The College of the Arts at Georgia State University announced the appointment of Dr. Ethan Tussey as the new interim director of the School of Film, Media & Theatre. Dr. Tussey succeeds founding Director Dr. Gregory Smith, who returns to the faculty after five years of service in the role. Dr. Smith is credited with expanding a dynamic faculty, seeing the school through the pandemic transition to remote learning and establishing the school’s first M.F.A. degree in digital filmmaking.

“The strength of Dr. Tussey’s scholarship is matched by his ability to build strong relationships among his peers and students,” said Wade Weast, dean of the College of the Arts. “This makes him an ideal leader to carry on the foundational work established by Dr. Smith in these first five years.”

Dr. Tussey is a film and media scholar specializing in research on digital media platforms and the creative ways people use this technology. He has had many significant accomplishments since his arrival at Georgia State in 2012. His monograph, The Procrastination Economy: The Big Business of Downtime, was published by NYU Press in 2018, and it has been translated into three languages and received the Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title award. In addition, Dr. Tussey has published numerous book chapters, encyclopedia entries, bibliographies, and book reviews and has presented his findings at professional conferences related to his field. Dr. Tussey was awarded the College of the Arts Junior Faculty Award in 2017 and has received numerous internal grants to support his scholarship. In addition, he currently serves as graduate director for the School of Film, Media & Theatre.

“I am eager to be taking on the challenge as Interim Director,” said Dr. Tussey. “I look at this position as an opportunity to promote the stellar work of our faculty and students, to welcome our exciting new faculty members and to successfully launch our new M.F.A. program.”

Dr. Tussey will step into his role as interim director on July 1, 2022.