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Areas of Supervision

The School can provide supervision of research theses in the following areas, although this list is not complete or exhaustive. Supervisors' areas of interest range widely

Australian Studies

John Arnold
Publishing, communications, history of the book in Australia, history and publication of Australian literature
David Dunstan
Biography, cultural tourism, regional studies and heritage; Melbourne's urban, cultural and government history; newspaper, journalism and publishing studies; consumer culture, history of wine, drinking habits and social reform
Mark Gibson
Communications, Journalism and Media Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, Film & Television Studies, Media Theory, Critical Theory
Tom Heenan 
Australian education history, cultural and heritage tourism, backpacker tourism
Jenny Hocking
Australian biography, Australian communications and media policy, Australian governance, labour history and counter-terrorism security issues.
Victoria Peel
Australian education history, cultural and heritage tourism, backpacker tourism
Bruce Scates
War and society, Anzac and commemoration; the cultural history of grief and mourning; labour history, environmental history, life history and biography; the cultural history of the book and communities of readers, trans-Tasman relationships; the history of black/white relations.

Communications and Writing

Paul Atkinson
Henri Bergson and process philosophy; the philosophy of time; philosophy of science; visual aesthetics; comic book narration; film form; affect theory; semiotics and pragmatics.
Simon Cooper
Technology; cyberculture; mass communications; continental philosophy; psychoanalysis; politics; aesthetics; citizenship; screen media; literature; music; ethics.
Philip Dearman
Theories and histories of communication and technology; communication systems and e-government; media policy and regulation; multi-media and e-learning (podcasting, blogging, wiki-writing); cultural representations of labour; radio production and radio cultures; media and sport.
Susan Yell
Communication literacies and practices; textual analysis; discourse analysis; social semiotics; gender, identity and media; media/cultural policy; communication technologies and social relations.

Criminal Justice and Public Policy

David Baker
Public order policing, histories of policing, comparative policing, state and federal police in Australia, police unionism, transnational policing, police and politics.

History/Politics

Beth Edmondson
International relations; Australian politics; Australian policy; international governance
Erik Eklund 

Culture and identity in Australian mining and industrial towns; labour history, trade union and business history, heritage and public history; human research ethics; qualititative research methods especially oral interviews; and intersection between academic knowledge and the public sphere through the media, teaching and community-university interaction.

Stuart Levy
Theories of international relations; state sovereignty; international law of the sea; understanding the undergraduate experience
Keith Wilson
Military history; American Civil War; African American history and culture; Areas of US politics

Indigenous Studies

Andrew Gunstone
Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Politics, Indigenous History

Journalism

Ndaeyo Uko
Narrative journalism; the relationship between media and governments; media in Africa

Psychological Studies

Barry Richardson
Sensation and perception, particularly haptics; cognitive processes, research design and statistics, virtual reality, active and passive perception and multimodal perception.
Mark Symmons
Road safety (Driver behaviour, Heavy vehicles, Fleets, Motorcyclists, Mobile phones, Road safety & the environment), Sports psychology, Sensory substitution systems for the blind, Touch, Virtual reality (Simulators, Haptics, Training, Presence)
George Van Doorn
Cross-modal integration and domination, haptic and temperature perception, research design and statistics, active and passive perception
Dianne Wuillemin
Cognitive neurosciences, judgements of size and space, haptic illusions, haptic virtual reality, cross-modal integration and competition, memory

Public Relations

James Gomez
New media; online citizen journalism; advocacy and election campaigns; policy communication; crisis and risk communications; strategic communications; public relations and its relationship with civil society, democracy and human rights; with a special focus on the East, Southeast and South Asian regions

Social and Community Welfare

Olga Bursian
Social policy; multiculturalism; social inclusion; comparative welfare states; community development; labour market issues; democratic citizenship; youth issues; post-colonial theory; feminist standpoint theory; subjugated knowledges; cross cultural epistemology and ontology; decolonising research methods; Russian civil society and social policy
Karen Crinall
Homelessness; social documentary photography; visual representations of women and disadvantage, violence against women, family violence prevention, visual sociology and visual studies.
Chris Laming
Profeminist Men's Programs, Men's Violence Against Women, Family Violence Prevention, Personal Construct Theory, Criminal Justice Responses to Family Violence.
Marg Lynn
Community analysis/discourses of community; community development; rural human services; integrated social development in growth corridors; action research.
Debra Manning
Alternative research methodologies; creative writing in research; transformative and emancipatory social and community welfare theory and practice; culturally sensitive pedagogies; transformative community development and casework

Sociology and Social Research

Michelle Duffy
Australian studies; critical theory; cultural theory; ethnicity, immigration, refugees; geography human; globalisation; Indigenous studies; music, culture and society; sociology; social theory
Vaughan Higgins
Rural development and restructuring; agri-food regulation; natural resource management; globalization; governmentality; sociology of science and technology
Lyle Munro
The sociology of social problems; social movement theory and practice especially the animal rights and environmental movements; sociology of education especially school to work/higher education transitions.

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