Postdoctoral Researcher | Chaire de recherche du Québec sur l'intelligence artificielle et le numérique francophones (IANF) | Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) | 2026–2028

Ph.D., Film and Media Studies | Concordia University | 2018–2025

Of Tentacles and Men: How anime shaped the internet as we know it

Committee: Dr. Marc Steinberg, Dr. Rosanna Maule, and Dr. Mia Consalvo

External committee: Dr. Fenwick McKelvey (Concordia University), Dr. Kevin Driscoll (University of Virginia)

Awarded: Outstanding

M.A., Film and Media Studies | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in collaboration with L’École Normale Supérieure (ENS) and Université Paris 7 | 2016–2018

From 1978 to 2008: A historical approach to the French reception of Japanese pornographic animation 

Committee: Dr. Laurent Jullier, Dr. Marie Pruvost-Delaspre

B.A., Film Studies | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle | 2013–2016

Aurélie Petit, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Not Safe for Work, Not Safe from AI: Creative porn workers and the monetization of Generative AI in the platform economy (in preparation)

Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, Aurélie Petit, Sexualités et érotismes dans le court-métrage d’animation : la prise de pouvoir féministe des réalisatrices indépendantes (under review)

Aurélie Petit (2027) Digital pornographic animation. The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex, and Sexuality (ed. Anamarija Horvat, Clarissa Smith and Feona Attwood). Routledge. (upcoming) 

Aurélie Petit (2026) Animating Ambivalence: Quebec Contemporary Animation and Death Does Not Exist at the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2025. Fantasy/Animation. https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/animating-ambivalence-quebec-contemporary-animation-and-death-does-not-exist-at-the-ottawa-international-animation-festival-2025

Aurélie Petit (2026) Penser l’animation pornographique française par la bande dessinée. Cinéma d’animation et bande dessinée (ed. Xavier Kawa-Topor and Pascal Vimenet). Les Impressions. https://lesimpressionsnouvelles.com/livre/bande-dessinee-et-cinema-danimation

Valérie A. Lapointe, Simon Dubé, Aurélie Petit, Tinhinane Kessai, Sophia Rukhlyadyev, Vivianne Gravel, David Lafortune (2026) The Governance of AI-Generated Pornography Platforms: A Content Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448261421873

Aurélie Petit (2025) Entretien avec Aurélie Petit : “Le hentai arrive en masse et sa régulation présente des problèmes inédits”. Guide du hentai (ed. Julia Popek, Joan Laine and Benjamin Dulot). Éditions Ynnis. https://ynnis-editions.fr/products/hentai-erotisme-et-pornographie-au-japon

Aurélie Petit (2025) B̷l̷a̷c̷k̷ ̷P̷u̷d̷d̷i̷n̷g̷: A Speculative Visual Index. Representational limits of Generative AI during creative porn productions. Proceedings of CAGA24: The Conference of AG Animation 2024, (1). https://doi.org/10.54337/caga24-11171

Aurélie Petit (2025) The limits of Zero Tolerance policies for animated pornographic media, Porn Studies, Special Issue ‘Artificial Intelligence, Pornography, and Sex Work’ https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2025.2491506

Aurélie Petit (2025) Le hentai en France, genre maudit. Hors-série Hentai Juillet-Septembre 2025, Animeland. (Paper publication) https://animeland.fr/2025/06/26/lanimeland-hors-serie-hentai-est-disponible-en-precommande/

Aurélie Petit (2024) The hentai streaming platform wars, Porn Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2024.2418000

Aurélie Petit (2024) Designing adult mods for the Sims 4: An interview with TURBODRIVER. ROMchip, December 2024 Issue, https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal/article/view/208

Aurélie Petit (2024) Review: Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) 2024. Fantasy/Animation. https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/review-ottawa-international-animation-festival-oiaf-2024

Aurélie Petit (2024) Femininity in Kiki’s Delivery Service. Medium. https://medium.com/@aurelievirginiepetit/femininity-in-kikis-delivery-service-studio-ghibli-1989-54e16a656d31

Aurélie Petit (2024) The governance of AI-generated pornography: from deepfakes to synthetic animation. Emerging Voices in AI and Society Blog Series. https://www.uottawa.ca/research-innovation/blog/governance-ai-generated-pornography-deepfakes-synthetic-animation

Aurélie Petit (2024) WickedWhims: A conversation about adult content creation and responsible adult mods design in the Sims franchise by Aurélie Petit. Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG). https://tag.hexagram.ca/wickedwhims-a-conversation-about-adult-content-creation-and-responsible-adult-mods-design-in-the-sims-franchise-by-aurelie-petit/

Aurélie Petit (2024) The Bruno Edera Project: Archiving Adult Animation. Fantasy/Animation. https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/the-bruno-edera-project-archiving-adult-animation

Aurélie Petit (2024) The moderation of AI-Generated adult animation. Animation and video-generating AI. Animation Studies 2.0. https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=6759

Aurélie Petit (2024) The digital ethnographic potential of animated documentaries in Knit’s Island. Ottawa International Animation Festival 2023 Review. Short Ends. https://shortends.ca/2024/02/06/the-digital-ethnographic-potential-of-animated-documentaries-in-knits-island/

Aurélie Petit (2023) Filmography of Sexual and Erotic Animation Films. Medium. https://medium.com/@aurelievirginiepetit/sexual-and-erotic-animation-films-3fb46f63c875

Aurélie Petit (2022) “Do female anime fans exist?”: The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime. Internet Histories. Volume 6, Issue 4, pp. 352-368. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2022.2109265

Aurélie Petit (contributor) (2022) Gozem. Super Apps. Platform Lab Research Report. Issue 2. https://www.theplatformlab.com/super-apps

Aurélie Petit (editor and contributor) (2022) Anime Streaming Platform Wars. Platform Lab Research Report. Issue 1. https://www.theplatformlab.com/reports

Aurélie Petit (2020) Book review of The Anime Boom in the United States (Michal Daliot-Bul and Nissim Otmazgin). Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Images Studies, “Animating LGBTQ+ Representations: Queering the Production of Movement”, volume 9, n°1, pp. 129-131. https://www.synoptique.ca/_files/ugd/811df8_08984c9514d8436181785eec47496567.pdf

Aurélie Petit (2019) Enjeux économiques et industriels de l’animation pornographique et érotique française. Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication, dossier « L’animation comme industrie culturelle ? Concevoir et produire le dessin animé », n°18, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.4000/rfsic.8166

Not Safe for Work, Not Safe from AI: Creative porn workers and the monetization of Generative AI in the platform economy. GenAI and Creative Practices, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam. December 2025. 

Designing better erobots: Fictionalized incarnations of AI technologies in pornographic visual media. 10th International Congress on Love & Sex with Robots, Montreal, Canada. August 2025.

“I’m Not Bad, I’m Just Drawn That Way” : The Generative Failures of Animated Pornography. Society of Animation Studies, University of the Arts London (UAL), London, UK. July 2025. 

Using AI for animation historiography: The B̷l̷a̷c̷k̷ ̷P̷u̷d̷d̷i̷n̷g̷: A Speculative Visual Index. Animafest Scanner XII, Animafest Zagreb, Croatia. June 2025.

Moderating AI animation in practice. The Revolution of Animation: Current Challenges and Future Directions, AG Animation and VIA University College, Viborg, Danemark. September 2024. 

B̷l̷a̷c̷k̷ ̷P̷u̷d̷d̷i̷n̷g̷: A Speculative Visual Index. Wilding AI Lab. MUTEK Forum, Montreal, Canada. August 2024.

The Limits of “Zero Tolerance” Policies for Animated Pornographic Media  Global Digital Intimacies Conference, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. June 2024.

The Links between AI-assisted and CGI Pornography. British Association for American Studies (online). April 2024.

Online Violence and Ethical Togetherness (with Patrick Galbraith). Queer and Feminist Perspective on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium (online). April 2024.

Situating Animated Porn Content Producers in the Sex Work Economy. Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Boston, US. March 2024.

Examining the Ethical Differences Between Deepfake Pornography and Pornographic Animation. Shaping AI for Just Futures Conference. AI + Society Initiative, Ottawa, Canada. October 2023.

The Difficulties of Distributing Japanese Pornographic Animation in America. Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Denver, US. April 2023.

Alt-right’s Lineage in Anime Online Culture. Digital Histories Graduate Conference. Brown University, Providence, US. November 2022.

#IStandWithVic or Anime Fandom Online Resistance to Its #MeToo Movement. Fandom After #MeToo/#BalanceTonPorc Symposium. Chicago University and Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France. June 2022.

Examining the Platformization of the Anime Streaming Market in France. Global Perspectives on Platforms and Cultural Production Conference. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. June 2022.

On the need to theorize French pornographic animation using comics history [De la nécessité de penser l’animation pornographique française par la bande dessinée]. Cinéma (d’animation !) et bande dessinée. Nouvelles Écritures du Film d’Animation, Angoulême, France. March 2022.

Hentai French Online Fandom. Mechademia Conference (online). June 2021.

Becoming Political. Anime Imagery in Alt-Right Online Discourses. Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (online). March 2021.

Undead Photography: A Media Archeological Approach to the Handle Kodak Camera. Conférence Hypothèses. Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada. October 2020. 

The History of Japanese Pornographic Animation in France [Une histoire de la pornographie japonaise animée en France]. Otakuton Festival, Montreal (online). August 2020.

Studying Hentai in a French Context. Theorizing Anime: Invention of Concepts and Conditions of Their Possibility. Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. November 2019.

Japanese Pornographic Animation in France: Reception as Construction. Society of Animation Studies Conference. Universidade Lusofona, Lisbon, Portugal. June 2019.

Pratiques spectatorielles et professionnelles du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel, Paris 8. Instructor Prof. Marie Pruvost-Delaspre. I presented my research on animation creators online during a graduate seminar in the Film Studies department. January 2026.

Communication, Culture and Popular Art, Concordia University. Instructor Dr. Andrei Zanescu, Communication Studies. I presented my research on animanga and sexism to 40 undergrad students in the Communication department. March 2024.

Sérialités et transmédialités, Université de Montréal. Instructor Prof. Marta Boni, Film Studies. I was invited to present my research on fan studies to 15 Master and Ph.D. students from the Serialities and transmedialities Seminar. April 2023.

Ph.D. Proseminar II, Concordia University. Instructor Prof. Haidee Wasson, Film and Moving Image Studies. I was invited to present my upcoming SCMS presentation to 10 first- and second-year Ph.D. students of the Film and Moving Image Studies Professionalization Seminar. March 2023.

Sexual Representations in Cinema, Concordia University (Teaching Assistant) Instructor Prof. Terri Ginsberg. Cross-Listed under Women Studies and Film Studies. Winter 2023.

Digital Media and Animation, Concordia University (Main Instructor) Designed a 12-weeks syllabus for 60 students at the 300-level on animation and technology. Film Studies. Fall 2022.

Studies in Fandom, Concordia University (Main Instructor) Designed a 12-weeks syllabus for 60 students at the 300-level on the politics of fandom. Film Studies. Winter 2022.

Queer Cinema, Concordia University (Teaching Assistant) Instructor Prof. Brian M. Peters. Cross-Listed under English and Film Studies. Fall 2021.

Digital Media and Animation, Concordia University (Teaching Assistant) Instructor Jacqueline Ristola. Film Studies. Winter 2021.

Cinema and the Internet, Concordia University (Teaching Assistant) Instructor Rebbeca Holt. Film Studies. Fall 2020.

History of Animation Films, Concordia University (Teaching Assistant) Instructor Prof. Alison Loader. Cross-Listed under Animation and Film Studies. Winter 2020.