Victoria Mc Collum

Victoria McCollum is from Coleraine (Northern Ireland) and holds a PhD in Film Studies and a BA (Hons) in Media Arts from Ulster University, and an MA in Film Practice from Queen’s University (Belfast). She has previously held positions at the BBC and ITV (Northern Ireland), the Irish Film Board (Ireland) and HBO (United States). She joined HBO, Time Warner Inc. at their headquarters in NYC, developing, marketing and promoting HBO's licensed products both within the U.S. and internationally. At HBO, she collaborated on projects with Apple, Cartoon Network, Cinemax, Facebook, New Line Cinema, Sesame Street, Telltale Games, Time Warner, Twitter and Universal Music Group. Victoria joined the School of Arts and Humanities at Ulster University in 2015 as a Lecturer in Cinematic Arts. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and sits on the board of the Digital, Creative and Financial Technologies Group in Derry.

In 2016, Victoria was awarded the Creativity and Culture prize by Ulster University's Department of Research and Impact for demonstrating exceptional skill in communicating the purpose, meaning and impact of her research. In 2017, she won a Civic Impact Award to curate and deliver Movies in Mind, Derry ~ Londonderry's 1st Mental Health Film Festival in association with Nerve Centre and Oscar-affiliated Foyle Film Festival. In 2018, Victoria was announced Faculty Winner of the Early Career Research Excellence Award at Ulster University, and in 2020, she picked up the Early Career Educator Excellence Award. In 2021, Victoria was awarded a Civic Ambassador Pin for her contribution to society through her Filmmaking for Change initiative. In 2022, she was awarded the Excellence Award in Support of Student Ambition. Victoria currently supervises nine doctoral candidates within the School of Arts and Humanities. Recently, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Kadir Has University (Istanbul) and College of Charleston (South Carolina).

Victoria has published a number of cutting-edge books on Film, Media and TV, including her monograph Post-9/11 Heartland Horror: Rural Horror Films in an Era of Urban Terrorism (2016) and volumes HBO’s Original Voices: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Power (2018); Alternative Media in Contemporary Turkey: Sustainability, Activism and Resistance (2018); Make America Hate Again: Trump-Era Horror and the Politics of Fear (2019); Resist! Protest Media and Popular Culture in the Brexit-Trump Era (2020). Victoria's latest books include Bloody Women! Women Directors of Horror (2022) and Blumhouse: The New House of Horror (2022). She is also leading a supernatural heritage project on The Witches of Islandmagee. Victoria is Co-Investigator on a Higher Education Research Capital (HERC) project that will deliver £536k investment in a new Virtual Production Facility at Ulster. In 2021-22, Victoria studied Global Business Leadership and Management with Arizona State University, USA. Recently, she was elected to Ulster University's Senate.