Zane Austin Willard is a critical scholar, multimedia artist, and consultant. His research and teaching interests are in critical media and cultural studies, surveillance studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Analyzing popular culture (film, television, social media, art), critiquing legal and political discourse (public policy, news media), and reflecting on his own personal and professional experiences, Zane’s scholarship focuses on representations of LGBTQ+ communities in the increasingly digital, mediated, and surveilled cultural economy.

Committed to a critical praxis that extends theoretical inquiry into creative expression as cultural commentary, Zane is an active multimedia artist in Tampa Bay. His film, photography, and creative writing interrogates material themes connected to the body and place and works in recurring themes interrogating sexuality, social class, and their intersections.

As a consultant, Zane extends his passion for critical inquiry into professional settings including small businesses, non-profits, and his own entrepreneurial endeavors. Zane has over seven years of experience in learning and development, digital media production, event planning and production, and team management in higher education, health and wellness, promotional industries, and non-profit organizations. Regardless of the opportunity Zane brings his communication training and his critical values to create more just, equitable, and impactful spaces across industries.

Zane’s scholarship has been published in Communication Teacher and the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. He has presented his scholarship at the annual conventions of the National Communication Association, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Southern States Communication Assocaition, and the Florida Communication Association. Zane’s film and photography work has been exhibited in gallery shows and film festivals in New York, Toronto, Tampa, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Fort Collins, and in virtual exhibitions. Professionally, Zane is currently on the Board of Directors for a Tampa Bay-based LGBTQ+ production company. Formerly, he was the Audio/Visual Producer for a national LGBTQ+ health and wellness non-profit and Director of Marketing for a start-up non-profit advocating for LGBTQ+ youth. Zane has also been heavily involved in the Tampa Bay fitness community with over five years as a CrossFit Trainer.

Currently, Zane is a graduate teaching and research associate in the Department of Communication at USF, a graduate instructional assistant of communication education in USF’s College of Engineering, and he serves as the Editorial Assistant for the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. Additionally, he is in his second year as a Frederic Bastiat Fellow at the Mercatus Center for Social, Economic, and Political Thought, as well as an alumnus of the Mercatus Center’s Don Lavoie Fellowship. He holds a Master’s degree in Communication from USF and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tampa with a triple major in Economics, Communication, and Film & Media Arts and minors in History and Cinema Studies.