Commendations of books

February 15, 2009 by Tara Brabazon

Tara's books have gained a wide audience and gained a range of comments and discussion.

The University of Google

Frank Webster stated that this book “will have a huge impact on everyone in higher education, helping those suspicious of new media to formulate their criticisms and those eager to adopt it better placed to introduce it appropriately.” Alan Jenkins confirmed that it is “a passionate, scholarly, deeply considered and, at the same time, ‘practical’ critique of how universities internationally confuse access to digital information with devleopign educated and critical citizens. The book will be of value in postiivelyshaping both pedagogic practice and institutional policies.”

"Her analysis of the wider impacts of these trends in higher education will resonate with many university teachers who feel dissatisfied and disenfranchised by current institutional policy." Phillipa Sturgess, Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development, Vol. 5, No. 3, September 2008, pp. 67-68

From Revolution to Revelation

Susan Hopkins, in her review of the book, stated that, “speaking of generationalism, I should also admit part of the personal pleasure of this book was watching one of 'us' boldly rewrite the rules of academic cultural studies. Tara Brabazon may be a disaffected Generation Xer at heart but she is also now an influential senior academic, award-winning teacher and finalist for Australian of the Year. The real issue, only touched on in conclusion, might be how does Generation X learn to grow old? Until then, 'my generation' may well pass the hair gel, the Haircut 100 vinyl and keep on reading/dancing with the indefatigable Tara Brabazon--it's 'our' turn now," http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb353/is_4_24/ai_n29239089/

Digital Hemlock

“Tara Brabazon’s Digital Hemlock (UNSW Press, 2002) is one of the best portrayals I’ve read of academic life … This is a book that tells it like it is. It’s a tough, funny and deeply compassionate account of the everyday lives of academics and students. As such, it is essential reading for anyone and everyone concerned about everyday life in the naked academic city.”

Professor Elspeth Probyn

“Whilst Digital Hemlock is aimed at a university audience, it is just as relevant for corporate and vocational training. Brabazon maintains that web-based education is being promoted as a panacea for the constraints that are facing education today. More people are participating in tertiary education than ever before, but resources are being tightened. The same is true in all areas of training … The book does not take the Luddite position (destroy the machines). Rather, it invites people to follow Socrates and face the difficult questions about online learning. Brabazon maintains that the educational administrators who champion online learning tend to gloss over the issues of drop-out rates and the quality of learning. Her objection to this managerial perspective is its naïve, utopian faith in technology.”

Glen Martin

“I have on my shelves a number of ‘must read’ books. These are treasures of which I often own multiple copies and which I recommend and loan to others. Such books must be engaging and absorbing, offer me something new or challenging to think about and above all must be the kind of book I just cannot put down until I’ve finished reading it. Tara Brabazon’s book sits in this category on my shelf … The question is will we end up simply reading this dynamic book for enjoyment – to be entertained, or will we allow the ideas to permeate our assumptions and let ourselves be challenged by Brabazon’s excursion into the world of higher education and its potential for change?”

Erich von Dietze

“She voices the unspoken and unheard questions of those involved in the shift to digital teaching. While Socrates asked the difficult questions of this time, and was sentenced to death and drank hemlock for scorning the gods, so too does Brabazon stare down the new god of technology. Her aim is to end the mute acceptance of this god, to open universities to debate and discussion, and to reclaim the essence of teaching, primarily as a transformative exchange between teachers and students, and the potential for education as a life-changing encounter.”

John Hannon

"This is a work of energy and conviction that raises critical questions about the condition and direction of Australian universities currently in the thrall of online teaching as an apparent panacea to the structural and pedagogoical problems caused by a decade of cutbacks and under-funding. Tara Brabazon’s vigorous and compelling arguments, based on experience and dedication to teaching, demand attention from anyone who is interested in higher education and its future. Written with passion, and always grounded in a clearly declared authorial position, this book is simultaneously a work of critical cultural studies and critical pedagogy. Brabazon has achieved something rather unusual: an academic book that reads like an urgent narrative about the consequences of a too facile adoption of digital culture. This is a book that anyone interested in online teaching and the future of education ought to read."
Commendation for Digital Hemlock at the WA Premer's Book Awards, (http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/pbk02rep.html)

Ladies Who Lunge

“At the risk of sounding trite, Tara Brabazon’s Ladies who Lunge needed to be written … Brabazon aims to offer a critique of modern feminism and its lack of ‘real’ contemporary icons. In so doing, she invites the reader to question patriarchal structures and sites of female oppression in their multifarious forms. Furthermore, she raises the unwelcome spectre of a future where women cease to be ‘difficult’; where their preparedness to lunge forward in their challenges against the power of patriarchal structures is lost to the past … For this reason alone, Ladies who Lunge should be compulsory reading for all women over fifteen years of age, and for those who think that feminism has lost its relevance in modern society."

Dr Julie Ustinoff, http://www.api-network.
com/cgi-bin…s/jrbview.
Cgi?n=0868404217&issue=8

“Vibrant, witty and fearless, Tara Brabazon has collated a book truly pulsing with individuality and energy. She offers a sparkling analysis of popular culture, through a feminist lens, and importantly presents it in a form that is as entertaining as it is informing. Not only does Brabazon write with flare and panache, but what she writes about and how she weaves her insights through a disparate range of unconventional women throughout history, is equally iconoclastic … As entertaining and piquant as it is, Ladies who Lunge is an academically strong work – tightly edited, well referenced, and very convincing. It’s ‘girl power’’ in the credible and capable hands of a bright young academic.

Louise North

Tracking the Jack

“One of the book’s virtues is that it is a pathbreaker: there has been, to my knowledge, no study of Australian-New Zealand relations from a cultural studies perspective, and, amazingly, very little work on local affiliations with Britain more generally.”

Professor Simon During

“Brabazon is most passionate about is the emergence of a common Antipodean perspective … The case is well made, in a sharp and lively style which – in its portrayal of the new social and cultural dynamics at work in New Zealand and Australia – gives readers on this side of the world emphatic notice that they, too will have to revise their ideas of the Antipodes.”

Professor Tony Bennett

“Tracking the Jack is a good read. Moreover, Brabazon recognizes, as too few commentators have done, that New Zealand and Australia, though possessing certain similarities, are very distinctive societies.”

Dr John Salmond

“I welcome this important and original contribution to a rather impoverished debate and look forward to more academic noise crossing the Tasman, in appreciation that we are the same, but different.”

Professor Geoff Lealand

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