Photo of Professor Tara Brabazon Professor Tara Brabazon

BA (Hons I) UWA, B Lit Comm Murdoch, B Ed (Distinct) CQU, Grad Dip Inet Stds (Distinct) Curtin, MA (Distinct)UWA, M. Lett Cult. Stds CQU, M. Ed (Hons I) UNE, PhD Murdoch

Tara Brabazon is the Professor of Education and Head of the School of Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University (Bathurst and Dubbo campus, Australia). She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) and head of the Popular Culture Collective.

Previously, Tara has held academic positions in the United Kingdom, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Canada. She has won six teaching awards, including the Australian National Teaching Award for the Humanities, along with others in the areas of postgraduate supervision, disability and cultural studies. She was a finalist for the 2005 Australian of the Year and also for the 2005 Telstra Businesswoman of the Year in the Community Service category. She is also a well-known columnist on education, having written for the Times Higher Education. Tara’s personal website is www.brabazon.net and she is active on social media sites including academia.edu, twitter (@tarabrabazon) and linkedin. She also has a YouTube channel and a podcast series.

Tara is a specialist first year teacher and experienced doctoral supervisor. She commenced teaching in Universities in 1992 as a Teaching Apprentice in the History Department at the University of Western Australia.  She then went on to work at the Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), Central Queensland University and Murdoch University in Perth. In the UK, she held professorial posts at the University of Brighton and the University of Bolton. She was also the Professor of Communication at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Canada.

She was the Programme Leader of the Communication and Cultural Studies degree at Murdoch University, the founder and Programme Leader of the Master of Arts Creative Media at the University of Brighton, and the Head of Photography and Creative Media at the University of Bolton, managing 11 degree programmes.  Tara is an awarded doctoral supervisor and candidature manager with an outstanding record of successful completions, while also conducting examinations and institutional audits and validations of postgraduate programmes throughout the world.

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Tara has fulfilled a range of administrative, management and leadership roles in higher education.  A selection is featured below:

  • Head of Photography and Creative Media, University of Bolton, 2012
  • Head of UoA 37, REF, University of Bolton, 2012
  • Member Research and Innovation Committee, University of Bolton, 2012
  • Graduate Studies Committee, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2011-12
  • Reviewer, Irish Research Council, 2011 
  • Chair of the Master of Letters Review Committee, Central Queensland University, 2010-11
  • Fellow, RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce), 2008 -
  • Steering Committee, National Art Design Media Subject Centre, 2006-2011
  • Advisory Group, National Art Design Media Subject Centre, 2006 -2011
  • Independent Chair, Doctoral Examinations, University of Brighton 2007-2011
  • Coordinator of the Media Studies Open Days, University of Brighton, 2007-2010
  • Head of the Master of Arts Creative Media 2007-2011
  • Head Media Research Brighton 2006 – 2010
  • Head of RAE Unit of Assessment (UoA 66), University of Brighton, 2006-7 
  • Steering Committee, Academy of Advanced Studies, Murdoch University, 2005-2006
  • University Research and Scholarships Committee, Murdoch University, 2001-2006
  • Coordinator: Creative Arts review (2003)
  • Coordinator: Postgraduate forms and prospectus review (2003)
  • University Lecturer Promotions Committee, Murdoch University, 2001-2004
  • Programme Chair, Communication and Cultural Studies, Murdoch University, 2000.
  • Coordinator – Orientation Day Activities for Murdoch University 1998-2002
  • National Assessor, Commonwealth University Teaching and Student Development, National Teaching Grant Scheme, 1999

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Tara is an experienced writer and researcher, having produced 13 books and over 150 refereed articles and book chapters through her career. She is also an in-demand and award-winning public speaker, with over 50 Keynote addresses presented throughout the world.

Tara works at the interface between the knowledge economy and social justice. Tara's best known research is in the areas of online education and media literacies, popular cultural studies and sonic media, creative industries and city imaging.

At the moment, Tara is running three clustered research projects. Firstly, she is continuing her research into online learning. The current manifestation of this work, following her two books Digital Hemlock and The University of Google, is titled Digital Dieting: moving from information obesity to digital fitness.  She is investigating the productive relationships between media literacy, information literacy and multimodality.

Her second area of research explores orality, aurality and sonic media, investigating the role of sound-only media in creating educational, social and political defamiliarization, disruption and social change. A book – What would Brian Eno do? Sonic Media for New Times – is currently being produced, along with a suite of articles about cultures of sound in teaching and learning.

Tara’s third sphere of research is clustered around the phrase “Education Cities,” connecting her commitment to lifelong learning, city imaging and social media, to explore how geosocial networking can become part of a strategy for urban regeneration and public learning. A new book in this area is an edited collection, published in 2013, titled City Imaging: Regeneration, Renewal, Decline. A book is currently being prepared with Mick Winter and Bryn Gandy (based in the Napa Valley and Wellington respectively) on the role of QR codes in enabling regional development

A selection of Keynote Addresses in these areas has been listed below:

  • "Oversharing and Under-reading: How dependency culture is killing higher education," All Ireland Society for Higher Education, Dublin, August 30, 2012
  • "Turnitin?  Turnitoff," 5th International Plagiarism Conference, The Sage, Gateshead, July 16-18, 2012
  • The digital dieting: moving from information obesity to digital fitness," University of Bolton Teaching and Learning Conference, July 5, 2012
  • "Take the red pill: creating a matrix for literacy," University of Bolton Research and Innovation Conference, 26 June, 2012
  • "Time for a digital detox? Building intellectual fitness," LILAC, Glasgow, April 13, 2012
  • "Change we need? Moving from information obesity to digital dieting," Gartner Europe, February 2, 2011
  • "The sound of a librarian: the politics and potential of podcasting in difficult times," LSE, Friday November 26, 2010
  • "Less is more: why less information creates more learning," Gartner Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, August 30-September 1, 2010
  • "Managing information obesity," Teaching & Learning Conference, Middlesex University, Hendon Campus, June 29, 2010
  • "Podcasting Postgraduates," Teaching & Learning Conference, Middlesex University, Hendon Campus, June 29, 2010
  • "Red or Blue? a matrix for learning and literacy," for the Teaching Literature and Culture in Higher Education/ Hochschuldidaktik in den Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, June 10-11, 2010
  • "Digital Dieting," Keynote Address, Trinity Librarians' Group, Portsmouth, May 12, 2010
  • "From surfing to deep sea diving: building a new model of literacy," Invited inaugural lecture, LILAC Scotland, Information Services Group, Scotland, March 26, 2010
  • "Information obesity: cutting the flab of information and building intellectual fitness through literacy," Keynote Address, Cultural eXchanges, DeMontford University, March 1-5, 2010.
  • "Life-long literacy: the challenges of creating a learning culture," Information Literacy Lecture, Finnish Information Literacy Network, Turku, Finland, February 10-11, 2010
  • "Toughen up, Princess: Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and changing the default position," Presentation for the My Brilliant Career? Women in the Academy Symposium, London, MeCCSa, October 30, 2009
  • "Mayhem, method, movement and magic: transforming hearing into listening," Keynote address, ED-MEDIA 2009, Hawaii, June 24, 2009.
  • "We've spent too much money to go back now:  credit crunched literacy and a future for learning," SOLSTICE Conference, Edge Hill, June 4, 2009
  • "Click and think," Irish Universities Information Services Colloquium, Galway, Ireland, 4-6 March, 2009
  • "Fundamentalism of the mind or wagging the long tail:  Google and the future of thinking," Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit, London, September 11, 2008
  • "What would EP Thompson do? Why universities need to engage with the media," CASE Europe Annual Conference, Brighton, August 26, 2008
  • "From Crisis to no comment," CASE Europe Annual Conference, Brighton, August 27, 2008
  • "From spin to social justice: librarians in the conceptual age," LILAC, John Moores University, March 19, 2008
  • "We are not really here: librarians in the information age," Information Research Institute Seminar, Manchester Metropolitan University, February 6, 2008
  • "Google is White Bread of the Mind," Inaugural Address, University of Brighton, January 11, 2008
  • Invited keynote address, Library and Information Association New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA), October 8-11, 2006
  • "The Google Effect," School Library Conference, Western Australia, June 17, 2006
  • "Building popular cultural literacies," School Library Conference, Western Australia, June 17, 2006
  • "Socrates with earphones," CCCS, University of Queensland, March 20, 2006
  • "How does it feel?" Postgraduate Development Seminar, CCCS, University of Queensland, March 19, 2006
  • "From Eleanor Rigby to Nannanet," Invited keynote address, Australian Local Government Association, August 24, 2005
  • "Speed searching and the killing of knowledge," Invited keynote lecture, Adelaide Festival of Ideas, Adelaide, July 7-10, 2005
  • "Won't get googled again," New South Wales Teacher-Librarian Association, Sydney, January 27, 2004
  • "Plotting the revolution," New South Wales Teacher-Librarian Association, Sydney, August 8, 2003
  • "Fitness is a feminist issue," Keynote address, International Woman in Leadership Conference, Edith Cowan University, Churchlands Western Australia, November 2002
  • "Let's make lots of money: Digital Deals and Trafficking in the truth," Keynote address 3rd Academic Symposium, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany, October 2002
  • "Double Fold or Double Take," Stadt-und Universitatsbibliothek, Frankfurt, Germany, October 2002
  • "The internet and the future of education," Public Lecture, Melbourne University, August 21, 2002
  • "The teacher's body," Seminar and Workshop, Melbourne University, August 21, 2002
  • "Fasten your seatbelts: Bette Davis and lessons in leadership," Keynote Address, International Women and Leadership Conference, Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle Western Australia, November 2000
  • "Making it Big: Julie Burchill, bitching and writing, Guest Speaker and Keynote Address, Women of Influence Series, Australian National University, September 26, 2001
  • "Tara's 10 Tips for a successful post-University career," Keynote Speaker, Murdoch University Graduation Ceremony (Singapore), September 1999
  • "From pulp to pop: an introduction to the world of popular culture," Public Lecture as part of the Stout Centre Popular Culture Seminar Series, Victoria University of Wellington, March 1995.

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Books

  • Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Digital Fitness (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2013)
  • City Imaging: Regeneration, Renewal, Decay (Berlin: Springer, 2013)
  • Digital dialogues and community 2.0: moving beyond avatars, trolls and puppets (Oxford: Chandos, 2012)
  • Popular Music: topics, trends and trajectories (London: SAGE, 2011)
  • Thinking Popular Culture: war, terrorism and writing (Aldershot: SAGE, 2008)
  • The revolution will not be downloaded: dissent in the digital age, (Oxford: Chandos, 2008)
  • The University of Google, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007)
  • Playing on the periphery: sport, identity and memory, (London: Routledge, 2006)
  • From Revolution to Revelation: Generation X, popular memory, cultural studies, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005)
  • Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its popular music, (Perth: UWA Press, 2005)
  • Digital Hemlock: Internet education and the poisoning of teaching, (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2002)
  • Ladies Who Lunge: Celebrating Difficult Women, (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002)
  • Tracking the Jack: A retracing of the Antipodes, (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2000)

Refereed articles 

Book Chapters 

  • "Podcasting postgraduates," from T. Brabazon (ed.), What would Brian Eno Do? Sonic Media for new times (forthcoming)
  • "Sound(ing) off in a screen age," from T. Brabazon (ed.), What would Brian Eno Do? Sonic Media for new times (forthcoming)
  • "The sound of supervision," (with Mike Kent) from T. Brabazon (ed.) What would Brian Eno Do? Sonic Media for new times (forthcoming)
  • "Brand Wellington," from T. Brabazon (ed.), City Imaging, (Springer, 2013)
  • "Conclusion: Imaging Injustice," from T. Brabazon (ed.), City Imaging, (Springer, 2013)
  • "Introduction: sliced cities," from T. Brabazon (ed.), City Imaging, (Springer, 2013)
  • "Swan Valley Sideways," from T. Brabazon (ed.), City Imaging, (Springer, 2013)
  • "When Bohemia becomes a business: City Lights, Columbus Avenue and the future of San Francisco," from T. Brabazon (ed.), City Imaging, (Springer, 2013)
  • "British colonialism," in P. Beilharz and T. Hogan (eds.), Sociology: Place, time and division: Second Edition, (Melbourne: Oxford, 2012), 179-183
  • "Conclusion: White Men Rule?" from T. Brabazon (ed.) Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: Beyond avatars, trolls and puppets, (Oxford: Chandos, 2011)
  • "Introduction: New Imaginings," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: Beyond avatars, trolls and puppets, (Oxford: Chandos, 2011)
  • "The invisible woman," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: Beyond avatars, trolls and puppets, (Oxford: Chandos, 2011) (with Nazlin Bhimani)
  • "The sound of a librarian," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: Beyond avatars, trolls and puppets, (Oxford: Chandos, 2011)
  • "YouTube Academy," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: Beyond avatars, trolls and puppets, (Oxford: Chandos, 2011)
  • "Christmas media," in S. Whiteley (ed), Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008)
  • "She’s out of control," from B. Agger (ed.), There’s a gunman on campus, (MIT Press, 2008)
  • "Passing the digital door bitch," in T. Brabazon (ed), The revolution will not be downloaded, (Oxford: Chandos, 2008)
  • "What do you do with the other one in a duo?" in T. Brabazon (ed), The revolution will not be downloaded, (Oxford: Chandos, 2008)
  • "Wiring God’s Waiting Room: the Greying of Internet Literacy," in T. Brabazon (ed), The revolution will not be downloaded, (Oxford: Chandos, 2008)
  • "Won’t get googled again: searching for an education," in J. Lockard and M. Pegrum (eds.), Brave New Classrooms: Educational Democracy and the Internet, (New York: Peter Lang, 2007)
  • "British colonialism," in P. Beilharz and T. Hogan (eds.), Sociology: Place, time and division, (Melbourne: Oxford, 2006)
  • "Going Off-World after the Cabaret," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its popular music, (Perth: UWA Press, 2005)
  • "Not of London anymore," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its popular music, (Perth: UWA Press, 2005) 
  • "You’ve got about a year," from T. Brabazon (ed.), Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its popular music, (Perth: UWA Press, 2005)
  • "Britain’s last line of Defence: Miss Moneypenny and the desperations of filmic feminism," in C. Lindner (ed.), The James Bond Phenomenon, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003)
  • "Neon Girls," from S. Clarke, Football in our time (The Homes of Football), (London: Mainstream Publishing, 2003)
  • "The best on Earth in Perth? Aerobics and feminism," in Bending the Rules: Gender, Sexuality and Australian Sport, edited by Dennis Hemphill and Caroline Symons, (Melbourne: Walla Walla Press, 2002)
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 2000, Vol. 9, (2002).
  • "A pig in space? Babe and the problem of landscape," in I. Craven (ed.) Australian film: Texts and Contexts, (London: Frank Cass, 2001)
  • "Beyond Calais: Michael Palin and the construction of a foreigner," in Europe – Divided or United? edited by Franz Oswald and Maureen Perkins, (Dickson: Southern Highlands Publishers, 2000)
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 1999, Vol. 8, (2001).
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 1997, Vol 7, (2000).
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 1998 (2000).
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 1996, Vol. 6, (1999).
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 1994, Vol. 4, (1998).
  • ‘Australian popular culture and media studies,’ Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory for 1995, Vol. 5, (1998).
  • "Reclaiming the visual world: Beatlemania, Beatle photographs and a female gaze", in P. Hetherington and P. Maddern (eds.), Sexuality and Gender in History, (Perth: Optima Press, 1993)

Selected podcasts

To subscribe to Tara’s channel please click here. 

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