Dr Sarah Gibson Yates

Courses taught:

• Film and Media (Undergraduate)
• Film (Undergraduate)
• Film and Television Production (Undergraduate)
• Media and Communication (Undergraduate)
• Writing and English Literature (Undergraduate)
• Writing and Film (Undergraduate)
• Creative Writing (Postgraduate)

Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Writing, Film and Media Practice, and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Media and Communication within the Cambridge School of Creative Industries, Anglia Ruskin University. She is a member of the Cambridge Writing Centre, the research institute StoryLab, and partnership co-lead for ARU’s collaboration with Collusion’s Art Tech Play, a creative development event series for the Eastern region. She researches creative practices across multiple disciplines, examining how new technologies impact filmmaking, writing, and other creative fields.

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Background

Sarah’s teaching and research draws on diverse careers in film programming, film production, film education and community arts education. Her research practice research centres on narrative making across a range of media including screenwriting, filmmaking and children’s literature.

Her PhD Writing Digital Culture into Contemporary Realist Young Adult Literature: a novel and exegesis explores the role of online social technologies in the lives of young people, and its multimodal representation in fiction. The novel output was longlisted for The Times Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2020 and a selection of the exegesis published as articles in peer-reviewed research journals. This project was originally developed with a grant from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Research interests

Sarah’s current research focuses on the impact of new technologies on traditional writing and audiovisual production practices. She investigates the way languages and practices of digital culture are used as narrative strategies in fiction and what these innovations communicate about our human evolution with technology.

Most recently Sarah has been researching screenplay co-creation with AI and its production within a context of care and working with intimacy co-ordinators on AI-inspired, co-written texts in the production of a short drama film. Her recent British Academy-funded project Creative Human-Machine Collaboration: co-creating with AI in a new film production context of care explores the ethics and implications of AI and creativity, helping better understand today's shifting digital landscape via creative storytelling. More information and links to articles and other materials can be found on Sarah's website.

Areas of research supervision

• Fiction Film practice
• Creative writing (digitally informed fiction and non-fiction, YA fiction, screenwriting)
• Artificial Intelligence
• AI creativity
• Screenwriting with AI

Current PhD supervision:

• Digital-Inspired Interactivity for the Ludic Codex: short stories and exegesis, Lisa Farrell, Full Time.
• Transgressive Fiction: The Accuser Theory, Anja Housden-Brooks. Second supervisor. Complete.

Teaching

Sarah currently teaches on the following modules:

• Creative Moving Image
• Online Journalism
• Screenwriting: The Short Film
• Screenwriting: Script to Screen
• Non-Fiction Filmmaking
• Podcasting
• Screen Drama Production
• Major Projects in Film, Media and Creative Writing (BA and MA)

Qualifications

• PhD, Anglia Ruskin University (2021)
• MA, University of East Anglia (2005)
• BA, University College London (1993)

Memberships, editorial boards

• British Association for Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS), Member
• Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA), Member
• The Screenwriters Network
• Fellow of The Higher Education Academy
• Member of The National Association of Writers in Education
• Book 2.0, Journal. Editorial Board member 2019-2021 and current Peer Review Board

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Creative Human-Machine Collaboration: co-creating with AI in a new film production context of care. Principle Investigator, The British Academy New Talent Development Award, 2024.

Selected recent publications

Gibson Yates, S. 2025. About and Through: narrative subjects and strategies within fiction filmmaking research. Fiction Filmmaking as Research, Eds. Lulkowska, A. and Bennion-Nixon, J-L. Routledge.

Gibson Yates, S. 2024. Filmmaking in Academia: Practice Research for Filmmakers, Lulkowska, A. (Routledge, 2024). Book Review. Journal of Media Practice and Education.

Gibson Yates, S., Ivanescu, A., Yeni, N. 2020, Co-editors Book 2.0 Special Issue on Books and Technology: 10th-anniversary issue. Intellect Journal Publications. (This special issue examines the journal's founding theme and presents a series of papers from research experts and creative practitioners.)

Gibson Yates, S. 2020, 'Writing digital culture into the young adult novel', Ibid.

Gibson Yates, S. 2020, 'Josie Barnard's The Multimodal Writer', Book review Red Globe Press, 2019. Ibid.

Gibson Yates, S. 2020, 'Visual Thinking in Fiction', essay in Ways of Thinking. Cambridge School of Art.

Gibson Yates, S. 2019, 'Putting Multimodal Writing on The Page'. Writing in Education, No 78, Summer Issue. Journal of The National Association of Writers in Education, UK.

Recent presentations and conferences

Creative Human-Machine Collaboration: co-creating short drama cinema with AI in a new production context of care. 2024. Conference – MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium exploring the Intersections of Creative Practice and Intelligent Technologies., hosted by Ravensbourne University, London.

Co-creating short drama with AI. 2024. BAFTSS funded Creative Practice Colloquium (2nd), Department of Film and Creative Writing, Birmingham University.

Creative Human-Machine Collaboration: co-creating short drama cinema with AI in a new production context of care. 2024. Conference on AI and the Creative Industries, hosted by Futureworks, Manchester.

The Remediated Writer and the Scriptive Text. Paper presentation as part of a panel for Amplified Publishing, Mix Conference, Bath Spa, UK. July 2021.

New Forms of Fiction: the case for contemporary realist young adult literature. Paper presentation for 'Oh brave new world!' AHSS Faculty Conference, ARU. June 2021.

Screenwriting as Research. Panel presentation as part of The Cambridge School of Creative Industry's research seminar series. April 2021.

How Should a Person Write? Writing methodologies paper delivered as part of a panel of PhD Creative Writers at The National Association of Writers in Education [NAWE] annual conference, York, UK. November 2018.