As a Senior Lecturer and Honours Coordinator in the Department of Media, University of Adelaide, I have responsibility for core courses in the undergraduate Bachelor of Media program, an upper level undergraduate elective, and research training courses for Honours and Masters-by-Coursework Media students. I have also covered for colleagues on leave. I utilise a mix of traditional on campus, blended learning, and online-only teaching, to facilitate flexibility and great outcomes for students.

My teaching is highly regarded by both students and my colleagues. In 2023, I won an Excellence in Teaching Award (Individual Teaching) from the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law & Economics, as well as a prestigious Commendation for the Enhancement and Innovation of Student Learning

Courses for 2024

MDIA1019 Image and Brand, Online 2020-2021, Blended 2022-ongoing (Semester 2 yearly)

MDIA3331 Popular Media: Text, Audience, Industry (Semester 2 biennial 2018, 2020, 2022, on campus)

MDIA4002 Honours Media Research Methods (Semester 1 yearly 2023-ongoing, taught stacked with MDIA7007)

MDIA7007 Media Masters Research Methods (Semester 1 yearly 2023-ongoing, taught stacked with MDIA4002)

MDIA 7003 Media Master Thesis (Semester 2 2024)

Past teaching

MDIA1002 Key Concepts in Media (Semester 1 yearly 2016-2023, on campus, previously titled Introduction to Media )

MDIA1014OL Key Concepts in Media, Online (Semester 1 & 2 2019-2020, semester 2 only 2022-2023), online only, previously titled Introduction to Media Online)

MDIA2336 Digital Storytelling (2016-2021, Semester 2 yearly, blended learning)

MDIA3328 News and the Digital Age (Semester 2, on campus with pre-recorded lectures, 2017, 2022 cover for study leave)

Postgraduate learning – HDRs and Online Persona (workshop for post-graduate students on building and maintaining an online persona as a researcher)

Details of past and present supervision is available on the Supervision page

Teaching Philosophy

I see my teaching as a process of empowering students to become confident and critical citizens, by enabling them to identify, understand, and utilise contextually appropriate theories, forms of expression, aesthetics, software or hardware. Mastery in the performance of a specific task or software package is considerably less important to me than the self-confidence to choose and apply the knowledge they have encountered during their studies. Technologies change so quickly that being able to critically engage with new ideas and confidently experiment with new platforms becomes far more valuable a skill-set in graduates than being able to perform specific tasks in under fixed criteria. Equally, teaching media must happen through media. A mix of face-to-face and online learning not only facilitates the development of essential digital literacies, but also improves the ability of students to study at a time that best suits them, whether they have complex needs, are caring for others, or need to work to support themselves. This in turn aids in developing equitable access to higher education.

As a teacher, I hope to inspire students to be more open minded, kinder to themselves and others, more aware of having a positive impact on the planet they live on. I hope to encourage Media students to understand the power that words and images, whether mediated or not, can have on how we understand the world, and that this power comes with responsibility on the part of those of us who make and use words and images to influence others.

In teaching undergraduate media students, I aim to introduce to my classes to the complexities of the contemporary media environment, complicating for them the taken-for-granted nature of their media saturated lives. I hope to pass on my own passion for media and storytelling to my students, leading through example to show that these issues, ideas, structures, theories, and policies are interesting, important, and valuable.