Tara Brabazon is the Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Cultural Studies at Charles Darwin University. She is also the Professor of Cultural Studies at Flinders University, Australia, Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and director of the Popular Culture Collective. Tara is also Special Graduate Faculty at the Office of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada.
Tara has worked in ten universities in four countries. Her roles have included Dean, Head of School, Head of Department, Institutional Head of the REF, alongside an array of leadership roles in university, community and industry partnerships. Tara has won six teaching awards, published 20 books, written over 250 refereed articles and contributed essays and opinion pieces on higher education and the arts. Tara was made a member of the Order of Australia in 2019.
Her specialties include media literacies, doctoral education, higher education studies, creative industries, city imaging, knowledge economy, information management, information literacy, sonic media, auditory cultures, popular cultural studies and the negotiation of cultural difference.
Tara holds three bachelor degrees: a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in History, a Bachelor of Literature and Communication and a Bachelor of Professional Education. She holds four masters degrees: Master of Arts by Research in History (Passed with distinction), Master of Letters in Cultural Studies, Master of Leadership, and a Master of Education with First Class Honours. Tara has graduated from two graduate diplomas (in Internet Studies and Gastronomic Tourism), and passed her PhD without correction in Cultural History.