Hi! I’m Layla Cameron (they/them), an academic, filmmaker and journalist living on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), and Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ) Nations.

I am currently a Lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University where I recently completed my PhD. I have recently taught at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) in the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies: Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies.

My research interests are grounded in queer feminist cultural studies. My dissertation, titled Sticky representations of fatness on contemporary reality television: Envisioning fat presents and futures, is an interdisciplinary project that situates my affective readings of reality television programs featuring superfat people within broader theoretical frameworks. I have published and presented work in the disciplines of communication and media studies, women and gender studies, fat studies, disability studies and the sociology of sport, including contributions in Intersectional Media (2021, Eds. J. Campbell & T. Carilli), Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, BIG: Stories About Life in Plus-Sized Bodies (2020, Ed. Christina Myers), and Xtra.

I greatly enjoy teaching and have taught undergraduate courses on topics such as new information technologies, introduction to communications, technologies of gender and sexuality, documentary media, popular culture, and video and sound production. In addition to my PhD, I have earned a Master of Arts from the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, and a Bachelors of Journalism and Human Rights (High Honours) from Carleton University.

In October 2018, I won the Nora & Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy for my work in academia and filmmaking. My first short documentary film, Fat Hiking Club, has screened at festivals, conferences, and in classrooms around the world. I am currently working on a second documentary film, Baby Weight, with the BC & Yukon Studio of the National Film Board of Canada. My first podcast project, FAT in YVR, supported by Telus STORYHIVE’s Voices Program, was released in September 2022 and has been funded for a second season.

In my spare time, I enjoy letterpress printmaking, live music, and going on road trips through national parks with my adorable rescue dog, Millie.