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Undergraduate teaching
Tara has taught undergraduate students at the University of Western Australia, Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Central Queensland University, Murdoch University in Western Australia and the University of Brighton in the United Kingdom.
She specialises in popular cultural studies, creative industries and cultural policy initiatives and cultural difference, diversity and multiculturalism. Over the years, she has taught the following undergraduate units.
Thinking Pop (2008-)
Aims
Thinking Pop is not only the title of module, but a confirmation of an agenda for the future of media studies. The aim of Thinking Pop is to ensure that students have an awareness of the relationship between research and writing, with some knowledge of the publishing industries. However the second aim is to assist students in writing (about) popular culture in a thoughtful, considered and scholarly fashion.
Learning outcomes/objectives
By the end of the module students should be able to:
- Grasp the relationship between reading and writing
- Understand the challenges to the publishing industry through user-generated content
- Examine slices of popular culture and be able to place them in a resonant context
- Write about popular culture, using research not opinion
- Write a creative non-fiction article and an accompanying exegesis or a book proposal
Creative Industries (2007-)
Aims
Creative industries investigates one of the policy and academic growth area in the last ten years. The module explores if, how and why 'creativity' operates in the post-September 11 social and economic environment. The students explore the nature of creativity and the creative industries. We investigate if economic growth and development — and social justice — be found in these industries.
Learning outcomes/objectives
By the end of the module students should be able to:
- Define and evaluate creative industries
- Ask why the creative industries have grown in visibility in the last ten years.
- Postulate the future directions, potentials and problems for creative industries.
- Develop diverse modes of reading and research, accessing policy documents, critical theory, journalism and popular culture
- Develop diverse modes of writing, including policy analysis, theoretical interpretation, historiography and cultural critique
- Develop the skills and knowledge to not only critique creative industries, but to become active workers in these fields
Media and Popular Culture (2006)
Aim
To consider how the concept of 'popular culture' and the phenomena it is used to describe
are best understood within the framework of media studies.
Objectives
By the end of the module the students should be able to:
- demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of a wide range of media 'popular cultural'
forms and critically evaluate the relationship between media form, cultural content and
audience - understand, compare and evaluate a variety of methods and empirical studies relating to
media institutions, texts and audiences, in relation to popular culture - critically evaluate contemporary media developments in relation to concepts of popular
culture
Teaching staff
Professor Stuart Laing, Professor Tara Brabazon and Ms Irmi Karl
Creative Industries, MCC106 (2006)
Creative Industries explores if, how and why creativity operates in our new social and economic environment. The shadow of terrorism and September 11 created a brittle and divisive political environment, which shades and darkens many of the topics in this course. Our aim is to ask what is creativity? What are the creative industries? Can economic growth and development — and social justice — be found in these industries? During the semester, student's analytical sensibilities will be sharpened and taken-for-granted truths probed. The course develops skills in analysis, research, writing and, most importantly, interpretation.
Subject aims
- Define and evaluate creative industries;
- Ask why the creative industries have grown in visibility in the last ten years; and
- Postulate the future directions, potentials and problems for creative industries
Skill development
- Develop diverse modes of reading and research, accessing policy documents, critical theory, journalism and popular culture;
- Develop diverse modes of writing, including policy analysis, theoretical interpretation, historiography and cultural critique; and
- Develop the skills and knowledge to not only critique creative industries, but to become active workers in these fields
Cultural Studies, Creativity & Change, COM102 (2005)
Cultural Studies, Creativity & Change was a course offered for one semester at Murdoch University, in 2005. Cultural studies is a changeable, dynamic method for understanding the world. Particularly, in the last few years, 'creativity' and 'creative industries' have become phrases to watch. We moved from fashion to tourism through to magazine readerships, sport and youth culture.
We explored the changes to work, leisure and lifestyle. The key interests were the same. How does an individual become part of society? How do we know if we belong or are excluded from wider society? Why does a piece of music, an item of fashion or a football hold such meaning? Is it right to use popular culture to build and mould an identity?
Subject aims
- Introduce students to the history of contemporary cultural studies;
- Explore the diverse meanings of creativity, with attention to the creative industries;
- Investigate the relationship between ideas and their applications; and
- Develop abilities in analysis, argument and interpretation.
Cultural Difference & Diversity, COM267/COM477 (1997-2005)
Cultural Difference & Diversity examined a diverse, fluid and politically resonant field of knowledges, engaging a myriad of approaches, ideologies and discourses. In this course, students did not have to 'factor out' who they were. Instead, we built on their interests and concerns.
CDD offered a close engagement with academic research and contemporary social issues, preparing students for further units in communication and cultural studies. CDD investigated the contemporary politics and theories encircling identity. It was as current as this morning's headlines and rigorous in its engagement with the past. We explored topics ranging from multiculturalism to generation X, from lipstick feminism (red of course) to inscriptions of blackness.
Our textual sites included popular journalism, music, film, television and advertising. Part of the meta-agenda of this course was to teach students how to handle (and control) this range of textual and theoretical material. Consequently, the reading in this course was diverse and challenging. We sang along with the Spice Girls, threw stones with the Suffragettes, explored the meanings of blackness and asked if we were still living in a classed society.
Introduction to Cultural Studies, COM102 (1997-2004)
The spectrum of topics encountered in Introduction to Cultural Studies was diverse: from fashion to tourism and Star Trek to magazine readerships and youth culture. Yet the key interests remained the same. How does an individual become part of society? How does a text function socially and politically? Is culture a legitimate basis for the formation of communities?
ICS charted one of the academic success stories of the last 30 years. Having its origins at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, the paradigm of cultural studies has grown in its ambitions and popularity. It is now taught in undergraduate programmes throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In many ways, cultural studies has 'followed the flag' of the old British Empire.
In ICS at Murdoch University we explored the strengths, problems and changes to this field of inquiry, and evaluate its relevance to contemporary Australian life. During the semester, student's analytical sensibilities were sharpened, and taken-for-granted truths were probed. The course developed skills in analysis, research, writing and, most importantly, critical thinking.
Cultural Industries, (1995-1996)
Cultural Industries, taught at Central Queensland University, was a first year course that introduced students to cultural policy. It investigated national and local strategies for intervention and economic development. Community media was introduced, along with state-funded strategies for urban development.
Media and Popular Culture (1995)
This course was taught with Dr Warwick Mules. It was theoretically rigorous, exploring the trajectories of postcolonialism and modernity, while also exploring the relevance of genre to the study of popular culture.
Lipstick Traces: a history of British popular culture after 1945 (1995)
This was a special topic for the University of Wellington students. It integrated history and cultural studies perspectives to offer new methods to research and write about popular culture.
Late Modern European History 1830-1992 (1994)
This large survey course introduced students to not only the history of Europe, but the historiography of European historians. War, peace and reconstruction were motives, with a cultural history entwined with the political narratives.