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Jen Webb is Professor of Creative Practice at the University of Canberra, in Canberra, Australia.

Born in South Africa and educated there, as well as in New Zealand, Canada and Australia, Webb holds a PhD in cultural theory (CQU, 1998) and a doctor of creative arts in writing (UTS, 2008). She is a leader in research into creative writing in the academy, funded by the recently disbanded Australian Learning and Teaching Council (see, e.g., or the earlier project ). She is also immediate Past President of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, and co-editor of the journal of creative practice, Axon: Creative Explorations.

Her work focuses on how we make meanings through creative practice, primarily in literature and visual art, and particularly how the world of art connects with, and sometimes criticizes or contradicts, the broader world of society, politics and the economy. (See, for example, an essay on the work of William Kentridge at .) She also researches the question of research through creative practice (see, for example, her interview with TS Eliot Poetry Prize winner Philip Gross  at ).

Webb has authored a number of books on cultural topics, and is perhaps best known for Understanding Foucault (with Tony Schirato and Geoff Danaher), and Understanding Representation (2009). The first, published in 2000, takes up the life work of one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, and seeks to make it accessible to new readers; a new edition, incorporating the translations of his essays and lectures that have been published since 2000, has just been published. The second, a monograph published in 2009, deals with the complexities of the concept of representation, dealing with how we use language, sign systems and interactions to organize and make meanings about the worlds we live in.

References
 * T Schirato, G Danaher and J Webb (2012) Understanding Foucault: a Critical Introduction, Allen & Unwin: Sydney and London: Sage
 * J Webb (2009) Understanding Representation, London: Sage
 * J Webb and K Nandan (2007) New Writings from the South Pacific: An Anthology, Suva: University of South Pacific Press
 * J Webb (2006) Ways of Getting By, Canberra: Ginninderra Press [collection of short fictions]
 * T Schirato and J Webb (2004) Reading the Visual, Sydney: Allen & Unwin (also published as Understanding Visual Culture, SAGE)
 * J Webb (2004) Proverbs from Sierra Leone, Melbourne: Five Islands Press [collection of poems]
 * T Schirato and J Webb (2003) Understanding Globalization; London and New York
 * B Bennett, S Cowan, J Lo, S Nandan and J Webb (2003) Resistance and Reconciliation: Writing in the Commonwealth, Canberra: ACLALS
 * J Webb, T Schirato and G Danaher (2002) Understanding Bourdieu, Sydney: Allen & Unwin and London/New York: SAGE
 * G Danaher, T Schirato and J Webb (2000) Understanding Foucault, Sydney: Allen & Unwin; London and New York: SAGE

External links Profile at University of Canberra