Michael Wilmore

Mike Wilmore is a social anthropologist by training and brings the particular insights and research traditions of that discipline into his ongoing studies of global media. He has been studying the development of media in Nepal for over a decade and continues to do so as part of an international team of researchers investigating the uses of FM radio by non-governmental organizations in that country. He is originally from the UK and moved to Australia in 2004 to take up a lectureship here at the University of Adelaide.

Mike is currently the Head of the Discipline of Media and Bachelor of Media Program Convenor.

Qualifications include aPhD (2003) Social Anthropology, The University of London; MSc (1993) Social Anthropology, University College London and BA (Hons) (1991) Archaeology, University of Exeter.

Mike's teaching interests centre on social and cultural aspects of media. He teaches courses that examine aspects of globalisation and the ways in which media become adapted to the local circumstances in which they are used. He is also interested in the ways we come to understand the media and their influence upon our lives. He currently teaches Global Media: Policies and Practices and Media Research Methods, which are both advanced level courses. He also contributes to teaching throughout the discipline.

He served as Associate Dean (Education) for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2010 to 2013. Prior to this he was Associate Dean (Postgraduate Coursework Studies).

Mike's research has focused on the development of media in Nepal and South Asia more generally. He is particularly interested in the uses of media by indigenous and other minority groups in post-colonial contexts. His research also looks in particular at aspects of community media development, including cable television and radio, as well as how people are using various Internet and mobile media technologies in South Asia.

More recently he has become involved in a number of research projects related to the use of media in health communication. In addition to this he has studied fieldwork in British archaeology with a particular interest in the roles that literacy and textual practices play in this work.

Mike supervises postgraduate students with a wide range of interests ranging from the assessment of the impact of communication for social change projects in Nepal, the making of documentary radio and film projects by Aboriginal peoples, the local Hip Hop scene in Adelaide, and different facets of health communication in the antenatal department of a major metropolitan hospital.