Dr Simone Murray
- BA (Hons.) (Qld), PhD (UCL), Grad. Cert. in Higher Education (Monash) Senior Lecturer
- Honours Unit Coordinator
2nd/3rd Year Unit Coordinator - Contact details
- Full Curriculum Vitae
(PDF)
Background
Simone Murray is a senior lecturer in the Communications and Media Studies program. She holds a BA (Hons I) from The University of Queensland (1992, 1994) and a PhD from University College London (1999). Previously she was an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of School of English, Media Studies and Art History at The University of Queensland (2001-03), and a Lecturer in School of English, Art History, Film & Media at The University of Sydney (2004). Simone took up a Lectureship at Monash in 2005.
Research Interests
My research focuses principally upon the interface of the book with other media formats: via adaptation; multi-formatting of content; franchising; the digital book; and the ideal of a universal digital library. In my doctoral thesis at University College London I analysed the contemporary UK book publishing industry and its role in gradually mainstreaming feminist ideas. My current areas of interest span all facets of the cultural economy of print: publishing; editing; book history; book retailing; cultures of reading; book design; e-books and Google Book Search. I am particularly interested in the component role of book publishing within international media conglomerates and the traffic of content across digital platforms. My methodology incorporates political economy, medium theory and cultural studies, cross-blended with approaches drawn from critical theory and cultural policy studies. My current research project is a mapping of the book-to-film adaptation industry as a cultural economy (funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects scheme).
I am interested in hearing from prospective higher degree research candidates regarding projects in any of the above areas, and in feminist approaches to media generally.
Selected Publications
Single-Authored Books
2004 – Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing Politics. London: Pluto Press; Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Winner: SHARP DeLong Book Prize, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, 2005.
This book is adapted from my PhD research and is the first book-length attempt to map the significance of the feminist publishing movement of the 1970s that gave rise to iconic imprints such as Virago, The Women’s Press, Pandora and Sheba. It considers the writers whose careers these presses launched, and their impact upon ideas of literature, academic curricula and the publishing landscape generally.
Selected Journal Articles
2007 – “Books as Media: The Adaptation Industry.” Proceedings of the Book Conference 2006: Fourth International Conference on the Book (in print and online formats) International Journal of the Book, vol. 4.2: 23-30.
Winner: International Award for Excellence in the Development of the Book 2006 (Annual award for best journal article published in The International Journal of the Book)
Using the case-study of Brokeback Mountain, this article rethinks book-to-film adaptations as an industry and considers how the decisions of authors, literary agents, editors, book prize committees, film producers and screenwriters influence which texts are adapted for the screen, and the form these adaptations take.
2007 – “Rights Culture: Authors, Publishers and the Digital Domain.” Southern Review. ‘The Politics of Publishing’ special issue 40.2.: 5-24.
An investigation of one of the biggest issues in contemporary publishing: Google Book Search. The article assesses the relative positions of Google, authors and publishers, investigates the long history of publishing industry tensions between these groups, and asks whether moral rights legislation might provide an alternative grounds for authors to assert their rights over their work.
2007 – “Publishing Studies: Critically Mapping Research in Search of a Discipline.” Publishing Research Quarterly 22.4 Winter: 3-25.
How does ‘publishing studies’ sit in relation to the fields of book industry research, (auto)biography, book history, media & cultural studies, and nationalist and postcolonial studies? This theoretical article maps work about publishing situated across a range of disciplines and argues that publishing studies should emerge as a specific discipline.
2005 – “Brand Loyalties: Rethinking Content within Global Corporate Media.” Media, Culture & Society 27.3: 415-35.
When is a specific media brand not just a text but a cross-format, synergistic media phenomenon? This political economy-informed investigation considers how content is increasingly a ‘liquid’ asset for 21st-century media conglomerates and the implications of this digital-age development.
2004 – “ ‘Celebrating the Story the Way it Is’: Cultural Studies, Corporate Media and the Contested Utility of Fandom.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 18.1: 7-25.
The relationship between media corporations and media fanbases has frequently been fraught, but is increasingly moving to an outsourcing-style model where fans undertake publicity for corporate-owned properties. The paper compares detailed case-studies of corporate-fan relationships around Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.