Dr Kim Barbour

Senior Lecturer

School of Communication, Media and Journalism

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


I am a qualitative new media scholar and tenured Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media at the University of Adelaide. My research looks at online persona, the strategic production of identity through digital media, and particularly focuses on the domestic use of social media. I teach into the undergraduate Bachelor of Media degree, and supervise Honours and Post-Graduate student research. I am course coordinator for level 1 course Image and Brand, level 3 course Popular Media: Text, Audience, Industry, the Honours and Masters level Media Research Methods courses, and the semester 2 iteration of the Masters level Media Masters Thesis course. I am the Honours Coordinator for the B.Media (Hons) program (2023-2025), and Post-Graduate Coordinator for Masters by Research and PhD students in Media, Philosophy, and European Languages and Linguistics (2024-2025).In 2023, my sole-authored book Women and Persona Performance was published by Palgrave. My co-authored book Persona Studies: An Introduction (with P. David Marshall and Christopher Moore, Wiley Blackwell) was released in 2019. I have published articles in Convergence, Continuum, Celebrity Studies, TDR: The Drama Review, M/C Journal, Media International Australia, and First Monday, and have chapters in edited collections published by Palgrave McMillan, Routledge, and Adelaide University Press. I am the co-founding and managing editor of the Persona Studies journal, an online, open access journal exploring the construction of the public self that launched in 2015.In addition to my teaching, research, and current leadership positions, I was the Faculty of Arts Director, Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (2021-2022), sitting on the central Staff Gender Equity Committee for the University, and GEDI Champion for School of Humanities in 2023. From 2020-2023, I was co-facilitator of the Diversity and Inclusion in Teaching Community of Practice (DITCoP), engaging with ways that the university can best support and engage the student cohort in all of its diversity. I am a member of The University of Adelaide Ally Network, supporting LGBTIQA* students and staff to have a safe, equitable, and positive engagement with university life, as well as a member of the Wellbeing Champions Network for Faculty of ABLE, focused on identifying challenges and opportunities for student wellbeing. I have served as Chair of the School of Humanities Teaching and Learning Committee (2017-2018), including representing the School at Faculty level, and was the 2018 Early Career Researcher Representative on the Faculty of Arts Research Committee.

Kim Barbour is a qualitative new media scholar. As a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media, Kim’s work focuses on digital and online media. Kim’s research looks at online persona, the strategic production of identity through digital media, and particularly focuses on the use of social media. 

Kim is the co-founding editor of the Persona Studies journal, an online, open access journal based at Deakin University. She is sole author of Women and Persona Performance (2023, Palgrave MacMillan), and co-author of Persona Studies: An Introduction (2020, Wiley Blackwell). She has published articles in Convergence, Continuum, TDR: The Drama Review, Celebrity Studies, M/C Journal, First Monday, and Media International Australia. Kim presents regularly at national and international conferences, and is Secretary of the Australia New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA).

Current research projects:

  • Minecraft YouTube and storytelling
  • Fan personas

Date Position Institution name
2021 - ongoing Director - Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion University of Adelaide
2020 - ongoing Senior Lecturer The University of Adelaide
2015 - 2019 Lecturer University of Adelaide
2009 - 2015 Research Assistant Deakin University
2009 - 2015 Sessional Tutor Deakin University

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
2017 Teaching Award Faculty of Arts Prize for Excellence in Teaching The University of Adelaide Australia $1000
2014 Award Grant Noble Prize for Best Paper submitted by a Postgraduate Student Australian & New Zealand Communication Association - 1000

Date Institution name Country Title
2011 - 2014 Deakin University Australia PhD
2006 University of Waikato New Zealand MA
2001 - 2005 The University of Waikato New Zealand Bachelor of Communication Studies, Honours (1st Class)

Year Citation
2023 Barbour, K., & Ali, S. (2023). A Sense of Home: two migrant personas during COVID-19. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 37(2), 210-223.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2023 Barbour, K., & Humphrey, M. (2023). Domesticity and Persona. Persona Studies, 8(2), 1-6.
DOI
2022 Adams, C., & Barbour, K. (2022). Transmedia storytelling, diegetic paratexts, and the limits of real time. Convergence: the international journal of research into new media technologies, 28(6), 1515-1530.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2
2019 Barbour, K., & Heise, L. (2019). Sharing #home on Instagram. Media International Australia, 172(1), 35-47.
DOI Scopus11 WoS6
2019 Barbour, K., & Mansfield, L. (2019). Intersections between corporeal performance and distributed digital audiences: Casey Jenkins and remediated artistic practice. TDR/The Drama Review, 63(1), 125-140.
DOI
2017 Nguyen, L., & Barbour, K. (2017). Selfies as expressively authentic identity performance. First Monday, 22(11).
DOI Scopus18
2017 Barbour, K., Lee, K., & Moore, C. M. (2017). Online persona research: an instagram case study. Persona Studies, 3(2), 1-12.
DOI
2017 Moore, C., Barbour, K., & Lee, K. (2017). Five dimensions of online persona. Persona Studies, 3(1), 1-11.
DOI
2016 Moore, C., & Barbour, K. (2016). Performing the networks of domestic and public persona. Persona Studies, 2(1), 1-11.
2015 Barbour, K. (2015). Performing professionalism|validating artistness. Platform: Journal of Media and Communication, 6(ANZCA Special Issue), 5-12.
Scopus2
2015 David Marshall, P., Moore, C., & Barbour, K. (2015). Persona as method: exploring celebrity and the public self through persona studies. Celebrity Studies, 6(3), 288-305.
DOI Scopus71 WoS55
2015 Marshall, P. D., & Barbour, K. (2015). Making intellectual room for Persona Studies: a new consciousness and a shifted perspective. Persona Studies, 1(1), 1-12.
2014 Barbour, K., Marshall, P. D., & Moore, C. (2014). Persona to persona studies. M/C Journal, 17(3), 1-6.
2014 Vincs, K., & Barbour, K. (2014). Snapshots of complexity: using motion capture and principal component analysis to reconceptualize dance. Digital Creativity, 25(1), 62-78.
DOI Scopus15 WoS14
2013 Barbour, K. (2013). Hiding in plain sight: street artists online. Platform: Journal of Media and Communication, 5(1), 86-96.
Scopus3
2012 Barbour, K., & Marshall, P. (2012). The Academic Online: Constructing Persona Through the World Wide Web. First Monday, 17(9), 11 pages.
DOI Scopus66
- Barbour, K., & Stewart, M. (2025). Conceptualising Fan Persona. Persona Studies, 10(2), 1-5.
DOI

Year Citation
2016 Barbour, K. (2016). Public sharing of private spaces: #watchingtv. In Symposium of the Digital Intimacies: interrogating the interface between intimate lives and calculative digital media platforms. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland.
2016 Barbour, K. (2016). Unexpected celebrity: when activist art goes viral. In Bridging Gaps: What are the media, publicists, and celebrities selling. Barcelona, Spain.
2016 Marshall, P., D'Cruz, G., Barbour, K., & McDonald, S. (2016). Roundtable: Professions and Celebrity: Online Visibility, Prestige and Contentious Authenticity in the Professional Persona. In Celebrity Studies Journal Conference. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2016 Barbour, K. (2016). The performance of community activist: networked persona and everyday change-making. In PSi22: Performance Climates. Melbourne, Australia.
2014 Barbour, K. (2014). Vaginal knitting and disgusting the internet. In Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Conference: Provocations (pp. 28-29). University of Wollongong, NSW: Cultural Studies Association of Australasia.
2014 Barbour, K. (2014). Registers of performance: negotiating the professional, personal, and intimate. In Proceedings of the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association 2014 Conference (pp. 1). Bournemouth, UK: Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association.
2013 Barbour, K. (2013). "It can be quite difficult to have your creativity on tap" : balancing client expectations and artistic practice in the tattoo industry. In C. da Rocha Brito, & M. M. Ciampi (Eds.), Projections - Proceedings of WCCA'13 - IV World Congress on Communication and Art (pp. 1-5). Geelong, Vic..
2013 Barbour, K. (2013). Hiding in plain sight: street artists online. In T. Lee, K. Trees, & R. Desai (Eds.), Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference: Global Networks-Global Divides: Bridging New and Traditional Communication Challenges (pp. 1-20). Fremantle, WA: Australian and New Zealand Communication Association.
2012 Barbour, K. (2012). The online identity: towards a hermeneutic phenomenological approach (short paper). In Digital Humanities Australasia 2012 Conference: Building, Mapping, Connecting (pp. 1). Canberra, ACT: The Australasian Association for Digital Humanities.
2012 Barbour, K. (2012). The artist in a networked society. In Celebrity Studies Inaugural Conference Program (pp. 47-48). Melbourne, Vic.: Centre for Memory, Imagination, and Invention.
2012 Barbour, K., & Marshall, P. D. (2012). Academic identity and the PLE. In Personal Learning Environment Conference. Melbourne, Vic.: PLE Conference.
2012 Ng, E., Barbour, K., Moore, C., & Marshall, P. D. (2012). Operationalising persona: the academic public identity. In Celebrity Studies Inaugural Conference Program (pp. 33-34). Melbourne, Vic.: Centre for Memory, Imagination, and Invention.
2009 Vincs, K., Yip, W. Y., Mac, V., & Barbour, K. (2009). Choreographer-mathematician collaboration: developing machine segmentation techniques for motion capture analysis of dance. In HCSNet Workshop on Movement and Motion Capture (pp. 1-29). Sydney, N.S.W..

Year Citation
2021 Barbour, K., & Ali, S. (2021). A sense of home: Two migrant persons during COVID-19. Poster session presented at the meeting of Persona Studies.
2021 Barbour, K., & Ali, S. (2021). A sense of home: Two perspectives of migrant persona building in 2020. Poster session presented at the meeting of Diversifying Persona Studies. Online.
2018 Barbour, K., Ankeny, R., Plewa, C., & Conduit, J. (2018). Engaging the public: scientific persona performance in online, public-facing biographical statements. Poster session presented at the meeting of Scientific Persona in Cultural Encounters (SPICE) Conference. Stockholm, Sweden.

Year Citation
2014 Barbour, K. (2014). Finding the edge: online persona creation by fringe artists. (PhD Thesis, Deakin University).
2006 Barbour, K. (2006). Constructing artistic integrity : an exploratory study. (Master's Thesis, The University of Waikato).

Kim regularly receives funding from School and Faculty research schemes to support her research.

Having taught in the core of the Bachelor of Media program since joining the University of Adelaide in 2015, Kim is teaching the following courses in 2024:

Semester 1:

  • MDIA 3331 Popular Media: Text, Audience, Industry
  • MDIA 4002/7007 Advanced Media Research Methods

Semester 2:

  • MDIA 1019 Image and Brand
  • MDIA 7003 Media Masters Thesis\

Kim is Honours coordinator for the Bachelor of Media (Honours) program, and Postgraduate Coordinator for Media, European Languages and Linguistics, and Philosophies within the School of Humanities.

 

Regularly supervising Honours, Masters by research, and PhD candidates, a full list of Kim's supervisions is available here.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Principal Supervisor Becoming Neurodivergent: Algorithmic Identity and Historical Discourse Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Aislinn Dale Rossi
2025 Principal Supervisor Becoming Neurodivergent: Algorithmic Identity and Historical Discourse Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Aislinn Rossi
2024 Principal Supervisor Online Feminist Activism in Iran: The Case of MeToo Movement Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Elmira Nouri
2024 Principal Supervisor What is a Narrative? Emergent Narrative in Gaming and Audience Reception Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Sean Lin
2024 Principal Supervisor Online Feminist Activism in Iran: The Case of MeToo Movement Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Elmira Nouri
2024 Principal Supervisor What is a Narrative? Emergent Narrative in Gaming and Audience Reception Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Sean Lin

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2021 - 2023 Principal Supervisor Capturing simultaneity: International students’ connectedness and identity perceptions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Thanh Nguyen
2020 - 2024 Co-Supervisor Representations of Optional Romance in AAA Role-playing Games: Love, Lust and Limerence Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Amy Matilda Brierley-Beare
2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Oscar Bait: Exploring Links Between an Academy Awards Institutional Persona and Perceptions of Oscar-Worthiness Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Robert Penn Boucaut
2020 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Media Mimicry - How ‘Mimic Vlogs’ Emulate User-Generated Content in Online Stories. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Caitlin Anne Adams
2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor The Evolution of the Body in Contemporary Art and Digital Media: Asger Carlsen, Julie Rrap, Leah Schrager, Juliana Huxtable Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Alexandra Mowbray
2017 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Remediation or Replacement: Masthead Stakeholders' Perception of News Digitalisation in Nigeria Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Ayodeji Boluwatife Aiyesimoju
2017 - 2020 Co-Supervisor The Art of Selling Arts: Marketing Culture Using Digital Media at Fringe Arts Festivals Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Amy Elizabeth Nancarrow
2017 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Contested Kingdom: The Role of Online Media in the Relationship between Disney and Fans over Disneyland Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr William McCarthy
2017 - 2021 Co-Supervisor Representations of Women in Pakistani Cinema: Role, Image, and Characterisation Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Nazia Hussain
2016 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Crafting true stories: an interpretation of four Australian journalists' nonfiction writing practices Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Mrs Varunika Sonani Hapuwatte Ruwanpura

Date Role Board name Institution name Country
2017 - ongoing Board Member Chair of Ethic and Policy, Executive Board Fame and Persona Research Consortium Australia
2013 - ongoing Member - Australia New Zealand Communication Association Australia

Date Role Committee Institution Country
2018 - ongoing Member Faculty of Arts Research Committee The University of Adelaide Australia
2017 - ongoing Chair School of Humanities Learning and Teaching Committee The University of Adelaide Australia
2017 - ongoing Member Faculty of Arts Teaching and Learning Committee The University of Adelaide Australia

Date Role Membership Country
2014 - ongoing Member Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Australia

Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
2014 - ongoing Editor-In-chief Persona Studies Deakin University Australia

Date Topic Presented at Institution Country
2021 - ongoing A sense of home: Two perspectives of migrant persona building in 2020 Diversifying Persona Studies: Online International Conference University of Adelaide Australia

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