John Sinclair

Professor John Sinclair has been an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication for 2018-2020, and formerly with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. He completed his undergraduate studies at Monash University, and his postgraduate degrees, including a PhD in Sociology, at La Trobe University. Before coming to the former Australian Centre as an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow for 2005-2009, he was Professor in the School of Communication, Culture, and Languages at Victoria University. Former students whom he has supervised to successful PhD completion are now pursuing academic careers in Europe and North America, as well as in Australia. He has held visiting professorships at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, where he was UNESCO Professor of Communication, and at the University of California, San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, and other universities in the United States, and also in Latin America. In 2001 he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and in 2003, he was awarded a Centenary of Federation Medal for service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of cultural and media studies. Over 2009-2012, he was Head of the Cultural and Communication Studies Section of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Professor Sinclair is now retired, and although still professionally active, no longer is taking on any graduate student supervision. John Sinclair's research continues to concern the globalisation of the media, with particular reference to the television and advertising industries. His record of internationally published research covers various aspects of the globalisation of the media and communication industries, with a special emphasis on the role of cultural factors in the development of these industries, and has a regional focus on Latin America and Asia. As well as such work on cultural industries, he has had experience in content analysis and audience research methodologies, and has directed ethnographic research on media use by diasporic communities. Since the completion of his ARC Professorial Fellowship, as an Honorary Professorial Fellow, he was involved in other ARC projects, namely lifestyle media in Asia, and the history of the advertising industry in Australia. Other work in the last few years includes two co-edited books, a co-authored book; refereed journal articles; and several chapters in books and reference works. He has chapters appearing in reference works such as A Companion to Australian Media, The Handbook of Communication History, The Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications, The Television Studies Reader, The Sage Handbook of Media Studies, The Blackwell Companion for Television, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, The International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences; and the leading textbook Media and Communications in Australia.