My academic home, the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Languages, and Literature, hosts many academics who work at the forefront of research on the media, languages, and cultures of Asia (from East to Southeast to South!).

It was my privilege to be invited to speak about contemporary trends in Asian media research at this  “MCCALL Voices” roundtable with some of my colleagues working within this exciting and dynamic space.

The talk was held 4pm-5pm (AEST, UTC+10) on Thursday 1st June. 

A recording of the talk is now available

Here is the event information and my colleagues’ and my bios:

MCCALL VOICES: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN ASIAN MEDIA RESEARCH  

A MCCALL Research event in collaboration with the Asian Media and Culture Research Group

Sarah Keith, Tom Baudinette, and Mei-fen Kuo will share their research on Asian media and culture. What are the latest trends in Asian media and culture today? What flows, and what does not? What has been neglected and what needs to be further explored? How do we challenge assumptions of a singular “Asia”? What are the values of particular frameworks (transnationalism, inter/trans-Asian studies, Asia as method) when we research cultures and communities in Asia and the Asian diaspora?

Topics include: K-pop, Boys Love Media, Asian diasporas, Cold War histories

Dr Sarah Keith’s research concerns East Asian popular culture, particularly Korean popular music (K-pop) as a global music genre. She is interested in intersections of popular music and expressions of national/cultural identity, and the complexities raised by global cultural flows. Sarah also researches disruption within the music and creative industries, including technological innovations, economic change, shifts in cultural policy, an globalization, particularly discourses of technological progress and creative empowerment as a foil for centralising power and consolidating capital.

Dr Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in Japanese and International Studies. Thomas’s research focuses on the role of Asian popular culture in informing knowledge about gender and sexuality across East and Southeast Asia. His first book is Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021). His second book is Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023). He recently completed the Academy of Korean Studies funded project “K-pop Fandom as a Space for LGBTQ+ Support in the Asia-Pacific During Pandemic Times” (AKS-2022-R033).

Dr Mei-fen Kuo, a Lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Culture and History, embarked on her academic journey by transitioning from journalism to history in Taiwan. With a keen interest in identity politics, she pursued a Ph.D. in Asian Studies at La Trobe University, delving into the narrative identities of Chinese Australians in the early 20th century. Prior to her current position at MQ, she conducted extensive research at Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Queensland. Her current focus lies in exploring the interplay between Cold War Sociability, Print Culture, and Chinese Australian identity politics. She is also the recipient of 2023 National Library of Australia Fellowship.