Processes of Signification Emerging Research Group (PSERG)

Dr Keith Beattie

Keith is a Senior Lecturer at Deakin University, Melbourne, and holds a PhD, an MA and two postgraduate diplomas. He has taught at universities in Australia and New Zealand, and was Foundational Director of the Contemporary Studies Program and the interdisciplinary Bachelor of Contemporary Studies at the University of Queensland. Keith has received research grants from a variety of sources, including the National Endowment for the Humanities (US). Author of a number of volumes, a selection of Keith's recent work includes Documentary Display: Re-Viewing Nonfiction Film and Video (Wallflower Press, 2008), Albert and David Maysles: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press, 2010), Humphrey Jennings (Manchester University Press, 2010) and D.A. Pennebaker, a volume in the Contemporary Filmmakers series of the University of Illinois Press (forthcoming).

Dr Kim Toffoletti

Kim is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Gender Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne. Her research interests span the fields of gender studies, visual culture, sociology and cultural studies. Kim has published articles in a number of Australian and international journals on a range of topics, including the representation of gender and sexuality in the media and popular culture, women and Australian Rules football, gender and technology, and theories of the posthuman. She is the author of Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body (I.B.Tauris, 2007) and Baudrillard Reframed (I.B.Tauris, 2011) - a book that examines Jean Baudrillard's contributions to the study of visual culture. The co-edited collection, Sport and Its Female Fans, is due to be published by Routledge in 2012.

Dr Deborah Walker

Deborah has been a professional, practising artist for more than twenty-five years, during which time she has participated in numerous exhibitions, including eighteen solo and eighty group exhibitions - both national and international. Her work has been included in all major public collections throughout Australia (including the Australian National Gallery and National Gallery of Victoria), as well as in private collections domestically and overseas. International exhibitions of Deborah's work have spanned Germany (Cologne), the United States (Kansas State University) and the United Kingdom (8th British International Print Biennale). Deborah has been the recipient of many awards and art commissions, and was selected by the Ministry of Education for their Slide Kit on Women in Contemporary Art.

Dr Adam Brown

Adam is a new Lecturer in Media, Communication and Public Relations at Deakin, whose interdisciplinary background crosses several subject areas and converges on his interests in cultural representation. His PhD thesis focused on representations of the Holocaust in different media and received Deakin University's Isi Leibler Prize in 2009 for the best contribution to advancing knowledge of racial, religious or ethnic prejudice in any time or place. Adam also works as a volunteer at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, where he has initiated the digitisation of the Centre's survivor videotestimony collection and co-launched the JHC Film Club. Adam recently co-authored the volume Communication, New Media and Everyday Life (Oxford University Press, 2011) and is currently working on research in the areas of digital children's television culture, new media in museums, Aboriginal 'Native Police,' and Holocaust film.