Juan Francisco Salazar was born in Santiago, Chile, and migrated to Sydney in 1998. He is an interdisciplinary researcher, author and documentary filmmaker whose academic and creative work explore the coupled dynamics of social-ecological change and is underpinned by a collaborative ethos across the arts, science and activism. He is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2020-2024) with a project on critical social studies of outer space that continues his decade long cultural research on Antarctica. During this work in Antarctica (2010-2020), he led the Antarctic Cities project, with a team of 15 researchers in five countries and co-founded the international Antarctic Youth Coalition in 2020.

Juan has led participatory projects in Western Sydney; Central Australia; Northern Chile; Colombia and Vanuatu and developed collaborations with organizations including: The Australian Museum, The Powerhouse Museum, The Biennale of Sydney, Arts + Cultural Exchange, Proboscis Studio (UK), Live & Learn (Vanuatu), and INACH (Instituto Antártico Chileno). His films and video installations include: Anatomia Monumental (1999), De la Tierra a la Pantalla (2004); 33˚South (with Sarah Waterson, 2008); Nightfall on Gaia (2015) and The Bamboo Bridge (with Katherine Gibson, 2019) and Cosmographies (2024). They have screened at prestigious venues and festivals including Serpentine Galleries (London 2022); Biennale of Sydney (2022); London International Documentary Film Festival (2021); Vision du Reel (Nyon 2020); CPHDOX (Copenhagen 2015); Antenna Film Festival (Sydney 2015 and 2019); Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (Sydney 2008); Museo de las Americas (Denver 2005); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago 1999).

He is a member of the editorial board of the journals Public Humanities, The Polar Journal, Media+Environment and Cultural Anthropology. His work has appeared on The Sydney Review of Books, The Conversation, The New Matilda, The Miami Rail.

Research Focus

• Environmental humanities
• Social studies of science
• Documentary film
• Antarctica and Outer Space
• Indigenous media in Latin America
• Socio-ecological transformations

Awards and Recognition

• 2020 Western Sydney University Researcher of the Year Award
• 2019 ARC Future Fellowship Award
• 2019 Special Mention, Best Australian Documentary, Antenna Documentary Film Festival
• 2016 Winner, Best Documentary, Barcelona Planet Film Festival
• 2013 DFAT Australian Leadership Awards Fellowship
• 2009 Winner, Best Book, Australian Educational Publishing Award for the co-authored book Screen media arts: an introduction to concepts and practices (opens in new window) (with H Cohen and I Barkat), Oxford University Press.

Honorary and Visiting Appointments

• 2025 Board Member National Committee for Antarctic Research (NCAR) Australian Academy of Science
• 2023  Board Member, Just Space Alliance (USA)
• 2023  Steering Committee Member, Australian Centre for Space Governance, ANU
• 2022 Visiting Professor, Programme Directeurs d'Etudes Associes DEA, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris
• 2020-2023 Co-Chair, Future Earth Australia Steering Committee, Australian Academy of Science
• 2018 Visiting Professor, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
• 2018 Ostrom Workshop Visiting Fellowship, Indiana University (Bloomington)
• 2016-2020 University Research Theme Champion (Environment and Sustainability)
• 2012-2016 Co-Chair, Standing Committee on the Humanities and Social Sciences, Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR)
• 2015 Visiting Professor, Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile
• 2013 Visiting Professor, Universidad Uniminuto, Colombia.

HDR Supervision

2010  Mahmoud Reza Yektaparast
Rhythms Of Anger: Daoism And Chinese Untrammelled Painting, Toward A Counter-Theorisation of Avant-Garde

2010  Justo Díaz Gómez
Latin American Music in Sydney

2011  Elizabeth Mifsud
Imagined Future Landcapes of Western Sydney in The Era of Global Warming

2011  Cristina Wulfhorst
Intimate Multiculturalism: Blurring Boundaries Between Brazilians and Australians in Sydney

2012  Granaz Moussavi
My Tehran for Sale: A Cinematic Translation of The Poetics of Iranian Cinema

2012  Samantha Edwards-Vandenhoek
Graffiti Archaeography: The Poetics of Engagement in Sydney's Inner Suburbs

2012  Liliana Edith Correa
The Politics of Cultural Visibility: Latin American Art Practices in Sydney

2013  Enda Vincent Murray
A Personal Filmic Exploration of Contemporary Irish-Australian Identity

2013  Vanessa Mendes Moreira De Sa
Rethinking Pirate Audiences: An Investigation of TV Audiences' Informal Online Viewing and Distribution Practices in Brazil.

2017  Sebastian Martín Valdez
Human Rights Acts. Media Reform and Politics in Argentina

2020  Socorro Cancino Cifuentes
Rearguard Remix: A Practice of Political Listening.

2020  Oznur Sahin
The Politics of Staging in Istanbul: Nation and Urban Space.

2021  Mauricio Novoa Muñoz
New Pedagogies for Design: Revaluing the Design Artefact for The Post-Industrial Revolution.

2022  Tania Raouf
The Birth of Kurdish Cinema

2024 Ceridwen Dovey
Beyond Earth: Objects, Environments, Ethics And Emotion In Outer Space