Dr Bharat Raj Poudel

Dr. Bharat Raj Poudel; PhD from QUT, Brisbane, Australia is a professional with his expertise on 'media and disaster management’. He has earned academic specialisations on areas like: disaster management, social dimension of disasters, disaster preparedness and prevention, media framing of disaster events as well as crisis and risk communications. Additionally, he is keen on news and current affairs contributing as an analyst on varied subjects including politics, economy, culture and its aspects and issues of social development of communities.

At present, Dr Poudel is associated with various academia, organizations and forums like; Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Federation of Nepalese Community Association of Australia (FeNCAA), Non Resident Nepalese Association Australia (NRNA) and Queensford College Brisbane and also worked for international agencies like UNDP, Nepal Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM), Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Radio Sagarmatha and several community and private media platforms in Australia and Nepal.

Dr. Poudel for his PhD from QUT, Brisbane, accomplished his academic research on the topic “Developing a disaster management model for news production in Nepal: A study on Nepalese media portrayal of disaster events using news frames and PPRR cycle of disaster management. Dr Poudel is currently teaching at a private institution in Queensland. Earlier, he had worked for some private and community institutions in Sydney, Newcastle and Toowoomba, Australia.

Dr Poudel had preciously gained his experiences in the media being involved in various institutions in Nepal. Currently, he also acts as Editor-at-Large at http://southasia.com.au/, an NSW based online news portal serving the global Nepalese diaspora at large. He volunteered at Radio SKID Row Sydney-NSW, CMS Radio Canberra-ACT, MNTV VIV-Australia and several other community media stations in Australia and Nepal at various times.

Dr. Poudel was awarded a Dean’s Commendation on excellent academic achievement during his Masters of Community Development-MCD (2009) from Southern Cross University (SCU), Australia. He had his first Master’s degree as Master of (Media) Anthropology-MA (2003) and then Bachelor’s of Plant Science-BSc (1996) from T.U, Kathmandu, Nepal before he embarked on a journey to further up his academic pursuit in Australia. He received Nepal Press Institute fellowship awarded by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in 1997 and was honoured as the Community Radio Journalist by some organizations in Australia and Nepal both at different times. He received several fellowships, Grant-In-Aid assistance from various institutions in Nepal and Australia for his academic researches and project works.

Additionally, Dr Poudel has obtained some qualifications and trainings in Leadership and Management, Community Services, Business and Project Management, Public Relations, Teaching and Assessment, Teaching Advantage and Media and Journalism from Australia and Nepal. His confidence in teaching, research, community engagement, writing, public speaking, media commentary and leadership skills have significantly contributed to his stature in media and academic areas along with stamping his popular presence in the public domain.

He is engaged in the multicultural diasporic and community activities in Australia in various ways. He particularly engages himself in the discourse of community safety, media and communication, development issues, skill/knowledge/innovation related activities by taking part in various conferences, events, symposiums, public fairs and interactive sessions relevant as organised by the Nepalese and Australian government, community organisations and multicultural communities of wider Nepalese diaspora.

Currently, he is engaged as one of the co- Editors for a prospective Book (Project entitled "Global Perspectives on Journalism in Nepal") which is going to be published from "Routledge" of Taylor and Francis Group shortly. Also, he is working as one of the editors on second book titled “Dissecting the Pandemic Covid-19: Through the facades of science and global socio-economic impact” which is to be published from Awaran Publication Nepal.

He has been a regular contributor to various newspapers, magazines and also as a panellist on sessions in media in Nepal and Australia matters.