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 | Biography |  |
Associate Professor and Reader in Sociology. Honours coordinator for Sociology and Criminology I obtained my PhD from the University of Queensland in 1983 and prior to my current appointment I was a Senior Lecturer in the previous Department of Anthropology and Sociology at UQ. I have also held visiting appointments at the University of Manchester, St Andrews University, The University of Tasmania and Aalborg University, Denmark.
My work has spanned a number of fields in addition to the analysis of naturally occurring social interaction which is now my principal focus. My PhD examined everyday conceptions of the economy and media discourses and representations of economic activity. I still have a passing interest in this and have taught a course on the sociology of media for over twenty years. I've also been involved with a couple of major studies of Australian culture which have drawn on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and published a book on this - 'Accounting for Tastes: Australian everyday cultures' - with Tony Bennett and John Frow. My principal teaching is in the area of qualitative methods with a particular focus on observation, visual methods and naturally occurring data.
My current research interests are primarily informed by ethnomethodology and are largely focussed on the analysis of conversational interaction, in particular on talk in institutional settings. Between 1999 and 2002 I was a recipient of a large ARC grant investigating expert-lay communication on a computer software helpline. Since then I have extended this program of inquiry to a national Australian child helpline and a project which is examining interaction on a child health help line. In 2005 I published an edited collection of original studies of telephone advice seeking and advice giving, 'Calling for Help: language and social interaction in telephone helplines' John Benjamins, with the late Carolyn Baker and Alan Firth. I am currently working with Susan Danby from QUT on an ARC funded project which is examining the impact of technological modality on troubles telling and advice giving on Kids Help Line, the national children's helpline.
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