Biography

Elizabeth Ellcessor is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Media Studies. She is also a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Miller Center. Since fall 2022, she has been the Co-Editor of JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.  

Dr. Ellcessor’s research and teaching focus on questions of access and equity in contemporary American media, particularly with respect to disability and embodied difference. She is the author of Restricted Access: Media, Disability, and the Politics of Participation (2016) and co-editor of Disability Media Studies (2017). She regularly teaches undergraduate courses on Disability and Media, Media Bodies, and Digital Media Accessibility. Her latest book, In Case of Emergency: How Technologies Mediate Crisis and Normalize Inequality (2022), considers how 9-1-1, sirens, social media, and other technologies create and shape the concept of “emergency” for diverse publics. 

Prior to joining UVA, Dr. Ellcessor taught at Indiana University, where she taught classes on media industries, digital media cultures, and celebrity. She holds an M.A. and PhD in Media and Cultural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Elizabeth Ellcessor is a member of the Graduate Faculty.