I’m an educator with a uniquely varied history of research, writing, strategy, and management within academia, government, and non-profit organizations.

Since 2021, I’ve been working with The VII Foundation, where I am now the Education Director with responsibility for VII Academy, VII Insider, and VII Community. 

Between 2015 and 2020, I worked in senior management at the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam, first as the Director of Communications and Engagement and then as Director of Programs and Outreach (see my LinkedIn profile for details).

In the five years prior to that, I worked freelance and researched "The Integrity of the Image" report, directed the Multimedia Research Project for World Press Photo, taught "Media and War" as the A. Lindsay O'Connor Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University in New York, lectured on the MA International Multimedia Journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, filmed and produced "Home," a series of videos for the West End Refugee Service in Newcastle, produced Laygate Stories in collaboration with Peter Fryer, wrote for TIME Lightbox among other photography publications, co-hosted and produced the Multimedia Week podcast, and served as the Secretary to the World Press Photo General Jury for the 2014 and 2015 contests.

In that period, I also served as a Visiting Professor in the Northern Centre of Photography at Sunderland University in the UK, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland in Australia. At the University of Queensland, I continue to work with colleagues in the Visual Politics Research Program, especially on the Australian Research Council-funded investigation, “Visualising Humanitarian Crises: Transforming Images and Aid Policy” (2022-2025).

How did I get to this intersection of the visual, media, and politics?

I began my career as a press secretary and speech writer to an Australian senator, before completing a Ph.D. in International Relations. For the twenty years up until 2010, I was a professor teaching visual culture, geography, and international politics at universities in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

My academic research has been concerned with how people and places globally are represented. I've written or edited six books, published over 60 articles and essays, and curated and researched three large visual projects (Atrocity, Memory, Photography: Imaging Famine; The Visual Economy of HIV-AIDS. For an overview of my research publications, please consult my Google Scholar profile and see this list of articles, essays, and reports on photography and the visual economy.