Tara Brabazon (born 3 January 1969) is the Professor of Cultural Studies and formerly Dean of Graduate Research at Flinders University, Australia. From 2023-24 she was a Dean at Charles Darwin University. She has worked in ten universities in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Brabazon's key areas of research include media literacies, popular cultural studies, creative industries, city imaging, regional development, the knowledge economy, information management, information literacy, cultural studies and the negotiation of cultural difference. Concepts she has developed include "the Google Effect,"[1] "Digital Dieting",[2] and the 3Ds (digitization, disintermedation and deterritorialization).[3][4] Brabazon is also continuing the work of the late Professor Steve Redhead by developing the "claustropolitanism" theory, as a revision of cosmopolitan sociology.[5]
While a Professor of Media in the United Kingdom, Brabazon delivered her Inaugural Address titled "Google is White Bread of the Mind."[6] This research was presented in her book The University of Google.[7] She explored the development of information literacy in the first year of university degrees.[8]
Her professional roles have led to specialisations in aspects of cultural difference, social inclusion, doctoral education, contemporary higher education and leadership. As Dean of Graduate Research, Brabazon developed a weekly vlog series for higher degree students.[9] They currently number 300 videos, most created from requests by students.[10][11]
Qualifications
1991 - Bachelor of Arts, First Class Honours in History; University of Western Australia.
1993 - Bachelor of Literature and Communication; Murdoch University.
1994 - Master of Arts, Passed with Distinction; University of Western Australia.
1995 - Master of Letters in Cultural Studies; Central Queensland University.
1995 - Doctor of Philosophy; Murdoch University.[12]
1999 - Bachelor of Professional Education, Passed with Distinction; Central Queensland University.
2002 - Graduate Diploma in Internet Studies, with Distinction; Curtin University.
2007 - Master of Education with Honours Class 1; University of New England.
2016 - Le Cordon Bleu Graduate Diploma of Gastronomic Tourism; Southern Cross University.
Tara Brabazon was born in Perth, Western Australia, going on to write a book about its music in Liverpool of the South Seas.[14] She married Professor Steve Redhead in 2002.[15] Their relationship was featured in the Times Higher Education under the title Marital Bliss.[16] After Redhead's death from pancreatic cancer in 2018,[17] Brabazon wrote about their relationship in the second edition of The End of the Century Party.[18]
Brabazon is currently married to Professor Jamie Quinton, Professor and Head of the School of Natural Sciences at Massey University in Aotearoa, New Zealand.[19]
Major publications
Tara Brabazon. 2025. How to embrace academic failure: Building an academic life with meaning, integrity and honesty. London: Edward Elgar.
Tara Brabazon. 2022. Twelve rules for (academic) life: A stroppy feminist's guide through teaching, learning, politics, and Jordan Peterson. Singapore: Springer.
Tara Brabazon, Tiffany Lyndall Knight, and Natalie Hills. 2020. The Creative PhD: Challenges, Opportunities and Reflexive Practice. Bingley: Emerald.
Tara Brabazon, Steve Redhead and Sunny Rue Chivaura. 2018. Trump Studies: An intellectual guide to why citizens do not act in their best interests. Bingley: Emerald.
Tara Brabazon (eds.). 2015. Play: A theory of learning and change. Berlin: Springer.
Tara Brabazon. 2015. Enabling University: Impairment, (dis)ability and social justice in higher education. Berlin: Springer.
Tara Brabazon. 2014. Unique Urbanity? Rethinking third tier cities, degeneration, regeneration and mobility. Berlin: Springer.
Tara Brabazon, Mick Winter and Bryn Gandy. 2014. Digital Wine: How QR codes facilitate new markets for small wine industries. Berlin: Springer.
Tara Brabazon. 2013. Digital Dieting: From information obesity to intellectual fitness. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Tara Brabazon (ed.). 2013. City Imaging: Regeneration, renewal and decay. Berlin: Springer.
Tara Brabazon (ed.). 2012. Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After avatars, trolls and puppets. Oxford: Chandos.
(Re)start: Moving from Despair to Defiance (2025)[25]
Rescue Yourself: How to complete a PhD without a supervisor (2025)[26]
Setting up your life to write a PhD: Building a doctorate one sentence at a time (2025)[27]
How to embrace academic failure: Building an academic life with meaning, integrity and honesty (2025)[28]
This project is developing through the 'auditory academic' initiative,[7] offering sonic activism and interventions through diverse sonic platforms. Brabazon started one of the first academic podcasts in 2010, with over 800 episodes.[29] She has also made a spoken word contribution to Nostalgia Deathstar's 2025 album, They killed the flame. She contributed her voice to "ZU" and "ZU Too (Night of the Claustrozombies)."[30]
Journalism
Brabazon is a columnist for a range of education and cultural publications. She has produced over 150 articles for the Times Higher Education,[31] and has written for the Times Literary Supplement,[32] Times Education Supplement,[33] The Guardian,[34] Arts Hub Australia,[35] Arts Hub UK,[36] and Campus Review,[37] also featuring on the cover of a 2019 edition.[38] She has been profiled in a range of publications, including The Guardian.[39]
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