Dr Susan Yell
Acting Head of School (January - October 2011)
Senior Lecturer, Communications and Writing
| Phone: | +61 3 990 26442 or +61 3 512 26442 | |
| Fax: | +61 3 990 26359 or +61 3 512 26359 | |
| Office: | 1E 226, Gippsland Campus | |
| Email: | sue.yell@monash.edu |
Biography
Susan gained her PhD (in systemic-functional linguistics and social semiotics) from the University of Sydney in 1994. She taught for four years at Sydney University before taking up a lectureship at Central Queensland University in 1991, moving to Monash in late 1999. She has published a co-authored book with Tony Schirato (Communication and Cultural Literacies, Allen & Unwin/Sage, 2000) and a number of research articles on media and communication technologies, literacies and practices. From 1997 to 2007 she edited the annual special issue of the A-ranked media and cultural studies journal Southern Review: Communication, Politics, Culture.
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.
Recent publications
Book chapters
- Yell, S. (2005) “Critical discourse analysis and social semiotics: Re-thinking text and discourse in media and communication research”, in Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo (ed.), Topical Issues in Communication and Media Research, Nova Science Press, New York, pp.9-23
Refereed articles
- Yell, S. (forthcoming) “’Breakfast is now tea, toast and tissues’: Affect and media coverage of bushfires”, Media International Australia: Culture & Policy
- Fletcher, M. & Yell, S. (under review) “Airgraphs and an airman: the role of airgraphs in Australian World War Two correspondence”, paper submitted to History Australia
- Yell, S. (2007) “Theorising Text as Practice in the New Media Age”, New Zealand Journal of Media Studies, 10.1, pp.14-23
- Atkinson, P. & Yell, S. (2006) “Affect, Time and the Enunciative Body”, Southern Review 38.2, pp.40-57
Teaching
Susan lectures in the undergraduate, Honours and Masters programs in Communications and Writing, in the following subjects:
- English Language and Text (2nd year)
- Media Audiences (2nd/3rd year)
- Media, Social Relations & Power (Honours)
- Communications Research (Masters)
- Researching Global Audiences (Masters)
Expert media commentary
Her areas of expertise for media commentary include:
Postgraduate supervision
Susan has supervised 6 PhD students to successful completion and is currently supervising 5 students (as main or associate supervisor). PhD topics supervised include:
- a social semiotic approach to popular fiction
- 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