Ben Stubbs

Research Interests

Creative Writing Journalism and Professional Writing Virtual and mixed reality

Teaching Strengths

Passionate
Active industry involvement

Dr Ben Stubbs

Senior Lecturer

School of Communication, Media and Journalism

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Available For Media Comment.

Ben is a creative writing and journalism academic with a focus on immersive storytelling. His background is as a travel and features journalist for publications in Australia and overseas. He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Toronto Star, The Sydney Morning Herald and Rough Guides among many others. Ben's current academic research focuses on exploring the plurality of the travel writing form.
He has published five books, including Ticket to Paradise: A Journey to Find the Australian Colony in Paraguay Among Nazis, Mennonites and Japanese Beekeepers about the search for the remnants of the Australian utopian colony in Paraguay (ABC Books  2012), After Dark: A Nocturnal Exploration of Madrid (2016) explores the nocturnal lives of the Madrileños, The Crow Eaters: a journey through South Australia (NewSouth 2019), Creative and non-fiction writing during isolation and confinement: imaginitive travel, shipwrecks, pandemics and war (Routledge 2022) and Re-thinking travel writing: the journey of a genre (Palgrave 2024) with Dr Lee Mylne.
Ben is a member of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) executive committee and he is special issues co-editor of TEXT journal, the leading creative writing program journal in Australasia, which publishes four times per year. He is also a member of the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies.
In addition to this Ben is also currently exploring virtual reality and augmented reality storytelling. He has won more than $150,000 of internal and external funding for his immersive media projects and is currently working with the South Australian Museum and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.
Ben was awarded the UniSA Creative Research Innovation award for 2022.

Ben was  awarded a 2017 Teaching and Learning grant for $20,000 to explore virtual reality in journalism eduction. Due to the success of the project he was also awarded a subsequent $20,000 in 2018 to continue the project. In 2019 Ben was awarded the Ignite SA $10,000 research grant to continue his work in VR. In 2020 Ben was part of the successful RTIS grant for $40,000: Investigating how an applied use of VR technology in culturally responsive learning design adds value to teaching and learning. 

Ben is currently working with the South Australian Museum to explore augmented reality and immersive engagement in a museum setting. In 2021/2022 he was awarded an external Yitpi Foundation grant for $13,897, along with internal grants totalling $20,785.

Ben also won UniSA Creative's Research Innovation award for 2022.

Date Position Institution name
2004 - 2025 Course coordinator, lecturer, tutor University of Canberra

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
2024 Award UniSA Creative Innovation in Teaching University of South Australia Australia -
2022 Award UniSA Creative Innovation in Research University of South Australia Australia -
2018 Award JERAA Innovation in Journalism University of South Australia Australia -

Language Competency
Spanish - Latin American Can read, write, speak and understand spoken

Date Institution name Country Title
2010 - 2014 University of Canberra Australia Doctor of Philosophy

Year Citation
2025 Jackson, P., & Stubbs, B. (2025). Practical guidelines for immersive journalism production. Australian Journalism Review, 41(1), 77-95.
DOI
2025 Zarei, T., Emery, M., Saredakis, D., Lee, G. A., Stubbs, B., Szpak, A., & Loetscher, T. (2025). 'Being there together for health': a systematic review on the feasibility, effectiveness and design considerations of immersive collaborative virtual environments in health applications. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2025(4269145), 1-24.
DOI
2024 Stubbs, B. (2024). Behind closed doors: writing, confinement and conflict. Ethical Space: the international journal of communication ethics, 21(4), 1-14.
DOI
2024 Stubbs, B. (2024). Journalism and creative non-fiction within isolation: an introduction. Ethical Space: the international journal of communication ethics, 21(4), 1-5.
DOI
2021 Stubbs, B. (2021). Recognising the importance of objects in travel writing. Text Journal, 63(2), 1-12.
DOI
2020 Stubbs, B. (2020). Close travel: on the ethics of writing about the near-at-hand. Ethical Space, 17(1), 11-17.
2019 Stubbs, B. (2019). 'The night writer: the emergence of nocturnal travel writing'. Text: journal of writing and writing courses, 23(56), 1-12.
DOI
2018 Stubbs, B. (2018). Islam in the outback: the legacy of the Afghan cameleers.. Griffith review: Who we are, 61, 257-265.
2018 Stubbs, B. (2018). Virtual reality journalism: ethics, grammar and the state of play. Australian journalism review, 40(1), 81-90.
2017 Stubbs, B. (2017). Travel writing and ethics: experimentation, 'travelees' and community engagement. Ethical space: the international journal of communication ethics, 14(4), 1-6.
2017 Stubbs, B. (2017). Dangerous journalism: exploring the rise of dark travel writing. Australian journalism review, 39(1), 77-88.
2015 Stubbs, B. (2015). Travel writing: An exploration of its place within journalism. Australian Journalism Review, 37(2), 139-149.
2015 Stubbs, B. (2015). The Edge of Christmas. Meanjin, 74(1), 36-45.
2014 Stubbs, B. (2014). Borderlands. Meanjin, 73(1), 128-140.

Year Citation
2024 Stubbs, B. (2024). Augmented reality [ar] Storytelling for the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [glam] Sector: a case study with the South Australian museum fire exhibit and megafauna displays. In J. Nichols, & B. Mehra (Eds.), Source details - Title: Data Curation and Information Systems Design from Australasia: Implications for Cataloguing of Vernacular Knowledge in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (pp. 251-267). UK: Emerald Publishing.
DOI
2024 Stubbs, B. (2024). How can technologies enable collaborative storytelling that spans multiple perspectives?. In A. Pepe (Ed.), Source details - Title: Beyond Broken: Different Systems for Different Futures (pp. 80-87). Australia: (MOD) University of South Australia.
2023 Stubbs, B. (2023). Close travel: on the ethics of writing about the near-at- hand. In T. Bradshaw, S. Joseph, & R. L. Keeble (Eds.), Source details - Title: Ethical Space: Journal with a difference: Celebrating 20 Years Vol. 1 (pp. 11-17). UK: Abramis Academic.
2017 Stubbs, B. (2017). Broadening the cultural memory of war: a study of travel writing in conflict. In B. West (Ed.), Source details - Title: War memory and commemoration (pp. 161-172). UK: Routledge.
2017 Stubbs, B. (2017). Travel memoir and Australia: from Twain to Tracks and the present day. In B. Avieson, F. Giles, & S. Joseph (Eds.), Source details - Title: Mediating memory: tracing the limits of memoir (pp. 192-204). United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis.
DOI
2016 Stubbs, B. (2016). Travel writing and humor: from Dickens and Twain to the present day. In D. Swick, & R. Keeble (Eds.), Source details - Title: The Funniest Pages: International Perspectives on Humor in Journalism (pp. 39-52). New York: Peter Lang AG International Academic Publishers.
2016 Packard, F., & Stubbs, B. (2016). ANZAC Girls: An ethical autoanalysis. In S. Maras (Ed.), Source details - Title: Ethics in screenwriting: new perspectives (pp. 99-123). UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI

  • Southern Yorke Peninsula Expanded Storytelling Moving Mural Trail Project, Warooka Progress Association, 23/11/2023 - 24/08/2025

Courses I teach

  • LANG 3043 Creative Writing Theory and Practice (2025)
  • COMM 3021 Feature Writing (2024)
  • COMM 3086 Creative Ventures (2024)
  • LANG 3043 Creative Writing Theory and Practice (2024)

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2024 Co-Supervisor - Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Charlotte Chalklen
2022 Co-Supervisor - Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Lauren Michelle Fuge
2017 Co-Supervisor - Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Anneliese Abela

Date Role Committee Institution Country
2025 - 2025 Member International Association of Literary Journalism Studies University of Lorraine -

Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
2022 - 2025 Member Ethical Space: International Journal of Communication Ethics Lincoln University United Kingdom

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