Our members

Linda Brennan is a Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Her research interests are the use and abuse of advertising and social marketing for social change.

Rob Cover is Professor of Digital Communication and Director of the RMIT Digital Ethnography Research Centre.  He leads a number of major funded research projects on digital harms, young people and wellbeing, and gender/sexuality diversity in screen contexts. The author of around one hundred journal articles and chapters, he publishes widely on topics related to digital cultures in the context of social identities, young people, suicide prevention and resilience.  His recent books include: Queer Youth Suicide, Culture and Identity: Unliveable Lives? (Routledge 2012) Vulnerability and Exposure: Footballer Scandals, Masculinity and Ethics (UWAP Scholarly 2015) Digital Identities: Creating and Communicating the Online Self (Elsevier 2016) Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Gender and Relationships in a Digital Era (Routledge, 2019) Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating Intimacies (with A Bartlett and K Clarke; Palgrave 2019) Population, Mobility and Belonging: Understanding Population Concepts in Media, Culture and Society (Routledge 2020), Fake News in Digital Cultures (with A Haw and JD Thompson, Emerald 2022) Identity and Digital Communication: Concepts, Theories, Practices (Routledge 2023) Identity in the COVID-19 Years: Communication, Crisis, and Ethics (Bloomsbury 2024) Queer Memory and Storytelling: Gender and Sexually-Diverse Identities and Trans-Media Narrative (with R Prosser, Routledge 2024).  Australian Queer Screens: Diversity and Social Change in Film and TV (with W Monaghan, S Richards, S McKinnon, T Pym, Bloomsbury 2026). He is a co-editor of the following anthologies and encylopedias: Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship (Routledge 2019), Queer Studies and Education: An International Reader (Oxford University Press, 2024) The Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights (Routledge 2024). The Elgar Encyclopedia of Queer Studies (Elgar 2025). His industry experience includes as a Communication strategist for the Queensland Government (2006-2007), regular consultancy work with the Western Australian, Victorian and Commonwealth Governments in Australia, and with the Hong Kong Council of Social Services, among others.

Dr Glen Donnar is a researcher on screen representations of men and masculinities, stardom and celebrity, and lectures in Popular Culture and Asian Media & Culture. Dr Donnar is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication. His research on popular cultural and screen representations of men and masculinities, stardom and celebrity sits at the intersection of cultural and cinema studies. Dr Donnar’s first book, Troubling Masculinities: Terror, Gender, and Monstrous Others in American Film Post-9/11 (UP Mississippi 2020) is the first multi-genre study of representations of masculinity following the emergence of violent terror in post-9/11 American cinema. The book demonstrates that the reassertion of masculinity and American national identity in post-9/11 cinema repeatedly unravels across subgenres including disaster melodrama, monster movies, postapocalyptic science fiction, discovered footage and home invasion horror, action-thrillers, and frontier westerns. The book is endorsed by Professor Sean Redmond as “a must-have addition to the literature on 9/11 cinema”. The book has been widely recognised as a theoretically “innovative” (Men & Masculinities) and “meticulous examination” (New Review of Film and Television Studies) that“challeng[es] the reader to hereafter interpret this often-encountered cinematic genre in an entirely new light” (CHOICE). Dr Donnar is completing a book on Ageing Masculinity in Hollywood Action Film (BFI) and a co-edited volume on Asian Celebrity and Digital Media (Hong Kong UP). He is a member of the editorial board for the Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies series for Bloomsbury (Asian Studies) and an inaugural member of the Performance and Stardom Scholarly Interest Group in the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). Dr Donnar also routinely comments on gender, celebrity and popular culture in the media, including for ABC online, Radio National, New Scientist, Cosmopolitan and The Conversation. Dr Donnar’s applied research on men and masculinities for the interdisciplinary Healthier Masculinities project is informing government, university and industry initiatives to define and promote healthy masculinities. The project includes numerous student-led co-designed proposals for partners such as The Man Cave, Respect RMIT and Safer Community (RMIT). The project team’s multidisciplinary research (Routledge, 2018) also informed the Victorian Government’s 2016-17 water safety campaign targeting older males (with the Royal Life Saving Society). Dr Donnar is a highly accomplished educator with extensive international experience developed over two decades. He has extensive teaching experience and a demonstrated commitment to enhancing the student experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Dr Donnar’s innovations in assessment design that incorporate student-centred and team-based learning are highly valued by students. He was a featured subject in the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded project, Finding common ground: Enhancing interaction between domestic & international students (2008-2010). He currently teaches into the Contextual Studies minors in Approaches to Popular Culture and Asian Media & Culture. He has also taught into Cinema Studies and Literary Studies. Glen is a registered research supervisor who is able to supervise students at MA and PhD levels. Industry experience: Dr Donnar is a member of the Australian Film Critics Association (affiliated member of FIPRESCI), the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association, and the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Awards: 2023: Dean’s Award for Leadership   2022: Recognition of Outstanding Contribution, School of Media & Communication   2017-2019: Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship Seal of Excellence, European Commission 2009: Nominee for Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) Award for Teaching Excellence, Early Career Academic 2008: RMIT Teaching Award (Outstanding Sessional Teacher), RMIT University Other: -Early Career Development Fellowship, RMIT University, Glen Donnar, 2013-15 -RMIT PhD Scholarship, RMIT University, 2009-2012

Dr Michaela Jackson is a communication and engagement professional and academic. Michaela combines full-time employment in stakeholder engagement with her honorary academic role.    In 2022 Michaela was appointed as Honorary Principal Research Fellow with RMIT University’s School if Media and Communication. Her work has been published extensively, in leading international journals and as invited book chapters. Across both professional and academic domains Michaela continues to be drawn to communication about and for complex social issues. Areas of interest include health communication, communication ethics, and communication that is controversial in its form or application. She remains active in academic research and publishing, and HDR candidate supervision.     Professionally, Michaela has more than 15 years of experience in communication-related roles across private and public sectors, in industries including energy, education and health. She remains passionate about forging closer connections between professional and academic domains.  

Dr. Dooyeon Park is a Lecturer in Advertising in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Her research examines how consumers engage with persuasive communication in digital environments, with a focus on the role of persuasion knowledge, and the cognitive, affective, and behavioural mechanisms through which individuals respond and adapt within dynamic media contexts. Her current research explores the effects of digital advertising directed at children, as well as consumers’ understanding of and behavioural responses to data privacy in digital media communication.

Professor Lukas Parker is a leading communication for social change scholar, whose research sits at the nexus of behaviour change, communicating health and digital communication. Leading teams of researchers, his research addresses pressing social problems related to health and sustainability. He has over one hundred peer-reviewed publications including influential co-authored books Social Marketing and Advertising in the Age of Social Media (2020) and Social Marketing and Behaviour Change: Models, theory and applications (2014) which guide social marketing practitioners and scholars.   Professor Parker leads 3C (Communication and Change Co-lab) that undertakes projects that create change through communication - whether that be social, behavioural, or cultural. He also co-leads Co-Lab. His highly applied research has informed and assessed social and behaviour change communication campaigns and government policy. His recent government and industry partners include AusNet, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, eSafety Commisioner, VicHealth, Football Victoria, Sustainability Victoria, Woolworths and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Professor Parker is a highly accomplished educator with extensive international experience over two decades, in Australia, South Korea and Vietnam. He currently teaches into the Master of Advertising and Bachelor of Professional Communication degree programs. His teaching intersects with his research and is focused on social change and engaging with industry, government and community. An example of this is his popular course, Wicked Problems: Innovative Solutions, which challenges multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate and master's students through an intensive series of workshops that tackle complex wicked problems with no clearly identifiable solutions. It employs a design thinking process in which students consider problems through co-creation with those most connected to the problem (target audience, experts in the field, stakeholders, organisations) to challenge assumptions and create positive, participant-focused solutions. Professor Parker is on the management committee of the Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM) and a member of the Australia-New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) and the International Social Marketing Association (ISMA). Awards: Industry Media Star 2025 (RMIT University, 2025) Award for Research Engagement and Impact (College of Design and Social Context, 2025) Dean’s Executive Commendation for Outstanding Contribution (School of Media and Communication, 2025) Food Waste Action Research Award Finalist (End Food Waste Australia, 2024) Dean’s Award for Integrated Scholarship/Praxis (2021 and 2022) ​Dean’s Award for Indigenous Engagement (2019 and 2020) Dean’s Award: Ed Montano Award for Industry Engagement (2018)  ​Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence (2016)

Dr Jenny Robinson is an expert in audience research and engagement, risk communication, and understanding how strategic communication and media technologies facilitate engaged communities.   A Senior Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT, her research is in stakeholder/audience engagement, messaging and science/risk communication with a focus on youth, seniors and technological affordances. Her current research focuses on social listening, public participation and concepts of shared responsibility for addressing complex social issues, especially around digital transformation, public health and techliteracy. She has co-authored publications in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Biological Conservation, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and BMC Public Health among others. She has also authored and co-authored over 30 industry reports. An advocate for ethical governance, Jenny is a Non-Executive Director of Saints Care Ltd.   Research Projects. Jenny brings her strategic communication and media effects expertise to many different collaborative research settings, especially where related to community engagement, health and science communication areas. A brief listing of some major current and past projects are included here as indicative of her research interests.   STAIRS (2024, funded; $50,000). Developing a city-wide survey to measure Social Transitions and Adaptations for Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Futures. STAIRS will establish a benchmark for how residents are engaging with the city along with how they feel about the future and develop an infrastructure to support ongoing adaptation and relevance for future iterations. Funding: Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund. Podcast Plus for Healthy Ageing (2022-2025, funded; $74.500). Initially developing prototypes for trusted research for seniors, the project has now developed into a community-based participatory research phase exploring capacity building as well as health and tech-literacy. Partners: U3A Victoria, U3A Online, Hands on Health. Funding: auDA Community Grant ($40,000); RMIT Enabling Innovation Platform strategic capability development fund ($37,500). TuneChair (2018-2024, funded; $34,700). This research is evaluating the mental wellbeing potential of a vibro-acoustic music experience for seniors with and without dementia using both a living lab experience and an experimental design. Partners: TLC Aged Care, University of Queensland’s Brain Institute. Funding: Dementia Australia Decoding Dementia Award. Technologies for Supportive Communities Project, Young and Well CRC (2011-2016, funded; $1,106,768). One of twelve major projects within the Young and Well CRC, the Technologies for Supportive Communities project sought to comprehensively understand vulnerable young people’s conceptions of community in order to leverage technology to foster socially inclusive communities. Funding: Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).   https://www.tech4community.org/ Eye-tracking and Moving Image (2013-2017). A multi-institutional collaboration exploring the contribution of eye-tracking to understanding cinema and moving image material. Resulted in several research studies and outputs as well as a collaborative network. For example, Dwyer & Robinson's video essay on 'Unseen Screens: Eye Tracking, Magic and Misdirection' for the [in]transition journal  

Dr Jay Daniel Thompson is a Senior Lecturer and Manager, Digital Communication in the Bachelor of Professional Communication degree. He researches the intersections of journalism, networked disinformation, digital hostility and media ethics.   Dr. Thompson is the author of silverchair's Frogstomp (2025) and a co-author of two books published in 2022: Content Production for Digital Media (with Associate Professor John Weldon) and Fake News in Digital Cultures (with Professor Rob Cover and Dr. Ashleigh Haw). He is currently completing a monograph for Routledge on the relationship between journalism and conspiracy,   Dr. Thompson is a recipient or co-recipient of competitive funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian National University.   Dr. Thompson is a Core Member of RMIT University’s Communication and Change Co-Lab. Industry experience: Dr. Thompson has worked as a freelance journalist since 1998. His work has been published in a range of outlets, including ABC Religion & Ethics, Antic Magazine, Australian Book Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Herald Sun, Overland, Right Now, Stereo Stories, and The Weekend Australian. He has also been invited to speak on topics relating to his research for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, The Guardian, The New Daily, Triple J, VICE, JOY Media, Pulse Radio Geelong.