KB Heylen is a researcher, writer and strategist, working across digital media and financial technologies.
My research is focused on the operation and regulation of digital platforms from a media studies perspective. My PhD analyses financial technology through a critical platform studies framework, while my master's thesis examined Facebook and Google’s responses to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code.
I was a 2024 Parliamentary Library Summer Scholar, where I spent six weeks at Parliament House in Canberra conducting research into how fintech is framed and debated within Parliament. This research forms a chapter of my PhD.
I also conduct research across queer studies, fat studies and performance studies, and I teach in media studies and criminology at Macquarie University.
Journal articles &
book chapters
Heylen, K., (2026) Fat Burlesque as Gender Exploration: An Autoethnography of Corpulence and Feminine Flaunting. In Jussara Belchior Santos, Magdalena Hutter, & Gille Kleiman (Eds.), Fat Performance (pp. 183–196). Intellect. https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835952993_14
Neilson, T., & Heylen, K., (2025). Journalism unions and digital platform regulation: a critical discourse analysis of submissions to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code. Media International Australia. 195 (1), 106-119 https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X231176583
Heylen, K., (2024) Enforcing platform sovereignty: A case study of platform responses to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, New Media and Society. 26 (12), 7277-7794 https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231166057
Press
Heylen, K., (2023 May 1) The rules for Afterpay, Zip and other ‘buy now, pay later’ providers are changing. What it means for you, and them. The Conversation.
Theses
PhD thesis
Buy now, pay later: A platform studies analysis of Afterpay.
School of Communication, Society and Culture
Macquarie University, 2026
Master’s thesis
Department of Media, Music, Creative Arts, Literature and Language
Macquarie University, 2022