Tara Brabazon

Tara Brabazon (born 3 January 1969) is Dean of Graduate Research and Professor of Cultural Studies at Charles Darwin University, in Darwin, Australia, moving from the same position at Flinders University in 2023. She remains the Professor of Cultural Studies at Flinders University. She has previously held academic positions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, won six teaching awards, published 20 books, and written 250 refereed articles and contributed essays and opinion pieces on higher education and the arts.

Scholarship
Brabazon's key areas of research include media literacies, popular cultural studies, creative industries, city imaging, regional development, the knowledge economy, information management, information literacy, cultural studies and the negotiation of cultural difference. She has developed a series of concepts through her career including "the Google Effect," "Digital Dieting", and the 3Ds (digitization, disintermedation and deterritorialization). Brabazon is also continuing the work of the late Professor Steve Redhead by developing the "claustropolitanism" theory, as a revision of cosmopolitan sociology.

While a Professor of Media in the United Kingdom, Brabazon delivered her Inaugural Address titled "Google is White Bread of the Mind." This research was presented in her book The University of Google. She explored the development of information literacy in the first year of university degrees.

Her professional roles have led to specialisations in aspects of cultural difference, social inclusion, doctoral education, contemporary higher education and leadership. As Dean of Graduate Research, Brabazon developed a weekly vlog series for higher degree students. They currently number 300 videos, most created from requests by students.

Qualifications

 * Bachelor of Arts, First Class Honours in History. University of Western Australia. 1991.
 * Bachelor of Literature and Communication. Murdoch University. 1993.
 * Bachelor of Professional Education, Passed with Distinction. Central Queensland University. 1999.
 * Graduate Diploma in Internet Studies, with Distinction. Curtin University. 2002.
 * Le Cordon Bleu Graduate Diploma of Gastronomic Tourism. Southern Cross University. 2016.
 * Master of Letters in Cultural Studies. Central Queensland University. 1995.
 * Master of Leadership. Deakin University. 2021.
 * Master of Education with Honours Class 1. University of New England. 2007.
 * Master of Arts, Passed with Distinction. University of Western Australia. 1994.
 * Doctor of Philosophy. Murdoch University. 1995.

Recognition

 * Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce
 * Director of the Popular Culture Collective.
 * Member of the Order of Australia, 2019.

Personal life
Tara Brabazon was born in Perth, Western Australia, going on to write a book about its music in Liverpool of the South Seas. She married Professor Steve Redhead in 2002. Their relationship was featured in the Times Higher Education under the title Marital Bliss. After Redhead's death from pancreatic cancer in 2018, Brabazon wrote about their relationship in the second edition of The End of the Century Party.

Brabazon is currently married to Professor Jamie Quinton, Professor and Head of the School of Natural Sciences at Massey University in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Major publications

 * Tara Brabazon. 2022. Twelve rules for (academic) life: A stroppy feminist's guide through teaching, learning, politics, and Jordan Peterson. Singapore: Springer.
 * Tara Brabazon, Tiffany Lyndall Knight, and Natalie Hills. 2020. The Creative PhD: Challenges, Opportunities and Reflexive Practice. Bingley:  Emerald.
 * Tara Brabazon, Steve Redhead and Sunny Rue Chivaura. 2018. Trump Studies: An intellectual guide to why citizens do not act in their best interests. Bingley: Emerald.
 * Tara Brabazon (eds.). 2015. Play: A theory of learning and change. Berlin: Springer.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2015. Enabling University: Impairment, (dis)ability and social justice in higher education. Berlin: Springer.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2014. Unique Urbanity? Rethinking third tier cities, degeneration, regeneration and mobility. Berlin: Springer.
 * Tara Brabazon, Mick Winter and Bryn Gandy. 2014. Digital Wine: How QR codes facilitate new markets for small wine industries. Berlin: Springer.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2013. Digital Dieting: From information obesity to intellectual fitness. Aldershot: Ashgate.
 * Tara Brabazon (ed.). 2013. City Imaging: Regeneration, renewal and decay. Berlin: Springer.
 * Tara Brabazon (ed.). 2012. Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After avatars, trolls and puppets. Oxford: Chandos.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2010.Popular Music: Topics, trends, trajectories. London: Sage.
 * Tara Brabazon (ed.). 2008. The Revolution Will Not Be Downloaded: Dissent in the digital age. Oxford: Chandos.
 * Tara Brabazon (ed.). 2008. Thinking Popular Culture: War, terrorism and writing. Aldershot: Ashgate.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2007. The University of Google: Education in the (post) information age. Aldershot: Ashgate.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2006. Playing on the Periphery: Sport, memory, identity. London: Routledge.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2005. From Revolution to Revelation: Generation X, popular culture, popular memory. Aldershot: Ashgate.
 * Tara Brabazon (eds.). 2005. Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its popular music. Perth: UWA Press.
 * Tara Brabazion. 2002. Digital Hemlock: Internet education and the poisoning of teaching. Sydney: UNSW Press.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2002. Ladies who Lunge: Celebrating difficult women. Sydney: UNSW Press.
 * Tara Brabazon. 2000. Tracking the Jack: A retracing of the Antipodes. Sydney: UNSW Press.

Audiobooks
Brabazon has developed new strategies for research dissemination through the audiobook, producing five titles between 2018 and 2023.


 * Trump Studies (2018)
 * Memories of the Future (2019)
 * Comma (2022)
 * Know what you do not know: information literacy for PhD students (2023)
 * The Three Wise Monkeys of Research: Epistemology / Ontology / Methodology (2023)

This project is developing through the 'auditory academic' initiative, offering sonic activism and interventions through diverse sonic platforms.

Journalism
Brabazon is a columnist for a range of education and cultural publications. She has produced over 150 articles for the Times Higher Education, and has written for the Times Literary Supplement, Times Education Supplement, The Guardian, Arts Hub Australia, Arts Hub UK, and Campus Review, also featuring on the cover of a 2019 edition. She has been profiled in a range of publications, including The Guardian.