The University of Nebraska System has released the latest episode of its "Shaping the Future" video series, featuring Megan Elliott, founding director of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and the Johnny Carson Endowed Director in Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The series, hosted by President Jeff Gold, features conversations with researchers, students, educators and partners across the state who are changing lives and making an impact.
In the video, Elliott shares what drew her to field of emerging media arts, how curriculum at the Carson Center is helping prepare students for careers that don’t yet exist, and why she believes Nebraska is the perfect place to connect storytelling, technology and human imagination.
Originally from Australia, Elliott’s career has taken her to 17 countries around the world and provided a wide range of experiences in media and the arts. She was previously the manager of leadership and community connections at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia and former director and CEO of digital media think-tank X Media Lab. Elliott also served from 2002-2006 as the executive director of the Australian Writers’ Guild and has experience in theatre and the interdisciplinary arts.
Elliott was drawn to the University of Nebraska and the Carson Center by the opportunity to create something new.
“What attracted me to Nebraska and to the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts was the opportunity to build something that hadn't been done before—a total intersection of storytelling and technology and applying it to other media and industries,” she said. “The opportunity to do it within an R1, land grant university like the University of Nebraska–Lincoln—and do it behind the legendary Johnny Carson name—was a no brainer.”
At the Carson Center’s Emerging Media Arts program, students learn to tell stories and create worlds across disciplines old, new and those still being discovered. Through filmmaking, interactive media, virtual reality, experience design, sonic arts, wearable technologies, AI and more, its students grow into creative leaders for an evolving world.
“Our students’ foundational learning is code,” Elliott said. “They then learn about design, critical thinking, storytelling and how to think entrepreneurially and build businesses.”
The Center is also focused on extending classroom knowledge to real-world application, through courses like “Innovation Studio,” which pairs students with industry internships and community partners across the state. As an example, a recent student-led project in Alliance helped the community to better understand addition and substance abuse misuse through storytelling and design.
“Professor Ash Smith has done outstanding work with the Rural Drug Addiction Center at the university,” Elliott said. “Her students worked with communities to do world building exercises to see what those communities could look like in a future without drug addiction.”
Dr. Gold praised Elliott’s leadership and the generosity of the Carson Foundation in providing funding to support students as they become young professionals in the emerging media arts workforce.
“The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is a fantastic center and we look forward to helping accelerate its growth,” he said. “I want to thank the Carson Foundation, who have been phenomenal from a conceptual perspective down to the funding that made it all possible.”
New episodes of “Shaping the Future” are released monthly and feature faculty, staff, students and partners from across the university’s four campuses and the state of Nebraska. Topics will include athletics, counterterrorism, student success, healthcare, K-12 education and many others.