Tara Brabazon - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Books by Tara Brabazon

You enrol in a PhD, believing in the project and committed to its completion. But something goes ... more You enrol in a PhD, believing in the project and committed to its completion. But something goes wrong. A supervisor leaves the institution, becomes sick, or discards you from their research team or lab.

What happens next? Who can rescue you?

This book—Rescue Yourself: How to complete a PhD without a supervisor—helps students organize their habits, strategies, behaviour and emotions to finish a PhD. Let's start our work from the fear, confusion and worry, and scaffold a thesis to success.

Comma: How to restart, reclaim and reboot your PhD

Author's Republic, 2022

,Just over 1% of the world's population holds a PhD. This is a tough qualification, even in benev... more ,Just over 1% of the world's population holds a PhD. This is a tough qualification, even in benevolent times. Yet the 2020s are not benevolent times. From a pandemic to a climate emergency and war, our universities are buffeted by panic, fear and crises. Restructures are common. Stability is rare.

In such a time, how can PhD students survive - and thrive? This audiobook takes the difficult states - that are often a full stop in a career, personal and professional life - such as disappointment, jealousy, narcissism and fear. These often career-ending experiences are addressed and transformed as a 'comma' state. A pause. A moment of reflection. A platform for transformation of a career and research.

Know what you do not know: Information literacy for PhD students

Author's Reupblic, 2023

The University of Google. ChatGPT. Twitter pile-ons. How do we manage chaos and crises, confusion... more The University of Google. ChatGPT. Twitter pile-ons. How do we manage chaos and crises, confusion and catastrophes? How do we understand the difference between the urgent and important, the trivial and significant?

Information literacy is about as attractive as teeth extraction. However, for PhD students and citizens more generally, information literacy enables us to sift and sort knowledge from opinion, and expertise from a vibe.

Know What You Do Not Know: Information Literacy for PhD Students provides a context around the folk devils of our time: plagiarism, self-plagiarism, influencers and populists. Most importantly, Know What You Do Not Know demonstrates how to take notes, how to reference with clarity, and how to build an opinion into a referenced and considered argument.

Three Wise Monkeys of Research: Epistemology, Ontology, Methodology

Author's Republic, 2024

The Pernicious PhD Supervisor

Author's Republic, 2024

The doctor of philosophy is a complex degree. The space between students and supervisors is ve... more The doctor of philosophy is a complex degree.

The space between students and supervisors is vexed and volatile.

It can be exploitative. The Pernicious PhD Supervisor enters this difficult space and provides both the models and the strategies to categorize and manage difficult supervisors and supervisory practices.

From the Flamingo to the Wizard, from the White Pointer Shark to the Bower Bird, ten models of supervision are revealed.

Part horror and part comedy, this book opens the weeping wound of doctoral education, to salve and heal the consequences of problematic research cultures.

(Re)start: Moving from Despair to Defiance

How do we make change, particularly in difficult times? How to do we transcend the confusion, ang... more How do we make change, particularly in difficult times? How to do we transcend the confusion, anger and fear? While clichés like quiet quitting and deaths of despair punctuate our present, why do these phrases–and these tragic realities–exist? This book–(Re)start: Moving from Despair to Defiance–walks with you through change. To restart. To return meaning to your life in a careful, embedded, and compassionate way. We build a mattering map for your life.

Memories of the Future: Post-Steve Redhead, cultural studies and theory for a still-born century

Authors Republic, 2020

The Creative PhD: Challenges, Opportunities and Reflexive Practice

Emerald Publishing, 2020

, (Bingley: Emerald, 2020) Written with Tiffany Lyndall Knight and Natalie Hills (eBook, paperba... more , (Bingley: Emerald, 2020) Written with Tiffany Lyndall Knight and Natalie Hills (eBook, paperback and audiobook)

Trump Studies: an intellectual guide to why citizens vote against their interests

Why do citizens vote against their own best interest? Trump Studies addresses this key question;... more Why do citizens vote against their own best interest?

Trump Studies addresses this key question; probing the value of thinking, reading, writing and interpretation during times of economic, social and political uncertainty. With a compelling voice and academic rigour, the authors explore how and why xenophobia and sexism are the grammar of contemporary popular culture and politics.

The Brexit result and the Trump victory cannot be studied in a laboratory; the silent majority will not sit in a petri dish, waiting to be researched. The theories and methodologies developed into this book not only explain these two mega and meta events, they create space for ideas that challenge and dissent, and make the case for the role and value of universities in a time when evidence, expertise and facts often dissolve into opinion, emotion and fake news.

Donald Trump does not matter. Trump Studies does matter - and this is a siren call to all intellectuals to intervene and transform the currency of theory in empiricist times.

Play: A theory of learning and change

Enabling University: impairment, (dis)ability and social justice in higher education

This work takes the most recent, interdisciplinary research and demonstrates how to make higher e... more This work takes the most recent, interdisciplinary research and demonstrates how to make higher education institutions open, accessible and socially just for staff and students with disabilities. Combining the scholarly fields of media platform management, information literacy, internet studies, mobility studies and disability studies, this book offers a guide and method to consider how students and staff with differing needs move through university processes, spaces and interfaces. It captures the challenges and potentials of both the online and offline university. The key concept of the book is universal design. This term and theory is used to move beyond the medical and social model of disability that disconnect and separate the issues of disability and impairment from core societal concerns. This book confirms that most of us will be touched by impairment through our lives. When matched with the necessity to retrain and gain new skills for a post-recession future, there must be a renewed commitment to not only the widening participation agenda of higher education, but also the enabling of universities for men and women with impairments.

Unique urbanity: Rethinking third tier cities, degeneration, regeneration and mobility

This book investigates small cities - cities and towns that are not well known or internationally... more This book investigates small cities - cities and towns that are not well known or internationally branded, but are facing structural economic and social issues after the Global Financial Crisis. They need to invent, develop and manage new reasons for their existence. The strengths and opportunities are often underplayed when compared to larger cities. These small cities do not have the profile of New York, London, Tokyo or Cairo, or second-tier cities like San Francisco, Manchester, Osaka or Alexandria. This book traces the current state of the creative industries literature after the GFC, but with a specific focus. The specific – and worsening – conditions in third-tier cities are logged. The social and economic challenges within these regions are great, particularly with regard to health and health services, education, employment, social mobility and physical activity. This is not a study that merely diagnoses problems but raises strategies for third-tier cities to create both a profile and growth. The current research field is synthesized to reveal how cities are defined, constituted, developed and, in many cases, suffering decline. There is an imperative to build relationships with other urban environments. The book enters these under-discussed locations and reveal the scarred layering of injustice, signified by depopulation, dis-investment, economic decline and a reduction in public services for health, transportation and education, while also developing specific and innovative models for improvement. The vista summoned in Unique Urbanity is international, with strong attention to trans-local strategies that offer wide relevance, currency and opportunities for policy makers. While third-tier cities are often hidden, marginalized, invisible or demeaned, Unique Urbanity shows that innovation, imagination and creativity can emerge in small places.

Digital Wine: How QR Codes facilitate new markets for small wine industries

Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness

In April 2010, and for the first time, Facebook received more independent visitors than Google. ... more In April 2010, and for the first time, Facebook received more independent visitors than Google. Increasingly there is a desire to share rather than search. But what is the impact of such a change on higher education? How do teachers maintain expectations, motivations and standards in an environment of information obesity? It is understandable, when students do not complete course readings, submit substandard papers and disconnect from learning, that staff reduce their expectations. If students complain that the reading is too hard, then one response is to make it easier. If students complain that the assignments are too difficult, then one way to manage that critique is to make the assignments simpler. Both are passive responses that damage the calibre of education and universities in the long term.

We live in panicked times, not careful times. While excessive food may be the basis of a moral panic about obesity, too much information is rarely discussed as a crisis of a similar scale. Obviously, plentiful and high quality food is not a problem if eating is balanced with exercise. But without the skills of media and information literacy, students and citizens wade through low quality online information that fills their day yet does not enable intellectual challenge, imagination and critique. Satisfied and compliant, they are not aware that other types of information are available. The task of Digital Dieting: From information obesity to intellectual fitness is to demonstrate the social, political and scholarly difficulties in managing large quantities of low quality information. Yet this is not a book that diagnoses crisis, excess and banality. Instead, the aim is to provide strategies to develop intellectual fitness that sorts the important from the irrelevant and the remarkable from the banal.

This book presents two intertwined premises to consider.
(1) Decisions about teaching and learning have been automated, blocking reflection of what, how and why particular ideas are taught in particular ways. Therefore, it is necessary to bring the consciousness and consideration back to media and information selection.
(2) Fewer media create more meaning. One way to return the consciousness and reflection to education is to not only reduce the automation but question the assumption that more media, platforms, software, hardware and applications always improves teaching and learning. Re-empowering teachers and librarians in the construction of teaching, learning, media and assessment choices will stop software and hardware, managers and administrators ignoring the importance of information and media literacies.

From these maxims, the book offers two actions to commence a digital diet. Firstly, teachers, students and citizens must reduce the automated choices made within templates, applications and search engines. Simply because software or hardware is invented does not mean it must be used. Secondly, it is important to recognize that the internet has created resources beyond what any of us could have imagined in a local library, yet the provision of information and media literacy has not increased to a similar scale to manage this proliferation.

Digital Dieting: from information obesity to intellectual fitness provides active, conscious, careful and applicable strategies, options and opportunities to move students and citizens from searching to researching, sharing to thinking, and shopping to reading.

City Imaging: regeneration, renewal, decay

"Cities are the fodder, foundation and impetus for creative industry strategies and economic deve... more "Cities are the fodder, foundation and impetus for creative industry strategies and economic development. Richard Florida and his colleagues have studied the characteristics of successful cities through the Bohemian Index, the Diversity Index, the Creativity Index and the Technology Index. Charles Landry has moved around the world to enliven central business districts. Saskia Sassen has probed global cities. Yet integrated, contemporary studies – post-September 11, post-credit crunch, post-faltering recovery, post-Arab Spring – are rare.

_City Imaging: Regeneration, Renewal, Decay_ has been edited by Professor Tara Brabazon and written by a team of experienced and innovative researchers with the aim of understanding cities as they are, rather than how they are marketed or branded. Certainly, all cities have much in common. Yet the differences are important, imaginative, marketed, promoted, mediated and transformed.

City imaging is a phrase that is increasingly used in public discourse, but it is rarely defined. It refers to how particular cities are branded and marketed. It is a theory of cities based on an assumption: representations can be transformed and sold, often for the purposes of tourism or attracting corporations and in-demand workers to one city over another. It is an imprecise science. Subjectivity, impressions, bias and prejudice floods the vista of the mind. Similarly, the visuality of a city often overwhelms the sounds, touch, taste and feel of urbanity. Different senses operate in some cities and not others. For Singapore, thick and humid air predominates. In Detroit, the greyness of industrialization – from the historic motor plants or techno music – saturates the visual palette.

The taste, smell, sounds and architectural iconography of a place align to construct an image of a city. The task for researchers and policy makers is to use or transform this image, to market the city as a tourist destination for music, sport, beaches or relaxation. Such a project is difficult. Words like regionality, deterritorialization, postindustrialization and decline confirm such a complexity. These words and phrases capture the panicked acceleration of contemporary life. Histories squeeze and loop. Geographies crack and morph. Yet after the war on terror, credit crunch and recession, it is necessary to quietly and patiently survey the wreckage of the 2000s.

Through fear, panic, ignorance, mobility and speed, cities matter. While the deterritorialization of the web enables the movement of money, music and ideas over national borders, cities remain important. _City Imaging: Regeneration, Renewal, Decay_ explores the iconography of urbanity and what happens when branding is emphasized over living"

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets tracks new modes of commun... more Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets tracks new modes of community, enabling the creation of connections, consciousness and social change. It is not a book of predictions, dreams, aspirations and digi-topia. It is not a history of convergent media. Instead, it investigates how particular platforms, portals and applications hook into daily life and build relationships beyond geographical locations or familial links.

It is timely for such a monograph. In August 2001, Tara Brabazon, the editor of this book, published an academic article titled “How imagined are virtual communities?” The date is important. This was a key period of transition between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Cutting through these clichés, the article emerged just as the read-write web entered popular cultural currency. At that time, most consumers of websites were not producers. Most online activities were searching, reading and viewing, rather than commenting, writing and uploading. This article sketched provisional theoretical work on how Benedict Anderson’s landmark monograph Imagined Communities could be translated into the burgeoning web environment. Anderson, in reviewing how formerly colonised people ‘invented’ nations to resist, reclaim and reinvigorate the languages, traditions and histories smashed by the colonisers, summoned the phrase Imagined Communities. He showed how arbitrary – yet integral – these imaginings became in creating and reinforcing moments and monuments of resistance and challenge.

Anderson’s arguments about language, power and colonisation can be migrated to the next century. But caution is required. Since the editor’s 2001 article, the web has matured. It is television with a cursor. It is a jukebox with a slot to swipe a credit card. It is a shop that delivers. It is a lover that texts commitment. But the web is also part of popular culture, weaving passion into interactivity. It has embedded into the life of millions and added further layers of exclusion and disconnection for the already disempowered. The exclusion of particular people becomes serious - more serious - when assumptions of connectivity and web literacy permeate governmental, commercial and educational institutions.

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets enters the rapidly maturing social media environment and documents the quest – if not the reality – of community. It also notes that alongside every engaged, connected and supportive group are those who are excluded, marginalised, ridiculed or forgotten. The quest for authenticity for some layers injustice for others.

There is productive research to be completed in this moment of transformation. The writers in this collection probe the concept of community when it is imagined and imagining, disconnected from physical territory. Particularly, there is attention – recognising the events in the Middle East in early 2011 – on how social media creates political consciousness and how this consciousness manifests into social change both on and offline. The goal is not to segregate digital and analogue spaces and identities, but to look for productive, imaginative and creative relationships between these spheres.

The contributors enter digital microenvironments to explore the desires for connection and communication. They explore the quest for authenticity. Our task is to probe how technology redraws the boundaries between connection, consciousness and community. Put more clearly, and summoning one of the fathers of cultural studies, we test Raymond Williams’ maxim that, “the process of communication is in fact the process of community.” We do not assume that a community (inevitably) emerges from communication. We do not assume political change evolves from consciousness. Instead, the researchers in this collection open new spaces for thinking about language, identity and social connections.

Popular Music: Topics, trends and trajectories

This is a post-iPod popular music book. It not only investigates the impact of digitization, but ... more This is a post-iPod popular music book. It not only investigates the impact of digitization, but the new audiences created through the mobility of music.

A review of this book from Dancecult is available at: http://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/journal/article/view/135/183

Thinking Popular Culture: War, Terrorism and Writing

Thinking Popular Culture investigates how popular culture has been transformed in decade since Se... more Thinking Popular Culture investigates how popular culture has been transformed in decade since September 11. It also explores the role and function of cultural journalism and academic writing in tracking social change.

The revolution will not be downloaded: dissent in the digital age

The revolution will not be downloaded offers a series of case studies about how social change is ... more The revolution will not be downloaded offers a series of case studies about how social change is enacted on and offline. There is attention to older citizens, international studies, downloading communities and fans.

The University of Google: education in the (post) information age

What happens when decisions about information are automated? What are the consequences of search... more What happens when decisions about information are automated? What are the consequences of search engines on reading, writing and thinking? The University of Google explores how teaching and learning changes through simplifying research into a search.

What happens next? Who can rescue you?

Comma: How to restart, reclaim and reboot your PhD

Author's Republic, 2022

Know what you do not know: Information literacy for PhD students

Author's Reupblic, 2023

Three Wise Monkeys of Research: Epistemology, Ontology, Methodology

Author's Republic, 2024

The Pernicious PhD Supervisor

Author's Republic, 2024

The doctor of philosophy is a complex degree. The space between students and supervisors is ve... more The doctor of philosophy is a complex degree.

The space between students and supervisors is vexed and volatile.

From the Flamingo to the Wizard, from the White Pointer Shark to the Bower Bird, ten models of supervision are revealed.

Part horror and part comedy, this book opens the weeping wound of doctoral education, to salve and heal the consequences of problematic research cultures.

(Re)start: Moving from Despair to Defiance

Memories of the Future: Post-Steve Redhead, cultural studies and theory for a still-born century

Authors Republic, 2020

The Creative PhD: Challenges, Opportunities and Reflexive Practice

Emerald Publishing, 2020

Trump Studies: an intellectual guide to why citizens vote against their interests

Why do citizens vote against their own best interest? Trump Studies addresses this key question;... more Why do citizens vote against their own best interest?

Donald Trump does not matter. Trump Studies does matter - and this is a siren call to all intellectuals to intervene and transform the currency of theory in empiricist times.

Play: A theory of learning and change

Enabling University: impairment, (dis)ability and social justice in higher education

Unique urbanity: Rethinking third tier cities, degeneration, regeneration and mobility

Digital Wine: How QR Codes facilitate new markets for small wine industries

Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness

City Imaging: regeneration, renewal, decay

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets

Popular Music: Topics, trends and trajectories

A review of this book from Dancecult is available at: http://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/journal/article/view/135/183

Thinking Popular Culture: War, Terrorism and Writing

The revolution will not be downloaded: dissent in the digital age

The University of Google: education in the (post) information age

Cultural Studies Review, Aug 27, 2013

I have a rave hat. I bought it in 1989. Part collapsed top hat, part bedazzled cowboy Stetson, it... more I have a rave hat. I bought it in 1989. Part collapsed top hat, part bedazzled cowboy Stetson, it captures a moment where I thought I had the swagger of the Stone Roses, the cheekiness of The Shaman and the ice and fire passion of Heather Small. Yes, I

Kome, 2016

This article explores the role and function of neoliberalism in higher education, particularly in... more This article explores the role and function of neoliberalism in higher education, particularly in its manifestations after the Global Financial Crisis. Theories of managerialism are overlaid not only with questions about the purpose and role of higher education in the economy, but also the renegotiation of power and identity after 2008. Ulrich Beck's zombie concept is reactivated and applied to the university. The paper moves through a discussion of the zombie and Beck's zombie categories and concepts, and then concludes with a section applying these ideas to higher education.

Brabazon and Dagli: ...Quality Scholarship Through Creativity 24 with the title The eyes of death... more Brabazon and Dagli: ...Quality Scholarship Through Creativity 24 with the title The eyes of death: the visual movement from witness to spectator. Four films were examined alongside a seventy thousand words exegesis of print-based doctoral research. Considered attention was placed on the relationship between the visioning of film and print, through the development of a new theory of grief. Problems emerged through the supervisory process and management of the candidature. When Tara Brabazon took over supervision, the doctorate had passed through many years of enrolment, many supervisory hands and many (often negative) judgements about quality and scholarship." The supervisory file was bursting with personal statements from research managers questioning the calibre of the "art" being produced. A complex series of debates ensued about the "correct" matrix of examiners. Ultimately, Zeynep Dagli submitted the completed thesis to a different university than the one in which the research had been commenced, to ensure an independent examination. The doctoral thesis then passed through international examination protocols with great success and the films have been exhibited in a range of film festivals. She is now Dr Zeynep Dagli. From this experience, our article probes the process of practice-led research from a supervisory team that had to manage diverse and often unsubstantiated statements about art, quality andmost significantlyresearch. A gratifying conclusion to this doctorate was reached, but it involved the candidate moving institutions to overcome the conflictual interpretations of cultural value and research expertise. The first section of this article learns from this experience to reflect on the process to assist other supervisors and doctoral students. We investigate the distinctions between the production of media artefacts inside and outside a university, inside and outside a doctoral programme. The second part works within these contextual considerations, offering perspectives from the position of a supervisor and student who have had to negotiate the tussle between art and research. We conclude with one resolution to the "problem" of practice. There are (at least) four distinct doctoral programmes in our universities: the "traditional" PhD comprised of 80,000 to 100,000 words of text, a practice-led qualification, the PhD by prior publication and an array of professional doctorates. 3 The Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA) wavers unstably between professional and practice-led models. The fundamental question is how to

Libri, 2002

The year 2001 will be known for many destructive and highly visible public tragedies. However wit... more The year 2001 will be known for many destructive and highly visible public tragedies. However within the librarian discourse, it will be remembered for the controversies encircling the publication of Nicholson Baker's Double Fold. This article assesses the rationale, direction and scope of this book and resultant debate, showing what it reveals about li-braries, librarians and the distinctions between information and knowledge. Yet the article also suggests that Baker did not extend his case for preservation far enough: to the realm of popular memory, popular culture and digital ephemera. Without attention to these matters, libraries will remain neglected cemeteries: the passionless cranium of the culture.

Kicking a ball in a park, like writing a book, is often a solitary enterprise. Fortunately, many ... more Kicking a ball in a park, like writing a book, is often a solitary enterprise. Fortunately, many companions joined me on this journey through sport and space. I extend personal and professional thanks to Stuart Clarke from the 'Homes of Football'. He not only granted permission to use six of his remarkable photographs, but shared his time in an Ambleside interview. Similarly, I thank Kevin Moore from the National Football Museum and the International Football Institute for assistance with queries and confirmations. Writing about the periphery from the periphery poses particular challenges. The diversity of source material deployed in these pages -analogue and digital, archived and ephemeral -was gathered through the support of numerous scholars. Particular thanks are extended to Dr Leanne McRae, Dr Dave Urry, Debbie Hindley, Carley Smith and all members of the Popular Culture Collective. This book would not have been written without the inspiration and efforts of three remarkable people. My mother, Doris Brabazon, remains a life-long inspiration. Her commitment, belief and one-eyed devotion to West Perth Football Club and the West Coast Eagles showed me from an early age that women can love sport in a way unimagined by sneering men in suits. Kevin Brabazon, my father, shared his knowledge, time and passion for sport with his only daughter. One of my most evocative childhood memories is Kevin taking me -kitted out from head to toe in black and white -to see my team, Swan Districts, win the Western Australian Football League Premiership. He has nearly forgiven me, twenty years later, for West Perth being knocked out earlier in the competition. Without his varied interest in sport -encompassing all football codes, cricket, tennis and golf -this book would not have been written. It is appropriate that the research journey he started when I was a child is finished with his compilation of the index for this book. The final thank you is to my husband, Professor Steve Redhead. Moving from North (of England) to West (Australia), he has been a true companion through the periphery. There is a light that never goes out.

Routledge eBooks, Feb 17, 2016

Academic research involves three steps: finding relevant information, assessing the quality of th... more Academic research involves three steps: finding relevant information, assessing the quality of that information, and then using appropriate information either to try to conclude something, to uncover something, or to argue something. The Internet is useful for the first step, somewhat useful for the second, and not at all useful for the third. Beth Stafford (1999: 145) A problem has emerged in my teaching during the last three years that requires attention. As each semester progresses, a greater proportion of my students are reading less, referencing infrequently and writing with little clarity and boldness. There will always be the top twenty five percent of the class who are rigorous and committed scholars in the making. They require little meta-learning, but can operate in models of student-centred teaching and facilitation. Increasingly the middle fifty percent -that require greater guidance, attention and commitment from teaching staff to pass a course -is producing inadequate work. This group writes assignments days before they are due, runs a spelling checker through the document rather than draft it, and relies on the internet for research material, rather than refereed course readings. These problems are not caused by Google. Technology is never the cause of societal problems, inside or outside a university. Instead, the popularity of Google is facilitating laziness, poor scholarship and compliant thinking. It is a panacea for our time-poor students. This paper conducts a thought experiment. I locate 'a teaching problem,' use literacy theory to understand it, and then offer solutions. I can no longer assume that students enrolled in an Arts degree enjoy reading and writing or are intellectually curious. My goal is to develop an information scaffold, attempting to align my goals and expectations with a student desire for educational achievement.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the university was posed as an underutilized weapon in the battle for... more During the 1980s and 1990s, the university was posed as an underutilized weapon in the battle for industrial competitive and regional economic growth … At university after university, new research centers were designed to attract corporate funding, and technology transfer offices were started to commercialize academic breakthroughs. But we may well have gone too far. Academics and university officials are becoming increasingly concerned that greater involvement in university research is causing a shift from fundamental science to more applied work … Universities have been naively viewed as engines of innovation that pump out new ideas that can be easily translated into commercial innovations and regional growth. This has led to overly mechanistic national and regional policies that seek to commercialize those ideas and transfer them to the private sector. 1

Much talk takes place around iPhones and apps, tweets, and vodcasts. As record shops are replaced... more Much talk takes place around iPhones and apps, tweets, and vodcasts. As record shops are replaced by ecommerce and portals of legal and illegal downloading, 2 the concurrent closure of bookshops is rarely as publicized. Charing Cross Road -once a beacon for international bibliophiles -is a chimera of its former self. Murder One closed, with their website reporting ‚we are not a bookstore anymore.‛ 3 Silver Moon has been ‚incorporated‛ into Foyles. Some businesses like Sports Pages have migrated online. University bookshops are also suffering. Conservative buying practices ensure the purchase of textbooks that have passed through too many revisions and incorporated too little new research. The great works that appear on further reading lists -the ‚read before you die books‛ -have disappeared from the shelves. The impact on readers, writers, and publishers is clear. In the 2009 summer edition of the Society of Authors' magazine, a range of articles explored the role of supermarkets in selling books, the shrinkage of newspapers readerships, and the decline of the book review. The most disturbing article in the magazine was written by Sara Nelson. She stated that, ‚the one thing you hear every day is that 'publishing is going global.' But unless we come up with better ideas than these, the only way global publishing is going is south.‛ 4 One obvious solution to Nelson's concerns is to reinvest the local, regional, and national with intellectual and commercial value, rather than making arbitrary and ambiguous statements about globalization, internationalization, and mobility. Good bookshops with informed and enthusiastic staff are part of this strategy to invest a place with a purpose. Such an agenda is not an attack on the Amazonification of books. The problem is that consumers access Amazon looking for a particular title or author. Rarely do customers browse. Sometimes a fortuitous link will emerge through an automated listing of related titles or similar purchases. The problem with such a shopping system -and the information literacy structures on which it is based -is that readers search for ideas, topics, and authors already known to us. 5 There is little mechanism to discover unusual or dissenting ideas and information. While appearing to search the World Wide Web,

Stanley Aronowitz wrote a prescient book in 2000. Titled The Knowledge Factory, it did not take w... more Stanley Aronowitz wrote a prescient book in 2000. Titled The Knowledge Factory, it did not take women academics as its focus, but emphasized the consequences of separating the teaching/researching academic from the ‘manager.’ This demarcation of teaching, research and management has intensified through the 2000s. This is also a gendered separation. This article offers a model for women moving into higher education leadership, based on a considered integration of teaching, research and university service. We argue for a transformation, moving from Rosemary Deem’s “manager-academics” to “academics who manage.” This is not simply a movement from a compound noun to a noun and verb, but a reminder that university leaders are academics first, and manage within the context of their academic responsibilities.

Thorstein Veblen was one of the great scholars of the twentieth century. Indeed, his most famous ... more Thorstein Veblen was one of the great scholars of the twentieth century. Indeed, his most famous concept has entered the realm of cliché: conspicuous consumption. Yet the density of his prose has meant that his wider arguments about waste, class and capitalism have not travelled well into the 21st century. Therefore, this article combines the great scholar of the 20th century with one of the oddest products of the 21st century: the iPad. Exploring why the iPad emerged – in multiple versions – through the global economic crisis, Veblen’s theories of waste gain both renewed effectiveness and application.

"According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scars than almost anything else" (J.K. R... more "According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scars than almost anything else" (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).

PLOS ONE, 2021

Leadership in public health is necessary, relevant, and important as it enables the engagement, m... more Leadership in public health is necessary, relevant, and important as it enables the engagement, management, and transformation of complex public health challenges at a national level, as well as collaborating with internal stakeholders to address global public health threats. The research literature recommends exploring the journey of public health leaders and the factors influencing leadership development, especially in developing countries. Thus, we aimed to develop a grounded theory on individual leadership development in the Nepalese context. For this, we adopted constructivist grounded theory, and conducted 46 intensive interviews with 22 public health officials working under the Ministry of Health, Nepal. Data were analysed by adopting the principles of Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory. The theory developed from this study illustrates four phases of leadership development within an individual–initiation, identification, development, and expansion. The ’initial phase’ i...

Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 2015

This article offers a distinct rendering of Facebook. The social media giant is framed by Harold ... more This article offers a distinct rendering of Facebook. The social media giant is framed by Harold Innis's late masterwork, The Bias of Communication. Probing what happens with media for leisure transform into educational media, this article explores how the speed and muddled intimacy of Facebook provide distinct challenges for the development of information literacy and information management in higher education.

Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2016

Podcasts are entering their second decade. However, this article does not present a chronological... more Podcasts are entering their second decade. However, this article does not present a chronological narrative of this history or focus groups exploring their effectiveness. Instead, this paper probes the enlivening capacity of podcasting when inserted into the much wider discourse of sonic media. My research probes the impact on teaching and learning when cutting away four of our five senses to focus on auditory culture, sonic media, hearing and listening. This research shows the value of ‘blind listening,’ cutting away the eyes and visual literacy, to activate more complex modes of learning.

Choice Reviews Online, 2015

In The War on Learning, Elizabeth Losh analyses recent trends in post-secondary education and the... more In The War on Learning, Elizabeth Losh analyses recent trends in post-secondary education and the rhetoric around them. In an effort to identify educational technologies that might actually work, she looks at strategies including MOOCs, the gamification of subject matter, remix pedagogy, video lectures, and educational virtual worlds. Losh's work is valuable reading for students and parents trying to make sense of when current technologies provide venues for meaningful assignments and assessments, rather than serving as 'add ons' to conventional education that leave everyone feeling cheated, writes Susan Marie Martin.

U2's Achtung Baby

With sincere thanks to my Principal Advisor Ginette Legaré, for her generosity, remarkable insigh... more With sincere thanks to my Principal Advisor Ginette Legaré, for her generosity, remarkable insight, and dedication to the development of my work. And, with gratitude, to advisors Barbara Astman and Dot Tuer who have given thoughtful guidance and encouragement throughout this process. Out, is a song title from the band The Smiths. Though I am a fan of The Smiths, my decision to appropriate this song title was not because of the song, its lyrics, or meaning, but rather the fact that the phrase itself offered a poetic metaphor as the title of my thesis project. Many individuals were especially supportive and significant in my journey through graduate studies. Though there are too many to name here, I do want to acknowledge the colleagues, artists, faculty, friends and family who believed in me, encouraged this exploration, and who made this experience so meaningful.

Trumped Literacies: A New Model for Information and Knowledge is Claustropolitan Times

VALA Keynote, 2024

Tara's keynote for VALA 2024 is titled Trumped Literacies: A new model for information and knowl... more Tara's keynote for VALA 2024 is titled Trumped Literacies: A new model for information and knowledge in claustropolitan times.

Small Places - Big Ideas

Tara deploys city imaging strategies, methods and tropes to understand small cities and large tow... more Tara deploys city imaging strategies, methods and tropes to understand small cities and large towns. How do we manage the distinctiveness and deep structural challenges of these places located at the edge of urbanity?

Learning to leisure: Why facebook is not a school and google is not a library

Tara returns to Paul Willis and his landmark educational monograph, Learning to Labour. Willis f... more Tara returns to Paul Willis and his landmark educational monograph, Learning to Labour. Willis found from his study that the ‘lads’ in his school-based ethnographic research project ‘resisted’ learning via truanting, swearing and smoking. However their ‘resistance’ to learning was futile. They did not succeed in school and they replicated the patterns of their parents. They were learning to labour. Tara asks if text messaging, abuse of teachers on Facebook and aimless googling are new forms of digital ‘resistance’ to education. But like Willis, Tara probes if these behaviours, patterns and practices are blocking learning, teaching and education.

Education in Australia: challenges, visions and opportunities

Tara talks with principals from regional New South Wales, Australia about how to move beyond 'man... more Tara talks with principals from regional New South Wales, Australia about how to move beyond 'managing' crisis. Instead, she demonstrates the strengths of teacher education in the suite of higher education qualifications.

Do you need a digital diet?

It is polite to state that we live in an ‘information age.’ But such a phrase is like describing... more It is polite to state that we live in an ‘information age.’ But such a phrase is like describing the Leveson Inquiry as a polite afternoon chat about the weather.

Actually, we live in an age of information obesity. Text messages. Tweets. Facebook updates. LinkedIn contacts. Emails. These digital interruptions are the punctuation of our analogue life. In such an environment, teaching and learning - curriculum and assessment - lurches from one ‘innovation’ to the next, often without reflection, consideration or respect for history, professionalism or educational outcomes.

My keynote address enters this supermarket of digital excess. We probe information obesity. But then, we enter a digital detox and conclude with digital dieting. The goal is to find the most potent and powerful assessment that develops learning, literacy and cultware, rather than frustration, interruption and software.

Take the Red Pill: A matrix for literacy and learning

Turnitin? Turnitoff

Tara will be delivering a Keynote Address at the 5th International Plagiarism Conference at The S... more Tara will be delivering a Keynote Address at the 5th International Plagiarism Conference at The Sage at Gateshead on Wednesday July 18, 2012. The speech is titled "Turnitin? Turnitoff... How to migrate from software to wetware." She will be exploring the consequences of 'deskilling' teaching and learning, particularly with regard to the 'detection' of plagiarism. Tara is particularly interested in finding new and positive solutions to the development of imagination, innovation and creativity from both students and teachers.

Time for a digital detox? Building intellectual fitness

Change we need? Moving from information obesity to digital dieting

The sound of a librarian: the politics and potential of podcasting in difficult times

Less is more: from information obesity to Digital Justice

From information obesity to information literac

From surfing to deep sea diving: building a new model of literacy

Building intellectual fitness through literacy

Life-long literacy: the challenges of creating a learning culture

Toughen up, Princess: Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and changing the default position

Mayhem, method, movement and magic: transforming hearing into listening

A conversation with Kevin Moore - Museums and Popular Culture Revisted

Tara talks with Dr Kevin Moore about the National Football Museum. Kevin reflects on the nature ... more Tara talks with Dr Kevin Moore about the National Football Museum. Kevin reflects on the nature of sport studies and museum studies, particularly through Brexit. Popular culture remains a key area of future study and attention in the contemporary museum.

Dr Who: High popular culture for difficult times

Doctor Who is a stunning and innovative force in popular culture and popular memory. But why is ... more Doctor Who is a stunning and innovative force in popular culture and popular memory. But why is Doctor Who popular and what is the role of Peter Capaldi in aligning past and present, memory and politics, television and post-television? Steve Redhead and Tara Brabazontalk about Doctor Who through its history and why this programme matters now, perhaps more than at any point in its history.

Tara talks with Leanne about cultural studies, universities and life

Leanne McRae interviews Tara about her career in universities, and beyond. Leanne is interested ... more Leanne McRae interviews Tara about her career in universities, and beyond. Leanne is interested in the past, present and future of cultural studies and her questions probe the effectiveness of this paradigm in a tough era for higher education.

Tara Brabazon's Digital Dieting: Ashgate books that have impacted on their field

Ashgate have nominated Tara Brabazon's Digital Dieting as one of the books that have impacted on ... more Ashgate have nominated Tara Brabazon's Digital Dieting as one of the books that have impacted on the field. This podcast discusses how the book was written, the role of interdisciplinarity and its audience.

Theoretical times - Jean Baudrillard

Tara Brabazon talks with Steve Redhead about Jean Baudrillard. The 'postmodern' label applied to... more Tara Brabazon talks with Steve Redhead about Jean Baudrillard. The 'postmodern' label applied to Baudrillard has underplayed his complexity and role in the contemporary academy.

Theoretical times - Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek is much more than a Slovenian Marxist philosopher. Steve Redhead and Tara Brabazon ... more Slavoj Zizek is much more than a Slovenian Marxist philosopher. Steve Redhead and Tara Brabazon talk about why his theorizations of culture and politics have been so powerful and so popular.

Theoretical times - Alain Badiou

http://traffic.libsyn.com/tarabrabazon/Theoretical\_times\_-\_Alain\_Badiou.mp3

Body, embodiment, spirit and vision

Can we think about decolonizing the curriculum through post-humanism? Tara talks with umar umang... more Can we think about decolonizing the curriculum through post-humanism? Tara talks with umar umangay about bodies, embodiment, spirit and vision, offering a strategy to think about teacher education through an innovative and interventionist frame.

Decolonizing education with umar umangay

Tara talks with umar umangay, from the School of Teacher Education's Burlington campus of Charles... more Tara talks with umar umangay, from the School of Teacher Education's Burlington campus of Charles Sturt University. They discuss the role and function of postcolonialism in teacher education, with the goal and imperative to decolonize the curriculum.

Theoretical times - Lucio Colletti

With Steve Redhead

International mobility programmes and early childhood education

Why should graduate students read Erving Goffman?

Tara's ten tips for a PhD oral examination

Tara offers ten tips to assist postgraduate students about to enter the oral examination for thei... more Tara offers ten tips to assist postgraduate students about to enter the oral examination for their PhD.

The self organizing university

The gifts of early childhood education

Place, space and scale - education in context

Rethinking rural education with Kathryn Edgeworth

Rural education is often neglected and frequently invisible, being marginalized by the seemingly ... more Rural education is often neglected and frequently invisible, being marginalized by the seemingly urgent and volatile conditions within urban environments. Tara Brabazon talks with Dr Kathryn Edgeworth about her research and teaching practice in rural education. They explore the impact of this neglect of the rural, and the transformative capacity of migrants in teaching and learning.

Cascading assessment in legal education

Tara introduces Professor Steve Redhead's innovative assessment protocol for legal studies. Steve... more Tara introduces Professor Steve Redhead's innovative assessment protocol for legal studies. Steve discusses the potential of cascading assessment for upper-level undergraduate students to enable research training.

Tara Brabazon talks about visual effects with Damien Markey

Academic / Journalism

Tara explores both how academics write journalism but also the genre of 'academic journalism.' W... more Tara explores both how academics write journalism but also the genre of 'academic journalism.' What are the strengths and challenges of academics engaging in new modes and modalities of writing?

The Open Access Movement

Research dissemination is a pivotal issue for PhD students, early career researchers and scholars... more Research dissemination is a pivotal issue for PhD students, early career researchers and scholars. The transformations to commercial publishing means that "author processing fees" have become a controversial phrase and issue. Tara introduces the Open Access Movement and its capacity to transform and expand the research trajectory of scholarship. Tara offers strategies and models to enable open access publishing, and how to mix commercial and open access publications.

PhD surgery with Tara Brabazon

What is the difference between a Masters and a Phd?

What one question should I ask before commencing my PhD?

Are we asked questions about sources in our bibliography?

How long should supervisors take to resond to emails?

What is 'light touch' supervision?

What do you think about a PhD by prior publication?

What do you think about online supervision of doctoral students?

What are the specific challenges of a part time PhD?

How do I choose a PhD topic that will sustain my interest?

Why are professional doctorates on the decline?

Tara Brabazon and the PhD: an introduction

Reflecting on primary history teaching and learning (stage three)

Doing history (stage two)

Preparing for learning in teaching (stage one)

Teacher Education in the Community

Is mass authorship destroying the credibility of papers?

Books that changed the field - The University of Google

Tara talks about The University of Google, how it was written and its impact.

Brabazon to Head CSU Education

Education gives you choices

A google ban is not controversial,

White bread for young minds says University Professor

Cultural studies, academic integrity and university teachers in Googalised world: an interview with Tara Brabazon

"World class professor flies in to University"

Memories of the future: Post-Steve Redhead, cultural studies and theory for a still-born century

The End-of-the-century party (second edition), 2019

24,500 word Introduction , (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019)

“Conclusion: White Men Rule?”

“Introduction: New Imaginings”

“The sound of a librarian”

“Passing the digital door bitch”

“What do you do with the other one in a duo?”

“Wiring God’s Waiting Room: the Greying of Internet Literacy”

“Going Off-World after the Cabaret”

“You’ve got about a year”

Raven SPM Plus Results, 2023

Tara Brabazon's Raven SPM Plus Results. Rave SPM Plus is a mental ability test that requires the... more Tara Brabazon's Raven SPM Plus Results. Rave SPM Plus is a mental ability test that requires the solution of problems. The SPM Plus score can be used as one indication of a person's leadership potential and capacity.

Suicide Awareness Training

Prime MInister's Award for University Teaching

This flipped professional development session explores the gifts, potentials and challenges of a ... more This flipped professional development session explores the gifts, potentials and challenges of a supervisor and student occupying different locations.

This seminar builds productive relationships between students and supervisors.Full description

Faculty of Health Professional Development on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2023

A professional development session on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research... more A professional development session on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research for the Faculty of Health.

FAS Training Package for the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research , 2023

This is the training package for the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. Th... more This is the training package for the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. This document is for the Faculty of Arts and Society.

Senior Executive Training Package for the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2023

The training package on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research for the Senio... more The training package on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research for the Senior Executive.

Research Integrity Advisors training for the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2023

Research Integrity training for Research Integrity Advisors (2023)

The Faculty of Science and Technology Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research Training, 2023

This is the Flipped training session for the Faculty of Science and Technology. The focus is the... more This is the Flipped training session for the Faculty of Science and Technology. The focus is the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

CDU Governance and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2023

This training package was created for the Governance section at CDU.

Authorship and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2023

Training for the CDU Sydney campus on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

Academic Authorship with Integrity, 2023

This flipped training session enables higher degree students to research, write and publish with ... more This flipped training session enables higher degree students to research, write and publish with integrity.

How to Write a Book Proposal - Start Questions for the Flipped Workshop, 2024

For this professional development programme at CDU, this PowerPoint presentation provides the sta... more For this professional development programme at CDU, this PowerPoint presentation provides the starter questions for our discussion.

How to write a book proposal, 2024

This is a handout for a Flipped PD session on writing book proposals

This is the 2022 update of Tara Brabazon's PhD Set Up Document

This document guides students through the troubling mid stages of a higher degree candidature

The Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Supervisor Development Program is a compulsory training progr... more The Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Supervisor Development Program is a compulsory training program for academic staff members wishing to supervise HDR students. The Program is offered by the Dean of Graduate Research. New HDR Supervisors are required to complete the HDR Supervisor Development Program within 12 months. It comprises two core workshops and the choice of development activities totalling 30 points. For experienced supervisors to remain compliant with the Register of HDR Supervisors you need to have completed the HDR Supervisor Development Program and be committed to improving the quality of supervision, by completing development activities totalling 15 points every two years. HDR Supervisor Development FLO Sitehttps://flo.flinders.edu.au/course/view.php?id=53400 This site includes all the information about the HDR Development Program, including:  requirements about program completion and compliance  links to relevant policies and procedures  information about candidature management  information about services available to students  a list of available workshops  a range of online Step Program training modules

This handout accompanies Vlog 108, providing a checklist and model for information literacy.

This document is Tara Brabazon's study guide for the University of Brighton, Master of Creative M... more This document is Tara Brabazon's study guide for the University of Brighton, Master of Creative Media course, Teaching, learning and writing through popular culture.

This is the study guide for the only course taught together by Professor Steve Redhead and Tara B... more This is the study guide for the only course taught together by Professor Steve Redhead and Tara Brabazon. Repetitive Beat Generation

Introduction to Communication benchmarked against the Faculty and University

Effective Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Course, as part of Tara Brabazon's Teaching A... more Effective Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Course, as part of Tara Brabazon's Teaching Apprenticeship at teh University of Western Australia.

Coaching skills for managers

In this Specialization, learners developed and honed their management coaching skills, including ... more In this Specialization, learners developed and honed their management coaching skills, including establishing accountability, assessing performance, and holding coaching conversations that build awareness and get results. Learners completed a Capstone Project at the end of the Specialization, apply their new knowledge and skills to create their own performance coaching practice.

Five courses were completed: Managing as a Coach, Setting Expectations & Assessing Performance Issues, Coaching Practices, Coaching Conversations, Designing and Implementing Your Coaching Strategy.

Reviews for Tara Brabazon's HDR training session on the management of complaints

Confirmation of Candidature Training Seminar Review