TAship Fall 2021)
• FMST 320: Digital Media and Animation (TAship Winter 2021)
• FMST 398: Cinema and the Internet (TAship Fall 2020)
• FMST 218: The History of Animated Film (TAship Winter 2020)

Selected Publications:

Petit, A. 2022. “Do female anime fans exist?”: The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime. Internet Histories. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2022.2109265 

Petit, A. (ed.) 2022. Anime Streaming Platform Wars. Platform Lab Research Report. Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.34667.67368  

Twitter: @aurelievpetit

Email: aurelievirginiepetit@gmail.com