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Members

Management Committee

Dr Michelle Arrow (Chair), Harvey Broadbent, Professor Murray Goot, A/Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley, Dr Virginia Madsen, A/ Professor Kathryn Millard, Margaret Van Heekeren.

Director

Associate Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley
I am an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellow in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. My earliest two books, The House of Packer: The Making of a Media Empire (Allen & Unwin, 1999) and Sir Frank Packer (HarperCollins, 2000), constituted the first historical accounts of one of Australia's dominant media empires. Party Games: Australian Politicians and the Media from War to Dismissal (Text Publishing, 2003) explored the nature of the relationship between Australian media companies, their proprietors, and politicians and political parties. Changing Stations: The Story of Australian Commercial Radio was published by UNSW Press in November 2009. I am now working on producing and editing A Companion to the Australian Media. I teach an MA Modern History unit, MHPG915 Bulletin to Big Brother: The Media in Australia since 1880. I am also the convenor of the ARC Cultural Research Network’s Media Histories node and administer the Australian Media History database and listserv.

 

Deputy Director

Professor Murray Goot
I am an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. My work focuses on media history and Australian politics. I was a pioneer of radio history, the history of newspaper circulation, and the early history of market research. In more recent years my work has covered the history of talkback radio, public opinion, and political campaigning. My most recent book is Divided Nation? Indigenous Affairs and the Imagined Public (Melbourne University Press, 2007), co-authored with Tim Rowse.

 

Core Members

Dr Michelle Arrow
I am a Lecturer in Modern History, and I am currently working on several research projects in media history and the intersections between media and history. Following my work as a presenter on the history television series Rewind in 2004, I have published several articles that explore the historiographical and political issues associated with presenting history projects, including a cultural history of the ABC serial Blue Hills, and a history of postwar popular culture in Australia. In 2006, I co-created the interdisciplinary Honours unit Media and Methods, which aims to introduce media students to historical methods and to explore media methodologies for history students. I am also the exhibitions and media reviews editor for History Australia. I bring to the Centre for Media History a strong commitment to working with media practitioners and historians to enhance the presentation of history in the media and a desire to collaborate with other Centre members to produce high-quality, innovative research in the area of the history of media and its audiences.

Harvey Broadbent
I bring to the Centre for Media History the experience of parallel career interests and track record in both media and academic research and writing. I have had long experience as a television and radio practitioner in program production, writing for television and radio and as an executive producer (especially with the ABC) as well as print media. I combine this with academic research in Middle Eastern and Ottoman history, First World War and social history research and authorship of two military history books. I am now, as Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations, managing the Gallipoli Centenary Turkish Archives Research Project, recently awarded five years ARC funding. My interest in the Centre is be focused on the multiple media representation of historical themes, events and ideas both through the media adaptation of pure research and utilisation of techniques such as oral history and recreation of historical contexts. A further focus of interest is the presentation of war in the media.

Virginia Madsen
I am a lecturer in Media at the University of Macquarie, Sydney. My research interests span contemporary and historical aspects of radio and audio performance (public broadcasting in particular), auditory culture, audio experimentation and documentary expression. I am also an established radio producer with a large body of documentary and performance work broadcast on the ABC and internationally. My first program for the ABC, Catching the Ether, explored the early years of commercial radio in Australia. From 2002–2005, I was a Vice Chancellor’s Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of NSW. I have published on numerous aspects of sound and radio including on public broadcasting history and radio for Southern Review and The Radio Journal. An essay charting a history of experimentation in Australian radio appeared in the book, Restless Ears (ed. Gail Priest, UNSW Press, 2008) and my writing on the history of radio documentary in public broadcasting is included in (Ed). Andrew Crisell’s reference work, Radio (Routledge, 2008). Currently I am writing on the history and impacts of ‘podcasting’, as well as a book exploring one of international public broadcasting’s most distinctive forms of communication and revelation: the radio documentary or feature.

Associate Professor Kathryn Millard
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Media, a writer and filmmaker. Much of my film work to date has engaged with the nature of autobiographical and collective memory and the representation of history and memory on film. A preoccupation with the insights and textures that can be gleaned from visual sources--such as archival film and photographs--underlies my body of work. My award-winning films include the features Travelling Light (2003) Parklands (2003) and the documentary Light Years (1991)--about the life and work of photographer, Olive Cotton. I have also written essays on topics including colour and memory, screen history, screenwriting, photography and   biography for print and radio. I am currently completing an essay film--The Boot Cake--about my quest to find the ghosts and global reincarnations of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. Other current research projects include Countering the Script Gurus--a look at the blurring of the screenwriting industries and the self-help movement--and an exploration of non-fiction film and video forms in the era of the remix. Over the last twenty five years, my work has attracted significant support from film and arts funding bodies including the Australian Film Commission, the NSW Film and Television Office and the South Australian Film Corporation.

 

Associate Members

Dr Maree Delofski
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media teaching Screen Production with a strong interest in practice-led research. I am a screen writer/director working in documentary. My recent research focus has been on the ways in which documentary techniques can be brought to bear on the process of representing history and memory. This is exemplified in The Trouble with Merle (2002), a major documentary film essay about the Hollywood star Merle Oberon that explores identity politics across cultures. My current research project is a feature length documentary essay, Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics. The film, an exploration of non-conformity, interrogates documentary modes of representing the past in the context of a present tense relationship between director and subject.

Bruce Dennett
I have been a teacher for more than thirty years. I am currently working part-time on a PhD in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. The focus of my research is the genesis of our cinematic images of Indigenous Australia, with a primary focus on films from the silent era. My main areas of interest are film and history, Australian and American history and historiography.

I have a strong background in education and am the author and co-author of six high school history textbooks, in ancient history, modern history and Aboriginal history. I have won two Premier's History Prizes. The first saw me visit the United States in 2000 where I delivered a paper at the Film and History League Conference on 'The US Presidency on Film as seen from Down Under' and interviewed the prominent American film and history scholar Robert Toplin. A transcript of the interview was published in the Film and History Journal. On the same trip I talked my way past the Secret Service and gained a twenty minute one on one interview with former US President Jimmy Carter. In 2005 I won a second Premier's Prize, this time in military history, and an article based on my research about the circumstances of the Gallipoli Landing will be published this year by the Australian War Memorial. In addition to teaching at high school full time, I was part of the NSW Modern History Syllabus Writing Committee; I am the Supervisor of Marking for History Extension in the HSC and work on a casual basis in the Department of Modern History.

Dr Peter Doyle
I am a Lecturer in the Department of Media, a musician, and the author of historically-based Australian crime novels. My publications include the award-winning Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960 (Wesleyan University Press, 2005) and City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs, 1912-1948 (Historic Houses Trust of NSW, 2005). My research interests include the history of twentieth-century popular music.

Sandey Fitzgerald
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. My thesis is on spectatorship. As well as a BA (Hons) majoring in Politics and Sociology, I also have a degree in Theatre Production from the National Institute of Dramatic Art. My interests range across a broad field and include the relationships between theatre and politics, issues of representation (including representation through costume), theories of theatre, and the use of theatre as a metaphor for political and social life. I have worked in theatre in a number of capacities, and was involved in pioneering work in the theatre in education area. I have a passion for facilitating learning and currently convene a number of Open University Australia courses for Macquarie University in both Politics and Sociology.

Elisabeth Gould
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. I am writing a dissertation on the history of 'talkback' radio in Australia, extending from the 1960s through to the present day. My historical research on radio focuses on programming, politics, audiences, broadcasting regulation and policy. I bring to the Centre an interest in talk radio in the 1960s and 1970s as well as an interest in oral history research. Most recently, I presented a paper at The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum in Lincoln, UK, on the history of the talkback radio audience.

Kyle Harvey
I am an Associate Lecturer and PhD student in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. My research focuses on public opinion and social movements in the United States in the 1980s, specifically the public response to the threat of nuclear war during this era of the Cold War. Popular media, including film and television news, played a significant part in the interpretation and reaction to this threat. A graduate of the University of Newcastle, I have also written on the relationship between film and politics in the United States with respect to Vietnam veterans. I bring to the Centre a great interest in the impact of popular media in political, social and cultural contexts, as well as a passion for recent American history.

Madeleine Hastie
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations. My thesis is on the history of commercial television in Sydney. I completed my BA (Hons) at the University of NSW writing on the history of the Australian Services Nurses’ National Memorial (Anzac Parade) and the politics of recognition, examining the relationship between history, war, memory and commemoration.  I also completed a Dip Ed in High School history teaching at UNSW and studied TV presenting for one year at NIDA. My research interests are wide and varied. I’m passionate about military and social history, commemoration, history and memory, documentary and oral history, post-war popular culture, and of course, the history of print, radio, TV journalism and current affairs.

Dr Justine Lloyd
I am a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology. I am currently working on a set of projects which build on feminist critiques of the public sphere and seek to develop innovative, historically informed ways of looking at contemporary media forms. My research uses audio archives, policy documents and interviews to map cultural histories of media. My current project, being developed as a monograph, provides the first comparative history of women’s public service radio programming in Canada and Australia via correspondence and audience research, scripts and listeners’ letters.

I am a member of the ARC’s Cultural Research Network, and through this framework have been developing an interdisciplinary, collaborative project on the cultural literacies and technologies of ‘listening’.

Alec Morgan
Alec Morgan is one of Australia’s most experienced documentary filmmakers as well as an award winning scriptwriter and short fiction director. His documentary credits include the multi-award winning, Lousy Little Sixpence, a seminal film that first exposed the taking of Aboriginal children from their families; Admission Impossible, an investigation into the controversial White Australia immigration policies; and The End of the Earth, winner of the Gold Medal for Best Environmental Film at the New York Film Festival. His drama credits include Old Fella Now and Dusty Hearts. He was Creative Head of the television series Our Century. His first feature film, Hunt Angels won three AFI awards in 2006, as well as the Australian Film Critics Circle Award for Best Feature Documentary, the Atom Award for Best Documentary and the Joan Long Award for Achievement in Australian Film History. He lectures in screen production at Macquarie University and is working on a PhD on the evolution of fragmented film structures.

Tom Murray
I am a film-maker, writer and broadcaster. A graduate in Politics and Geography from the University of Sydney, I have written and produced social history documentaries in Central Australia, East Indonesia, and Arnhem Land. My debut documentary film Dhakiyarr vs the King (co-director/writer) won numerous awards including the 2004 NSW Premier's History Award and selection for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. My debut novel Fishing Secrets was short-listed for the Vogel-Australian Literary Award 2005. My current project is an observational documentary film recorded over the course of a year in a remote NE Arnhem Land indigenous community for SBS Television and France 5. This film will form part of my Macquarie University PhD submission.

David Myton
I have been a journalist for more than 30 years and currently work as Manager Vice-Chancellor's Communications at Macquarie University. Previous positions include Editor APN Educational Media as well as editing, sub-editing and writing positions on papers including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Yorkshire Post, The Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Evening Press. I have a BA from Deakin University and a BA Hons (First Class) in Modern History from Macquarie University. I am now a PhD candidate in the Macquarie Institute for Innovation where I am researching the impact of new technologies on western newspapers.

Don Perlgut
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Media, with a thesis on film and television distribution in Australia and a particular focus on audience reception: what makes a certain film popular and why?  How and why does Australian reception differ from the USA and other countries?  I originally trained as a town planner, and have extensive experience in adult education, management, marketing, educational television and new media.  I worked for ABC Television for more than ten years in a series of management roles, and have also worked for the Australian Institute of Management, ICE Interactive and as a Lecturer at the University of New England, Armidale.  I am currently the CEO of the Rural Health Education Foundation, which develops, distributes and broadcasts educational television programs for rural and remote health professionals and communities. I have been the film critic for the Australian Jewish News for many years, and am a member of the Film Critics’ Circle of Australia.

Associate Professor John Potts
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Media. I am the author of Radio in Australia (UNSW Press, 1989). I have also published articles on radio history, art history, cultural history, and contemporary media culture. My other books are Culture and Technology (co-authored with Andrew Murphie, Palgrave, 2003) and Technologies of Magic (co-edited with Edward Scheer, Power, 2006). My research interests include radio and audio arts history, and intellectual history. My next book is A History of Charisma (forthcoming, Palgrave 2009).

 

Tom Roberts
I am a PhD candidate, Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations researching  the life and legacy of Sir Keith Murdoch. After studying Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University, I pursued my interest in newspapers by working as an officer with the British Press Complaints Commission before becoming researcher to the journalist and author Peter Oborne. I aided Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News, with the writing of his account of the decade-long premiership of Tony Blair, and have served as researcher for the book chronicling the history of Sky News in the UK published to coincide with its 20th anniversary last year. I have an MA in Communication at the University of Westminster, and am interested in all aspects of the media and its history, but most particularly in issues of press freedom, the historical development of tabloid newspapers in both Australia and the United Kingdom, and the questions raised by ownership – whether corporate or by individual figures – of media organisations.

Claire Scott
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics. My research on language in the media explores Australian press reporting of war (particularly armistice) over a period of just over a century, covering 7 major conflicts in Australia’s history from the Boer War to the Iraq War. My main explorations at present are: the linguistic construction of the social activity of news reporting (or ‘what are journalists/editors doing when they write/publish a news report?’); the emergence of genres of news reporting, and how they change over time as a consequence of the various forces (technological, institutional, economic, political) that bring about new contexts of production and reception; and the development of the newspaper page as a semiotic space and the different purposes for which this space is used.

Margaret Van Heekeren
I am a Lecturer in Journalism at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst and a PhD student in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University, researching the dissemination of New Idealist philosophy in Australian print and radio media from 1890 to 1950. I have published research in the areas of nineteenth-century Australian print media history and online news. In 2007 I convened the Australian Media Traditions conference at CSU, Bathurst. Prior to my academic career I worked as a journalist in television, radio and print media and maintain industry contact. I contributed to the inaugural Australian Press Council State of the Print News Media in 2006 and the 2007 update.

Can Yalcinkaya
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Media. My research is concerned with the changing facets of melancholy in the history of Turkish popular culture, particularly in film and music. I have an interest in cultural theory, cultural history, genres in cinema, humour and comics studies. I have published a number of refereed and non-refereed articles on humour, comics, and cinema in Turkish language periodicals and books. I also edited a journal of comics studies called Yeni Seruven (New Adventure). I am currently working as a tutor in the Department of Media and as a translator for the Gallipoli Centenary Turkish Archives Research Project (pdf), managed by Harvey Broadbent. I am also a voluntary contributor to the Turkish Language program at SBS Radio.