Communication People Spotlight
Road-writing with Writing and Cultural Studies lecturer, Delia Falconer
Delia Falconer, having finished editing The Penguin Book of the Road, could have easily filled another anthology with Australian road stories.
Falconer believes "road-writing" is an under appreciated sub-genre of Australian writing and hopes to bring its value to reader's attention. "As soon as you start to think about it you realise a huge amount of our writing takes place on the road - places where our postcolonial anxieties come to the surface, especially in regard to terra nullius. There is a very pervasive sense, albeit often unconscious, in Australian road stories, of the landscape as an already-occupied space and of the road's involvement as a technology of violence in the process of nation-building. It's interesting that many of our road stories are also horror stories."
By Journalism student Tess Bennett.
Read the full interview with Delia Falconer
Joe in the Andamans: Interview with Writing and Cultural Studies Professor, Stephen Muecke
Joe in the Andamans is Writing and Cultural Studies Professor Stephen Muecke's latest work, delving into anthropology, representation, post-colonialism and cultural studies.
Described as "a collection of fictocritical essays that apply theory to everyday life", Muecke's assemblage of writings revisits stories from the past while pulling together new ideas and beginnings of future works.
In discussing his choice to write a fictocritical work, Muecke says he chooses to write fictocritically as it allows him to conduct academic research whilst being creative.
By Journalism graduate Steph Liew.
Read the full interview with Stephen Muecke
Interview with Jim Macnamara, new Professor of Public Communication
On August 6, Dr Jim Macnamara stepped into his role as UTS' new Professor of Public Communication. Possessing 30 years of experience, Jim is no stranger to the world of Public Communication, with his career in professional communication practice spanning journalism, public relations, advertising and media research. His movements in the academic world include guest lectures at UTS and his position as an Adjunct Professor and a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Centre for Public Communication since 2005.
Formerly Group Research Director of Media Monitors, Jim says that working in media and public relations has given him an understanding of people and audiences and his academic studies have contributed a broad understanding of areas such as psychology, sociology, politics, audiences and semiotics which are key to being a successful public communicator.
By Journalism graduate Steph Liew.
Read the full interview with Jim Macnamara
Writer in residence Bei Ling - Exile, lost languages and censorship around the world
What does it feel like to be 'in exile'? For Chinese poet and essayist Huang Bei Ling, 'exile' is the standard term used by journalists that most accurately describes his current predicament - an existence in isolation from his mother tongue and homeland.
Since 2000, after being caught by Chinese authorities for illegally printing a literary publication, Bei Ling (as is his commonly recognised pen name) has lived a life of exile, making beds between Boston, where he holds residence at Brown University, Taiwan and other cities around the world.
As an exiled writer, Bei Ling is constantly being quizzed on what it's like having to cut all ties with his homeland and the imprint that banishment has left upon his poetry and prose. However, after spending some days talking to Bei Ling and reflecting upon his experiences and responses to different landscapes since being in exile, I found that it was the contexts beneath this label - the water-tight censorship laws of China's staunch communist government, the difficulty of developing a second, Western tongue and the impact of geographical isolation upon one's spirit which gave the most honest definition of the word 'exile.'
By Journalism graduate Steph Liew.