Postgraduate teaching

Tara is a specialist postgraduate teacher, having taught in a range of coursework Masters degrees and areas from multiculturalism, postcolonialism and social justice through to cultural policy and creative industries initiatives.

She is also an experience doctoral supervisor, completing over 25 supervisions in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Tara is also an expert in candidature management, having been a member of Murdoch University's Research and Scholarship committee, which was responsible for a range of doctoral qualifications from application to graduation.

To view an introduction to her current Masters programme, please walk the following welcome.

Tara has taught a range of modules in postgraduate degrees. A description of some of these courses is included below.

Tara is the programme leader of the Master of Arts Creative Media. She teaches five courses in this programme, in both on campus and distance education modes.

Media Literacies (2007-)

Aims

This module has three aims:

1. To define media literacy and move this term through a series of contexts
2. To grasp the complex history of literacy debates, and how media studies professionals can intervene in these debates. Literacy models will be introduced
3. To evaluate the appropriateness in deploying particular media platforms in specific locations

Objectives

By the end of the module students will be able to:

1. Apply workable definitions of media literacy in educational, workplace and leisure-based contexts
2. Be able to participate in debates about media literacy
3. Position media literacy theories in the paradigm of media studies
4. To generate a reflexive model for media literacy that can move through analogue and digital, old and new media environments.

City Imaging (2008-)

Aims

The module has three aims:

1. To construct definitions of city imaging utilizing interdisciplinary approaches
2. To investigate international city imaging strategies, policies and models to develop strategies for intervention and urban regeneration
3. To apply city imaging models and strategies for a research project

Objectives

By the end of the module students will be able to:

1. Define city imaging and have knowledge of its international application
2. Evaluate international strategies for city imaging, assessing their effectiveness in transforming social policy and regional development
3. Recognize international best practice and be able to apply these models to new environments.

Sonic Media (2008-)

Aims

This module has three aims:

1. To define sonic media and auditory cultures
2. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of oral sources in research projects
3. To understand the spectrum of sonic media through analogue and digital platforms

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Use oral testimony and oral history to both complement and challenge visual sources of communication
2. Define, deploy and understand sonic media, including popular music
3. Be able to manage the semiotic ambiguity of sonic media and to write about it with clarity, analysis and depth, rather than subjectivity and opinion

Teaching, Learning and Writing through Popular Culture (2008-)

Aims

This module probes the place of popular culture in teaching and learning, assessing best practice in the use of popular culture in media studies curriculum. The second aim of this module is for students to learn to write about and through popular culture.

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Define popular culture and be able to understand debates about cultural value
2. Gain expertise in popular cultural studies
3. Track the controversies about popular culture in the curriculum
4. Understand the challenges of writing about popular culture
5. Practise writing about popular culture

Practising Media Research (2007-)

Aims

This module assists students in understanding a series of research methods, demonstrating how they are applied by practitioners. The aim is to ensure that students can assess and select which methods are appropriate for particular projects. The attention is placed on the most common methods deployed in contemporary media sudies, from particularly relevant archives through to specific sites and opportunities for dissemination.

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Recognize and apply a series of research methods
2. Evaluate the appropriateness of particular methods for specific projects, contexts and topics
3. Be able to search for sources on a particular research method and evaluate their significance to a specific project
4. Learn to write about methods and integrate these methods into a longer research project

Television Theory (1997)

This course was offered in distance education mode as part of Murdoch University's Master of Literature and Communicaton. It positioned television in both different models and modes of communication, with a specialist study of Eric Michaels and James Carey.

Constructions of race (1995-6)

This course was offered in distance education mode as part of Central Queensland University's Master of Letters in Cultural Studies. It was a deep engagement with theories of race, difference and multiculturalism while also offering a careful theorization of postcolonialism. Edward Said's work was a focus.

Cultural theory (1995)

This course was offered in distance education mode as part of Central Queensland University's Master of Letters in Cultural Studies. It was a survey course of one hundred years of cultural theory. Of particular focus where the theories of Spivak, Bhabha, Balibar, Said, Bauman, Foucault and Baudrillard.

Honours Courses

Honours in Australia is a stand alone fourth year qualification. It is competitively selected and based on the results attained during the bachelor degree.

The following courses were taught for my honours students:

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