Scholarship funded PhD opportunities at Adelaide University
Kim Barbour
** with apologies for cross-posting **
Dear colleagues,
Seven scholarship-funded graduate research projects at Adelaide University in the School of Communication, Media, and Journalism are now open for Expressions of Interest, closing 30 September 2026. Please circulate within your networks!
Potential applicants are welcome to contact the project supervisor for further information. Project and application details including EOI submission process are available here: https://adelaide.edu.au/research/research-degrees/research-projects/
SRTSR0135 Digital Food Cultures and Artisanal Narratives in Indonesia
Supervision team: A/Prof Michelle Phillipov, Dr Fiona Suwana
This project examines how social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are reshaping food cultures in Indonesia, where rising obesity rates have intensified debate about the effects of digital food marketing. Particular attention will be given to how small and medium food businesses (SMEs) draw on artisanal narratives of authenticity, craftsmanship, locality, and tradition to promote foods high in sugar, salt and fat within a context of increasing Indonesian government efforts to regulate unhealthy food environments. The project will be of interest to candidates with backgrounds in media, communication, cultural studies, or food studies.
SRTSR0158 Queer Screens, Shared Spaces: Film and Festival Culture
Supervision team: Dr Stuart Romeo-Richards, Dr Jess Pacella
This PhD project investigates the circulation of queer cinema across mainstream and LGBTQIA+ film festival circuits, examining how festival exhibition shapes the cultural and industrial value of queer films. The project examines the relationship between mainstream prestige festivals and dedicated queer festivals, asking how these exhibition networks shape the meanings and trajectories of Australian and international queer cinema.
SRTSR0217 Exploring more than human perspectives through animation in virtual reality
Supervision team: A/Prof Kath Dooley, Dr James Calvert
This project explores animated filmmaking in virtual reality (VR), investigating how animation in immersive environments gives rise to new narrative possibilities and structures. It is particularly interested in the way that animated VR creates opportunities for users to adopt more than human perspectives such as those aligned with plants, animals or the landscape.
SRTSR0369 Streaming Support: Masculinity, Care, and Mental Health in Gaming Livestreaming
Supervision team: Dr Matt Hart, A/Prof Kim Barbour
This project examines how gaming streamers perform and navigate male mental health, emotional support, and digital mentorship online in increasingly professionalised environments. By analysing real-time interactions, streamer personas, and community dynamics, the project aims to broaden our understanding of how streamers influence social norms surrounding men’s mental health and masculinity.
SRTSR0405 News media representation of far-right populist climate disinformation
Supervision team: Dr Victoria Fielding, Dr Chrisanthi Giotis
This project examines how mainstream news media report about far-right climate disinformation during national elections in Australia, the UK, and the US. Using comparative case studies, it investigates whether news reporting challenges, corrects, or amplifies these disinformation-laden narratives.
SRTSR0672 Listening on Country, Listening in Practice: Towards methodological understandings for creative arts doctorates grounded in Indigenous knowledges
Supervision team: A/Prof Elizabeth Ellison, Dr Vicki Saunders (CQU), Dr Leah Barclay (UniSC)
This project asks how creative practice methodologies and Indigenist research methodologies can be brought together so that Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing shape doctoral research from the outset, rather than being accommodated after the fact. Working alongside the ARC project Dandighu Yimbana (led by CQU), the candidate will develop and interrogate methodological understandings through their own practice.
SRTSR0677 Listening to local communities for global impact on wicked problems
Supervision team: Dr Chrisanthi Giotis, Dr Victoria Fielding
This project seeks journalism methods or theories supporting local communities tackling global wicked problems to enter democratic discussion of these issues through the media. For example, this project could engage local farming communities on the frontline of climate change or working-class communities bearing the brunt of unending wars linked to criminal drug networks. Glocal reporting is that which takes lived expertise seriously in managing these global wicked problems.
Bonus opportunity:
SRTSR0310 Making Waves: Film Festivals, Ethical Experience and Australian Cinema
Supervision team: Dr Saige Walton (School of Humanities), Dr Matilda Mroz (The University of Sydney), Dr Stuart Romeo-Richards
This project investigates the civic role that State-based film festivals play as generators of ethical complexity in Australian cinema. Focusing on the Adelaide Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival, the project maps how these festivals create public value by putting ethics to work, helping established and emerging Australian filmmakers develop distinctive stories and engage audiences in powerful, sometimes challenging ways.
Best wishes,
Kim Barbour
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A/Prof
Kim Barbour (she/her)
Associate Professor and Graduate Research Coordinator
School of Communication, Media, and Journalism
Lead Graduate Research Coordinator
College of Creative Arts, Design, and Humanities
Adelaide University
North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
Email: kim.b...@adelaide.edu.au
Office: Room 904, Level 9 Napier Building, City East campus
Vice President/President Elect, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association
Managing Editor, Persona Studies journal
Creating a university for the future
Australian University Provider Number PRV14404
CRICOS Provider Number 04249J
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