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Archive for the ‘Charles Sturt University’ Category

On the move

Posted in Charles Sturt University, Global Alliance, Huddersfield, Research, Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Delighted to announce that I have accepted the post of Principal Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, where I will be leading the project to develop a new capabilities framework for use by public relations practitioners, professional bodies and academics around the world. This part of my post is supported by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) and I’m thrilled to be working again with the redoubtable Anne Gregory , Professor of Corporate Communications at Huddersfield.

I will also be pursuing my own research projects, papers and books proposals.

I leave Charles Sturt University on February 25, to allow time for packing and starting the complex process of moving residences and possessions around the planet, before taking up the new position on March 21.

It’s been a wonderful four and a half years in Australia, working with a creative and engaging group of communication educators, who have become good friends. I’ve also learned how to manage doctoral supervision in an online programme and seen two students collect their doctorates – with more to follow. Thanks to a CSU Research Fellowship I was able to complete my book on PR professionalism and ethics, an achievement which I will be building on in the new role.

It really is rather marvellous to be offered a job that brings together so many strands of previous work – including research into PR education for the CIPR – and creates a space in which it may be possible (particularly with Anne in the picture) to make a real difference.

So, homeward bound.

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Ethics book launched in Sydney

Posted in Book, Charles Sturt University, Ethics, PR and society, tagged , , , on December 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lovely gathering of friends, colleagues and students today at St James Ethics centre in Sydney CBD. The centre’s director, Dr Simon Longstaff, talked about the importance of ethics in helping us understand and negotiate complex relationships in contemporary society, including the bond between professions and social values. Professor Andy Vann, Vice Chancellor of Charles Sturt University, was generous in his comments about the book, including the autobiographical approach. I particularly liked his explanation that CSU’s mission to be a university of (and for)  the professions requires that we educate students to lead and develop their fields, not merely reproduce current practice. Both agreed the book is timely and welcomed a new approach to these issues, given the inadequacies of the old ones. But going back further, and deeper, Andy referred to the Wiradjiri notion of ‘yindyamarra winhanga-nha’ (‘the wisdom of respectfully knowing how to live well in a world worth living in’). This requires humility and self-awareness, the notions I see as central to depth ethics.

Writing a book, as I said at the do, involves long periods of isolation, boredom, despair and exhaustion, so it was really moving to celebrate its release into the world with fellow dreamers and writers as well as academics and students. As well as the kind introduction by the VC, I was delighted that Prof Jim McNamara from UTS, Julian Kenney from the PRIA, and the Australian Council’s new Chair of Literature, Charlotte Wood, could attend. Colleagues, doctoral students and friends came from Brisbane, Wollongong, Bathurst, Katoomba and Sydney for the event – so grateful that they made the effort to share this moment.

Dr Simon Longstaff, JO Fawkes, Prof. Andy Vann

Dr Simon Longstaff, Jo Fawkes, Prof. Andy Vann

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