Kim Barbour

Dr Kim Barbour

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

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

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.

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2025 Principal Supervisor Persona Performance and Neurodivergent Identity in Australia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Aislinn Dale 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 Chun-Chen Lin
    2023 Principal Supervisor The role and impact of image-based social media on remote Indigenous art centres Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Miss Brittany Sheree Pfeiffer

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    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 Mrs 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 Miss 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

  • Board Memberships
    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

  • Committee Memberships
    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

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

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

  • Presentation
    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
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83133405
  • Email: kim.barbour@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83134341
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor 9
  • Org Unit: School of Humanities
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