Research

  • Research interests

    Susan is a communications and media scholar with an interest in various forms of communication/cultural literacies. She brings a background in social semiotics and discourse analysis to a range of research topics including the relation between discourse and affect, email and electronic messaging practices, communication technologies and literacies, media and the public sphere.

    Current research projects

    Susan in currently undertaking research on wartime correspondence technologies; and on the media reporting of disasters, affect and the public sphere. 

    Postgraduate supervision

    Susan has supervised a number of PhD students to successful completion and is currently supervising 3 students (as main or associate supervisor). PhD topics supervised include:

    • a social semiotic approach to popular fiction
    • the rhetorical strategies in asbestos activism
    • learning styles in online learning
    • a deconstructive approach to youth
    • a governmental analysis of film censorship and classification
    • a reception study of net-radio audiences
    • a study of creativity in advertising
    • risk as an organising concept in public relations
    • a remediation theory approach to online news consumption