Teaching

Tara runs two first year courses at the University of Brighton: Creative Industries and Thinking Pop. She also teaches six modules for the MA Creative Media. Please feel free to contact her to talk about any of these courses or the ideas explore through them. Also, a short film has been developed to introduce the MA Creative Media.

A series of prizes are also available for students enrolled in the MA Creative Media. Click here to view these awards. To apply for this course, please click here .

Tara is also an experienced PhD supervisor and candidature manager. To view the type of topics that she supervises and some of her students' work, please click here.

Creative Industries (2007-)

Aims

Creative industries investigates one of the policy and academic growth area in the last ten years. The module explores if, how and why 'creativity' operates in the post-September 11 social and economic environment. The students explore the nature of creativity and the creative industries. We investigate if economic growth and development — and social justice — be found in these industries.

Learning outcomes/objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

• Define and evaluate creative industries
• Ask why the creative industries have grown in visibility in the last ten years.
• Postulate the future directions, potentials and problems for creative industries.
• Develop diverse modes of reading and research, accessing policy documents, critical theory, journalism and popular culture
• Develop diverse modes of writing, including policy analysis, theoretical interpretation, historiography and cultural critique
• Develop the skills and knowledge to not only critique creative industries, but to become active workers in these fields

Thinking Pop (2008-)

Aims

Thinking Pop is not only the title of module, but a confirmation of an agenda for the future of media studies. The aim of Thinking Pop is to ensure that students have an awareness of the relationship between research and writing, with some knowledge of the publishing industries. However the second aim is to assist students in writing (about) popular culture in a thoughtful, considered and scholarly fashion.

Learning outcomes/objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

• Grasp the relationship between reading and writing
• Understand the challenges to the publishing industry through user-generated content
• Examine slices of popular culture and be able to place them in a resonant context
• Write about popular culture, using research not opinion
• Write a creative non-fiction article and an accompanying exegesis or a book proposal

Tara is the programme leader of the Master of Arts Creative Media. She teaches six courses in this programme, in both on campus and distance education modes.

Media Literacies (2007-)

Aims

This module has three aims:

1. To define media literacy and move this term through a series of contexts
2. To grasp the complex history of literacy debates, and how media studies professionals can intervene in these debates. Literacy models will be introduced
3. To evaluate the appropriateness in deploying particular media platforms in specific locations

Objectives

By the end of the module students will be able to:

1. Apply workable definitions of media literacy in educational, workplace and leisure-based contexts
2. Be able to participate in debates about media literacy
3. Position media literacy theories in the paradigm of media studies
4. To generate a reflexive model for media literacy that can move through analogue and digital, old and new media environments.

City Imaging (2008-)

Aims

The module has three aims:

1. To construct definitions of city imaging utilizing interdisciplinary approaches
2. To investigate international city imaging strategies, policies and models to develop strategies for intervention and urban regeneration
3. To apply city imaging models and strategies for a research project

Objectives

By the end of the module students will be able to:

1. Define city imaging and have knowledge of its international application
2. Evaluate international strategies for city imaging, assessing their effectiveness in transforming social policy and regional development
3. Recognize international best practice and be able to apply these models to new environments.

Sonic Media (2008-)

Aims

This module has three aims:

1. To define sonic media and auditory cultures
2. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of oral sources in research projects
3. To understand the spectrum of sonic media through analogue and digital platforms

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Use oral testimony and oral history to both complement and challenge visual sources of communication
2. Define, deploy and understand sonic media, including popular music
3. Be able to manage the semiotic ambiguity of sonic media and to write about it with clarity, analysis and depth, rather than subjectivity and opinion

Teaching, Learning and Writing through Popular Culture (2008-)

Aims

This module probes the place of popular culture in teaching and learning, assessing best practice in the use of popular culture in media studies curriculum. The second aim of this module is for students to learn to write about and through popular culture.

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Define popular culture and be able to understand debates about cultural value
2. Gain expertise in popular cultural studies
3. Track the controversies about popular culture in the curriculum
4. Understand the challenges of writing about popular culture
5. Practise writing about popular culture

Practising Media Research (2007-)

Aims

This module assists students in understanding a series of research methods, demonstrating how they are applied by practitioners. The aim is to ensure that students can assess and select which methods are appropriate for particular projects. The attention is placed on the most common methods deployed in contemporary media sudies, from particularly relevant archives through to specific sites and opportunities for dissemination.

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Recognize and apply a series of research methods
2. Evaluate the appropriateness of particular methods for specific projects, contexts and topics
3. Be able to search for sources on a particular research method and evaluate their significance to a specific project
4. Learn to write about methods and integrate these methods into a longer research project

Taught on campus and through distance education with Dr Sarah Atkinson, Ms Paula Hearsum, Dr Julie Doyle and Ms Irmi Karl.

Dissertation (2009-)

The Creative Media Dissertation/project grants students an opportunity to select a research topic and conduct independent scholarship. Through the assistance of a supervisor, students are guided through the selection of a topic and research question, media choice and the form of the final submission. Students can select to either write a dissertation or construct a creative media project, with short exegesis.

In 2009, Tara supervised all the MACM dissertations/creative projects.

Aims

This module has three aims:
1. Complete an independent research dissertation or creative media project
2. Demonstrate a capacity to deploy creative media theories to a subject area selected by the student.
3. Select a method of research and appropriate source material for the completion of a research dissertation or creative media project.

Objectives

By the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Conduct an independent research or creative media project, from the planning stage through to the construction of a final well drafted document.
2. Be able to manage time and abide by deadlines.
3. Conduct a programme of independent reading.
4. Demonstrate high quality writing and technical ability.

Media and Popular Culture (2006)

Aim

To consider how the concept of 'popular culture' and the phenomena it is used to describe
are best understood within the framework of media studies.

Objectives

By the end of the module the students should be able to:

1. demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of a wide range of media 'popular cultural'
   forms and critically evaluate the relationship between media form, cultural content and
   audience
2. understand, compare and evaluate a variety of methods and empirical studies relating to
   media institutions, texts and audiences, in relation to popular culture
3. critically evaluate contemporary media developments in relation to concepts of popular
   culture

Teaching staff

Professor Stuart Laing, Professor Tara Brabazon and Ms Irmi Karl

Creative Industries, MCC106 (2006)

Creative Industries explores if, how and why creativity operates in our new social and economic environment. The shadow of terrorism and September 11 created a brittle and divisive political environment, which shades and darkens many of the topics in this course. Our aim is to ask what is creativity? What are the creative industries? Can economic growth and development — and social justice — be found in these industries? During the semester, student's analytical sensibilities will be sharpened and taken-for-granted truths probed. The course develops skills in analysis, research, writing and, most importantly, interpretation.

Subject aims

1. Define and evaluate creative industries;
2. Ask why the creative industries have grown in visibility in the last ten years; and
3. Postulate the future directions, potentials and problems for creative industries

Skill development

1. Develop diverse modes of reading and research, accessing policy documents, critical theory, journalism and popular culture;
2. Develop diverse modes of writing, including policy analysis, theoretical interpretation, historiography and cultural critique; and
3. Develop the skills and knowledge to not only critique creative industries, but to become active workers in these fields

Cultural Studies, Creativity & Change, COM102 (2005)

Cultural Studies, Creativity & Change was a course offered for one semester at Murdoch University, in 2005. Cultural studies is a changeable, dynamic method for understanding the world. Particularly, in the last few years, 'creativity' and 'creative industries' have become phrases to watch. We moved from fashion to tourism through to magazine readerships, sport and youth culture.

We explored the changes to work, leisure and lifestyle. The key interests were the same. How does an individual become part of society? How do we know if we belong or are excluded from wider society? Why does a piece of music, an item of fashion or a football hold such meaning? Is it right to use popular culture to build and mould an identity?

Subject aims

1. Introduce students to the history of contemporary cultural studies;
2. Explore the diverse meanings of creativity, with attention to the creative industries;
3. Investigate the relationship between ideas and their applications; and
4. Develop abilities in analysis, argument and interpretation.

Cultural Difference & Diversity, COM267/COM477 (1997-2005)

Cultural Difference & Diversity examined a diverse, fluid and politically resonant field of knowledges, engaging a myriad of approaches, ideologies and discourses. In this course, students did not have to 'factor out' who they were. Instead, we built on their interests and concerns.

CDD offered a close engagement with academic research and contemporary social issues, preparing students for further units in communication and cultural studies. CDD investigated the contemporary politics and theories encircling identity. It was as current as this morning's headlines and rigorous in its engagement with the past. We explored topics ranging from multiculturalism to generation X, from lipstick feminism (red of course) to inscriptions of blackness.

Our textual sites included popular journalism, music, film, television and advertising. Part of the meta-agenda of this course was to teach students how to handle (and control) this range of textual and theoretical material. Consequently, the reading in this course was diverse and challenging. We sang along with the Spice Girls, threw stones with the Suffragettes, explored the meanings of blackness and asked if we were still living in a classed society.

Introduction to Cultural Studies, COM102 (1997-2004)

The spectrum of topics encountered in Introduction to Cultural Studies was diverse: from fashion to tourism and Star Trek to magazine readerships and youth culture. Yet the key interests remained the same. How does an individual become part of society? How does a text function socially and politically? Is culture a legitimate basis for the formation of communities?

ICS charted one of the academic success stories of the last 30 years. Having its origins at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, the paradigm of cultural studies has grown in its ambitions and popularity. It is now taught in undergraduate programmes throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In many ways, cultural studies has 'followed the flag' of the old British Empire.

In ICS at Murdoch University we explored the strengths, problems and changes to this field of inquiry, and evaluate its relevance to contemporary Australian life. During the semester, student's analytical sensibilities were sharpened, and taken-for-granted truths were probed. The course developed skills in analysis, research, writing and, most importantly, critical thinking.

Cultural Industries, (1995-1996)

Cultural Industries, taught at Central Queensland University, was a first year course that introduced students to cultural policy. It investigated national and local strategies for intervention and economic development. Community media was introduced, along with state-funded strategies for urban development.

Media and Popular Culture (1995)

This course was taught with Dr Warwick Mules. It was theoretically rigorous, exploring the trajectories of postcolonialism and modernity, while also exploring the relevance of genre to the study of popular culture.

Lipstick Traces: a history of British popular culture after 1945 (1995)

This was a special topic for the University of Wellington students. It integrated history and cultural studies perspectives to offer new methods to research and write about popular culture.

Late Modern European History 1830-1992 (1994)

This large survey course introduced students to not only the history of Europe, but the historiography of European historians. War, peace and reconstruction were motives, with a cultural history entwined with the political narratives.

Specialist courses 1996-2006

The following courses were taught for my honours students in Australia

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