Cole Armitage

Cole Armitage is a PhD Candidate in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. Cole’s research interests include animation theory, media theory, transmedia studies, and fan studies. His dissertation explores the development of the VTuber (Virtual YouTuber) phenomenon from a kind of technologically novel character performance to a distinct subculture from 2016 to the present day, centered in Japan but disseminated throughout other areas of Asia, North America, Europe, and beyond, and popularized on video and livestream-sharing platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Niconico, and Bilibili. Investigating the history, politics, and competing cultural imaginations that surround VTubers, as well as their aesthetic ties to forms like anime and video games, this dissertation takes VTubing as a portal through which to understand transformations in the so-called “otaku” mediascape and notions of “parasociality” that underscore it.   

Cole previously received his Bachelor’s Degree in Media Studies from Trent University and his Master’s Degree in Film Studies from Concordia University, where he published his MA thesis entitled “Destabilizing Animation: Structures of Agency and Uncanny Animacy in Animated Media.” Cole’s work has been shared at conferences, symposia, and guest lectures in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Singapore, including at events such as the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Annual Conference and the Society for Animation Studies (SAS) Annual Conference. Cole has also previously worked as a summer course instructor for CSI, designing and teaching the course “Anime!”

Awards

• Weisdorf Bell Family PhD Fellowship in Cinema Studies (September 2024)
• Japan Foundation Program for Specialists in Cultural and Academic Fields (July 2023)
• SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (September 1^st, 2020)
• SSHRC Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship (May 1^st, 2019)
• JSPS-Mitacs Summer Program Fellowship (June 2019)
• Fine Arts Travel Award (Concordia University, 2019)
• De Seve Scholarship (Concordia University, 2018)
• Faculty of Fine Arts Fellowship (Concordia University, 2018)
• Symons Medal (Trent University, 2018)
• Rita Chiu Study Abroad Bursary (Trent University, 2016)
• John Stubbs Prize (Trent University, 2015)