Dr Rebecca Johinke

PhD Adel
Lecturer

+61 2 9351 4516
Room S350, John Woolley Building (A20)
I have very broad-ranging interests in language, literature, rhetoric, film, and popular culture. Having said that, I have two main areas of teaching and research. Firstly, my curiosity about representations of gender and power in contemporary Australian literature and film led to my doctoral project about masculinities and car culture. I maintain an interest in Australian film and popular culture and I continue to research and publish in this area. That research has also morphed into an engagement with representations of cityscapes and street culture more generally and a specific interest the figure of the flâneur. The work of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin is of particular interest in this context. Secondly, I have taught writing for many years and am interested in writing and ethics and the rhetorical context of writing and publishing. Currently, this interest is demonstrated in undergraduate teaching in modern rhetoric and postgraduate teaching in magazine culture and creative non-fiction. I am happy to supervise Honours or postgraduate students in any of those areas.

As part of my service to the University, I am the Director of Student Support Programs in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. In recent years, I have served as the Director of the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the Director of the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BAS).

Current teaching

In 2012, I will coordinate two postgraduate units of study. The first is a Winter School subject entitled ENGL6970 Magazines and Australian Print Culture, which I will offer in intensive mode over a two-week period in July. The second is a unit of study that I co-coordinate with Dr Fiona Giles from MECO entitled ENGL6984 Creative non-fiction workshop. We invite prominent Australian writers to share their insights with students and in past years guest speakers have included Linda Jaivin, David Marr, James Bradley, Mark Mordue and Mark Tredinnick. Seminars will be held on Monday evenings in Semester 2 and I welcome queries about both of these postgraduate units of study. I will coordinate one undergraduate senior unit in Semester 2 entitled ENGL3615 Street Narratives. All interested undergraduates are encouraged to contact me if they wish to know more about this unit of study.

I am currently supervising (or co-supervising) a number of postgraduate research students. Their projects range from: the films of John Sayles and John Wayne, women’s crime fiction, cancer narratives, psychogeography, and the work of DH Lawrence and Brett Easton Ellis. I welcome enquiries from prospective Honours, Masters, and PhD students.

Current projects

I have recently finished a book chapter for a collection examining adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. My chapter focuses on adaptations of ‘The Man of the Crowd’. This work relates to my interest in street narratives (literary cities), the flâneur, film adaptations, and modern rhetoric.

I have recently published two journal articles about Australian film and completed a book chapter entitled ‘Welcome to Hell: Nick Cave and Ghosts… of the Civil Dead’ which will soon appear in an edited collection about Nick Cave. These projects build on my continued interest in Australian film and popular culture. I am currently working on another book chapter about Cave, this one for an American collection examining evil in popular music.

I am also investigating the possibility of compiling an edited collection about Australian magazine culture. This relates to my interest in Australian writing and popular culture and the rhetorical context of writing.

As part of my new role as Director of Student Support Services, I will be working with colleagues on a number of research projects relating to student support and welfare.

Forthcoming Publications

• ‘Welcome to Hell: Nick Cave and Ghosts… of the Civil Dead’ in Nick Cave Essays ed John Baker, Intellect Publishing, UK (forthcoming).
• ‘The Pleasure of Losing One’s Way: Adapting Poe’s ‘The Man of the Crowd’’ in Adapting Poe: Re-imaginings in Popular Culture. eds. Carl Sederholm and Dennis Perry. McMillan Palgrave, USA (forthcoming).

Recent Publications

• ‘Uncanny carnage in Peter Weir's The Cars that Ate Paris', Sydney Studies in English, 36(2010): 108-126.
• ‘Not quite Mad Max: Brian Trenchard-Smith's Dead End Drive-In’, Studies in Australasian Cinema, 3.3 (2009): 309-320.
• ‘Sydney, our literary city’, Sydney Alumni Magazine, Autumn (2007): 20-23.
• Review of Rayner, Jonathan. The Films of Peter Weir (2nd Edition) (New York, London: Continuum, 2003) for Metro Magazine 148 (2006): 205-207, Metro, 148(2006), 205-207.
• ‘Idiot Box: Mick Cameron as Yobbo Flâneur’. The Journal of Australian Studies. 78 (2003): 147-155.
• ‘Manifestations of Masculinities: Mad Max and the Lure of the Forbidden Zone’. The Journal of Australian Studies (Fresh Cuts – New Talents 2001). 67 (2001): 118–125.
• ‘Misogyny, Muscles and Machines: Cars and Masculinity in Australian Literature’. Australian Studies. 15.2 (Winter 2000): 95-111.