Rate My Professor Katarina Damjanov

Dr. Katarina Damjanov is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication within the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, having joined the institution in 2013. She earned her PhD from the University of Melbourne, where she also taught in the School of Culture and Communication and the School of Social and Political Sciences. Additionally, she holds a BA (Honours) and an MA from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (Theatre, Radio, Film and TV) at the University of the Arts in Belgrade. Before academia, Damjanov worked across media and creative industries in roles such as producer, director, scriptwriter, and journalist, and co-directed the Centre for Contemporary Art and New Media (MUST:Re), contributing to events like the Zagreb Film Festival.

Damjanov serves as Co-Director of the Frontier Technologies and Society Research Lab and Lead for the Humans & Space Research Capability at UWA's International Space Centre. Her research explores changing relations between technologies, environments, and society, focusing on emerging infrastructures on and off Earth, including digital media and cultures, media governance and policy, automation, robotics, AI, XR/VR, mobilities, and outer space. She has held the position of Discipline Chair of Media and Communication and led major undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Her work supports UN Sustainable Development Goals related to energy, infrastructure, sustainable cities, and responsible consumption.

Damjanov's contributions have been recognized with the UWA School of Social Sciences Mid-Career Research Award (2025), the Outstanding Contribution to Tourism and Social Sciences Emerald Literati Award for research on Virtual Reality and Space Tourism (2020, shared with David Crouch), Journal of Informatics Editor's Choice (2023, shared), UWA Student Guild Best Unit award (2023), and a Visiting Fellowship at CeMoRe, Lancaster University (2018). Key publications include "Powering wicked futures: EV batteries as vital matters of care" (2025, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies), "Commodity and the commons: accumulations of capital on the space frontier" (2022, Journal of Cultural Economy), "Of Defunct Satellites and Other Space Debris: Media Waste in the Orbital Commons" (2017, Science, Technology & Human Values), "Extra-planetary mobilities and the media prospects of virtual space tourism" (2018, Mobilities), and "Virtual Reality and Space Tourism" (2019, Space Tourism: The Elusive Dream). She has delivered invited presentations such as "The Virtual Realities of Space Tourism" (2023) and keynotes at international conferences.