University of Sydney / Faculty of Arts / Department of English / Staff / Academic Staff

Dr Rebecca Johinke

Dr Rebecca Johinke

BA Adel., Grad Dip Bus UniSA, BA Hons Flinders, PhD Adel.
Lecturer

+61 2 9351 4516

I have very broad-ranging interests in language, literature, rhetoric, film, and cultural studies. Having said that, I have two main areas of teaching and research: the rhetorical context of writing, and contemporary Australian Studies. Firstly, I am particularly passionate about helping students to conceptualise writing as a situated rhetorical act for a specific audience or readership. Specific areas of interest in writing and rhetorical studies include academic, creative non-fiction, and ‘experimental’ writing such as fictocriticism and hypertext. Secondly, my curiosity about representations of gender and power in contemporary Australian literature and film led to my doctoral project about masculinities and car culture. That research has since morphed into an engagement with representations of cityscapes and street culture more generally and a specific interest the figure of the flâneur. I am happy to supervise students in any of those areas.

Current projects

In July 2008, I presented a paper about Representations of Masculine Violence in Ghosts of the Civil Dead at the International Nick Cave Conference at the University of Westminster in London. I am currently writing up that paper for an edited collection and that essay is representative of my ongoing interest in Australian film and representations of masculinity.

In 2008, I am enrolled in a Graduate Certificate in Educational Studies (Higher Education) and much of the research that I am conducting relates to my interests in academic writing, ethical writing practices, and online learning. My current studies complement several of my successful TIES and EO1 teaching and research projects that support student learning in those areas.

Current teaching

In 2007 and 2008 my teaching has chiefly been in the following courses:

  • ENGL1000 Academic Writing
  • ENGL2652 Modern Rhetoric
  • ENGL3611 English language and literary theory A (Page to Screen)
  • ENGL3615 The Rhetoric of the Streets
  • ENGL6923 Literary Cities
  • ENGL6977 Theories of Writing and Rhetoric
  • ENGL6979 Writing between the Lines
  • ENGL6970 Magazines and Australian Print Culture

Selected publications

  • 'Sydney, our literary city', Sydney Alumni Magazine, Autumn 2007, 20-23.
  • 'The Little Class that Could: Academic Writing at the University of Sydney' (with Dr Susan Thomas), in Theorizing Agency, Instituting Change with(in) the Writing Enterprise, Parlor Press (forthcoming).
  • ‘Idiot Box: Mick Cameron as Yobbo Flâneur’. The Journal of Australian Studies. 78 (2003): 147-155.
  • ‘Misogyny, Muscles and Machines: Cars and Masculinity in Australian Literature’. Contemporary Issues in Australian Literature: International Perspectives. Ed. David Callahan. London: Frank Cass, 2001: 95-111. (Originally published in Australian Studies journal).
  • ‘Manifestations of Masculinities: Mad Max and the Lure of the Forbidden Zone’. The Journal of Australian Studies (Fresh Cuts – New Talents 2001). 67 (2001): 118–125.
  • ‘Misogyny, Muscles and Machines: Cars and Masculinity in Australian Literature’. Australian Studies. 15.2 (Winter 2000): 95-111.
  • ‘Australian Blokes and their Cars’. Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS) Conference Proceedings. Hamilton, NZ: Waikato University, 1999. 116–119.
  • ‘The Flinders University 1997 Anti-Racism Campaign - In It Together’. International Student Advisers’ Network of Australia (ISANA) Conference Proceedings. Melbourne: Melbourne University, 1997. 164–170.
  • ‘The 1997 Anti-Racism Campaign at Flinders University’. International Students’ National Liaison Committee (NLC) Conference Proceedings. Adelaide: Adelaide University, 1997.
  • I publish occasional book reviews and short creative works.
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