Born and raised in Texas, Olivia is proud to continue her education at the University of Texas in the Media Studies Program. She graduated with her B.S. Radio-Television-Film and B.A. Mathematics degrees from UT in 2015, and she works full-time at the University as the Program Coordinator for the Women in Natural Sciences Program.

Her interests in Media Studies include German cinema, fandom studies, film history, and the intersection of communication and STEM. Olivia has always been passionate about the importance of communication in STEM fields, and she actively encourages her students to explore their interests outside of science as well as apply their technical and critical-thinking skills outside of the lab.

In her free time, Olivia is either playing video games, talking to her cats, painting her nails, or watching Top Gun (1986). You might even catch her as a guest lecturer at Alamo Drafthouse as well.

Jae Hyung Kim is a South Korean filmmaker whose work explores the suffering of individuals within the pressures of large, complex societies. He blends social themes with genre elements.

His short film 'Shoulder' won two awards at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival and was screened at both Korean and international festivals. The following year, his film 'Leap of Passion' was also invited to Fantasia in 2024, marking his second consecutive selection.

Beyond short films, Jae Hyung has worked as a production assistant on a feature film in South Korea and directed music videos, embracing various formats to expand his creative voice.

His work aspires to give voice to those often overlooked, using the arts as a medium to spark empathy and deeper understanding across social boundaries.

Antonio Battle is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose curiosity has pulled him toward photography, music, interior design, writing, and film. He is drawn to imagined worlds that invite us to feel life a little differently, and to the quiet strangeness hidden in ordinary things. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Film Production and trying, with varying success, to keep his plants alive.

Noah Nofz is a writer from a small midwestern town. His work often contains themes of loneliness and the search for connection, particularly in the contexts of queerness, self-expression, and underrepresented rural landscapes.

In addition to projects for the screen, Noah writes fiction, with a particular interest in children’s literature.

He lives in Austin with his spouse and their cats.

Area of Focus: Found family; queerness and self-expression; comedy; nature; subversion of genre

Sara Webster is an MA candidate in Media Studies. Before coming to RTF, she worked in the film and television industry for many years, and has since taught writing and film at the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Denver. She holds a BA in Media Arts from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. Her interests include television studies, history, and media industries.

Thomas was born and raised in Uvalde, Texas, where he began his academic pursuits at the Southwest Texas Junior College. He then graduated with a Bachelor's in Communication at The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he later worked full-time as a Program Coordinator in the University's IT Department. His skills from this job included networking and community building - two areas Thomas hopes to build upon during his time in Austin.

Some of Thomas' other professional experiences include blog and article writing, editing, graphic design, and much more. His academic interests include studying avant-garde, comedic, and political contexts in film and television. His current fascination is with comedian Nathan Fielder's work in reality television. He's excited to learn more about the field of media studies and work towards building a career in the discipline.

When not bingeing shows or movies, Thomas can be found at the local record/CD store, playing video games, or immersing himself in an art museum.

Lori Salazar is a doctoral student in media studies at the University of Texas’s Radio-Television-Film department. Her research focuses on women and gender studies, and Latinx representation within the horror genre. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Film, Television, and Digital Media from Texas Christian University in 2016. In 2022, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Writing at Texas Christian University. In 2025, she completed her graduate studies at Texas Christian University for her Masters in Arts in English. She wrote her thesis about Latinx representation within the Scream and Purge film franchises. While working on her Masters, she presented her conference paper “The Arkikosa River’s Significance to Indigenous Life at TCU” at MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the US Conference in 2024. She also was a panelist at TCU’s “Malas Novel Celebration and Discussion” in 2024. She was also a Freelance Op-ed Writer at Robert Weiner Associates in Washington, DC in 2022.

Area of Focus: Women and Gender Studies, Latinx Representation & Horror Genre

Honghan Song is a doctoral student in the Radio-Television-Film program at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines the power dynamics between the gaming industry and its users, focusing on how players perceive, respond to, and resist exploitative structures within games, as well as how companies adapt to and monetize these forms of resistance. 
Before joining UT Austin, Honghan earned an M.A. in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Nanjing University. She also has two years of experience working in China’s gaming industry, including roles at Tencent and Changyou, which informs her research with an insider’s perspective on industrial practices and player-company relations.

Area of Focus: video games, media industry, user behavior

Katherine Prior is a PhD student in the Radio-Television-Film department at The University of Texas at Austin. Her current research explores how national traumas are processed on television. Her first book, focused on Covid-19 in American television narratives, is under contract with McFarland. In addition to her academic work, Katherine has served on the programming committees of several film festivals, including the Boston Film Festival (2024) and the Key West Film Festival (2023–present). She also sat on the Student Jury for the 2024 iteration of Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema film festival, hosted jointly with Unifrance. In 2023, Katherine was the winner of the New York Film Critics Circle’s Graduate Student Prize. Katherine holds a BA in English from Thomas Edison State University, an AAS in Illustration and a BS in Art History and Museum Professions from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and an MA in Screen Studies from the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College.

Area of Focus: Contemporary television, 9/11, Covid-19, depictions of women in media & film genres