I am a researcher of digital media and culture, with a focus on the theories and practices of new and interactive media in cultural and memory work at the intersection of knowledge, power, and technology. I study digital transformations in media and cultural ecosystems, with a focus on the entanglements of creative work with technologies as situated, everyday practices across borders, particularly within contexts of unequal power relations.

I am currently working on the Leverhulme-funded project Synthetic Pasts, exploring the ways past-ness is evoked, framed, re-worked and distorted through automated and algorithmic intermediaries at global media platforms.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Digital Memory and Heritage
• Generative AI, algorithmic culture and synthetic media
• Digital transformations in the cultural and creative industries
• Immersive, interactive and social media
• NFTs and crypto culture
• Digital cultural diplomacy and soft power
• Critical-creative, qualitative and ethnographic digital methods

Find out more about my research on Pure.

Teaching

I lecture on digital media, digital culture, interactive media, media and communications, and digital creativity. 

Expertise and public engagement

My work has developed through collaboration with cultural institutions, workers and artists through participatory action research frameworks. I have been a researcher on the Culture Value Project at the OU (2017 – 2019) and on the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre at Cardiff University (2019-2023). I was a co-Investigator on the AHRC 'COVID-19: Impacts on the cultural industries and implications for policy' at the Centre for Cultural Value. I contribute reports, policy briefs, blog posts and submissions to official enquiries on media and culture.

Selected publications

• Kidd, J. and Nieto Mcavoy, E. 2023. Deep nostalgia: remediated memory, algorithmic nostalgia, and technological ambivalence. Convergence 29(3), pp. 620-640. (10.1177/13548565221149839)
• Kidd, J., Nieto Mcavoy, E. and Ostrowska, A. 2022. Negotiating hybridity, inequality, and hyper-visibility: museums and galleries social media response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cultural Trends (10.1080/09548963.2022.2122701)
• Nieto Mcavoy, E. and Kidd, J. 2022. Crypto art and questions of value: a review of emergent issues. Discussion Paper. AHRC Policy and Evidence Centre
• Aslan Ozgul, B., Nieto Mcavoy, E., Gillespie, M. and O’Loughlin, B. 2022. Shakespeare Lives on Twitter: cultural diplomacy in the digital age. International Journal of Cultural Policy 28(2) (10.1080/10286632.2021.1901892)