I received my PhD in Anthropology at University of California, Irvine. My recent work focuses on the intersection of the state and media by examining the U.S. military and Hollywood, and how creative professionals and simulation technologies are sought by the US state to innovate the military and its capacity to imagine futures. Funded by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Early Career Scheme, part of this research has appeared in Media, Culture & Society. Another strand of this research looks at AI-driven storytelling and its implications for collective memory.
My monograph, Haunted: An Ethnography of the Hollywood and Hong Kong Media Industries (2017, Oxford University Press) draws from extensive, multi-sited fieldwork that was conducted in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, and was supported by a postdoctoral Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Hong Kong (2010-2011). Using the concept of media assemblage, the book examines how distinct media cultures converge through global joint ventures. It argues that despite differences between the two commercial sites, media professionals in Los Angeles and Hong Kong share common concerns about the precarious conditions of the emotionally and physically high-stakes work of visual storytelling. Other publications from this body of research have appeared in Visual Anthropology Review and Critical Studies of Media Communication and are forthcoming in an edited volume with Duke University Press. Parts of this work have been awarded by the International Communication Association and The Academy of Hong Kong Studies, and featured on the cover of Anthropology News (American Anthropological Association).
PhD
University of California, IrvineJoint MA Anthropology and Women’s Studies
Brandeis University (Boston, USA)BA Religious Studies
University of California, Santa BarbaraState
Empire
Creativity and imagination
Applied entertainment and storytelling
Digital technologies
Precarity
Performance
Globalization
Fandom
Screening STEM: Media Representations of Women in STEM (Principal Investigator). Hong Kong Research Grants Council, General Research Fund, 2023-2026.
Operationalizing Hollywood: Storytelling in the Service of the State (Principal Investigator). Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Early Career Scheme, 2018-2021.
Film Industries, Cities, and Soft Power (Principal Investigator). HKU Seed Fund, 2016-2019.
2017
Academy of Hong Kong Studies, Communications Sector. Outstanding Paper Prize, “The Death Narratives of Revitalization: Colonial Governance, China, and the Reconfiguration of the Hong Kong Film Industry.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 32(5):318-332.2010-2011
Fulbright Scholarship: Postdoctoral Research in the Social Sciences for China Specialists, The University of Hong Kong.2008
International Communication Association, Mass Communication Section. Top Student Paper Award, “Of Ghosts and Gangsters: Capitalist Film Production in the Hong Kong Film Industry.” Visual Anthropology Review, v. 28, n. 1, p. 32-49.Selected Publications
Books:
Martin, Sylvia J. 2017. Haunted: An Ethnography of the Hollywood and Hong Kong Media Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.
Journal articles:
Martin, Sylvia J. 2022. “Globalization and Film Locations: Runaway Productions in Hong Kong.” Economic Sociology: Perspectives and Conversations. 23(2): 22-27.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2021. “Anthropology’s Prophecy for #MeToo: From Hollywood to Hong Kong.” Visual Anthropology Review, Volume 37(1): 120-141.
Chan, Cheris Shun-ching, Paul Joosse, Sylvia J. Martin and Xiaoli Tian. 2020. “Ethnography in Calamitous Times.” Special Issue “Ethnography in the Age of Covid-19″. Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa (Ethnography and Qualitative Research). Eds: Gary Alan Fine, Cheris Chan, and Chiara Bassetti. 2: 175-184.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2020. “Shared Visions: The Gift of ‘The Eye’.” Made in China Journal. Spectral Revolutions: Occult Economies in Asia Volume 5(2): 131-137.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2019.“Imagineering Empire: How Hollywood and the U.S. National Security State ‘Operationalize Narrative’.” Media, Culture & Society, 30 Dec. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719890540.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2017. “Grounded Dreams? Hollywood and Hong Kong Face the Challenges of a Globalizing Movie Economy.” Anthropology News. March 9.
(Featured on the cover of print edition)Martin, Sylvia J. 2015. “The Death Narratives of Revitalization: Colonial Governance, China, and the Reconfiguration of the Hong Kong Film Industry.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, v. 32, p. 318-332.
(Awarded Outstanding Paper Prize, Academy of Hong Kong Studies, Communications Sector.)Martin, Sylvia J. 2015. “Michael Jackson’s Gesamtkunstwerk: Artistic Interrelation, Immersion, and Interactivity From the Studio to the Stage.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, v. 11, 5.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2012. “Of Ghosts and Gangsters: Capitalist Cultural Production and the Hong Kong Film Industry.” Visual Anthropology Review, v. 28, n. 1, p. 32-49.
(Awarded Top Student Paper Award, International Communication Association, Mass Communication Section.)Maurer, Bill and Sylvia J. Martin. 2012. “Accidents of equity and the aesthetics of Chinese offshore incorporation.” American Ethnologist, v. 39, n. 3, p. 527-544.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2012. “The Roots and Routes of Michael Jackson’s Global Identity. Society. 49(3): 284-290.
Book chapters:
Martin, Sylvia J. 2021. “Stealing Shots: The Ethics and Edgework of Industrial Filmmaking.” In Anthropology, Film Industries, Modularity. Ramyar Rossoukh and Steve Caton, eds. Durham: Duke University Press.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2013. “Transformations and Tactics: The Production Culture of the Hong Kong Film Industry.” In Volume 2, “Media Production” of The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. Vicki Mayer, ed. Wiley-Blackwell.
Martin, Sylvia J. 2012. “Stunt Workers and Spectacle: Ethnography of Physical Risk in Hollywood and Hong Kong.” In Film and Risk. Mette Hjort, ed. Wayne State University Press. Pp. 97-114.