EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, June 2022
Dissertation Chair: Chon Noriega
Dissertation Committee: John Caldwell, Denise Mann, Eric Avila
Title: Disney’s Media Parks: The Convergence of Theme Parks, Film, Television, and Game Space
M.A. in the History of Art and Archaeology
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, NY, 2011
B.A. magna cum laude in Fine Arts
New York University, New York, NY, 2006
AWARDS AND HONORS
2020-2021 UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship
2020 UCLA Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship
2019 UCLA Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship
2018 UCLA Kemp R. Niver Scholarship in Film History at UCLA
2017 UCLA Hugh Downs Graduate Research Fellowship
2016 UCLA Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship
2015 UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship with Professor Chon Noriega
2015 UCLA Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship
2014 UCLA Otis Ferguson Memorial Award in Critical Writing
2010 NYU Shelby White and Leon Levy Travel Grant
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of California, Los Angeles (lead instructor)
Media Parks: The Cinematic and Televisual History of Theme Parks, scheduled for Summer 2023 (UCLA Summer Institute program)
Media Parks: The Cinematic and Televisual History of Theme Parks, Summer 2022 (UCLA Summer Institute program)
Media Parks: The Cinematic and Televisual History of Theme Parks, Spring 2020 (online)
University of California, Los Angeles (teaching assistant/associate/fellow)
Art and Technique of Filmmaking, Fall 2019 (online)
Architecture in the Modern World, Spring 2019
Art and Technique of Filmmaking, Fall 2018
History of the American Motion Picture, Spring 2018
Film Genres, Fall 2017
American Television History, Spring 2017
Introduction to Visual Culture, Fall 2016
History of European Cinema, Winter 2015
History of Documentary Film, Fall 2014
History of the American Motion Picture, Spring 2014
TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS
2019-2020 UCLA Collegium of University Teaching Fellowship
PUBLICATIONS
Birdsall, Heather Lea. “The Happiest Plays on Earth: Theme Park Franchising in Disneyland Video
Games.” In The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy, edited by James Fleury,
Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber, 77-104. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 2019.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2021 “‘Live Your Star Wars Story’: Geographical Storytelling, Immersion, and Interactivity in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” (virtual presentation) Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Virtual conference, March 17-21.
2019 “Looking Into the Eyes of Mara: Kinetic Narratives in Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure.” (oral presentation) Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Seattle, WA, USA,
March 13-17.
2017 “You’ve Just Crossed Over Into…the Abyss: Mise en abyme as a Spatial Narrative Strategy in
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.” (oral presentation) Society for Cinema and Media Studies.
Chicago, IL, USA, March 22-26.
2016 “Of Backlots and Genres: Disneyland's Industrial and Conceptual Origins in Film and
Television.” (oral presentation) Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Atlanta, GA, March
30-April 3.
2015 “Context as Content: Captain EO, Intertextuality, and the Immersive Theme Park
Experience.” (oral presentation) Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Montreal, Canada,
March 25-29.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Assistant Editor and Peer Review Coordinator, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, October 2015-present
Research Fellow, UCLA TFT Digital Incubator & Think Tank
Sponsored by Havas Media Group, September 2015-November 2018
Features Editor, Mediascape
UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, November 2013-October 2015
Graduate Student Researcher for Stephen Mamber
University of California, Los Angeles, October 2013-September 2014, February-August 2018
Intern, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Egyptian Department, February-May 2011
Course Assistant for Colin Eisler
New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, January-May 2010
AFFILIATIONS
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Popular Culture Association
