Dr Steven Maras

BA Curtin University
Hons Murdoch University
PhD (Communication Studies) Murdoch University
Phone +61 2 9036 7041
Address Room 209, Reception, Level 2, Footbridge Theatre Terrace
Access adjacent to Footbridge Theatre and Footbridge over Parramatta Road
A09a - Footbridge Theatre
Email .
Consultation Times
Tuesday and Wednesday 3pm-4pm
A graduate of Curtin University in Western Australia (1988), Steven studied Honours at Murdoch University, and received his PhD in Communication Studies from Murdoch University (1994). He joined the Media and Communications department in 2005 after ten years teaching at the University of Western Sydney. He has published articles and essays in numerous journals in Australia and internationally, and is on the editorial advisory board of Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, the Global Media Journal (Australian Edition), and the Journal of Screenwriting. Steven has strong interests in both teaching and research, and is a firm believer in the possibility of a productive dialogue between scholarly and intellectual work and media practice and industries. He is author of Screenwriting: History, Theory, Practice (Wallflower Press, 2009), and is working on a manuscript on Objectivity in Journalism for Polity Press. He has a special interest in critical media literacies and the relationship of theory and practice; video production; how we understand and theorise communication; and all those aspects of media and communications that makes it such a fascinating area today.
Research Interests
- Philosophy of communications
- Communication and media studies
- Conceptual practice and media production/education
- The theory, history and practice of screen writing
- Critical communications and media practice, pedagogy and media literacy
- Historical research on the emergence of communication studies in Australia.
Publications
- ‘Coupling and Decoupling Theory and Practice: Rationalising Media and Journalism Education in the University (after James W. Carey)’, China Media Report, Trans. Hong Feng Qiu, 39:3 (July 2011).p. 25-29.http://www.chnmedia.com/wordpress/?p=2982
- ‘Some Attitudes and Trajectories in Screenwriting Research’, Journal of Screenwriting 2:2 (2011), pp. 273-284.
- ‘In Search of "Screenplay": Terminological Traces in the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries: Cumulative Series, 1912–20’, Film History 21: 4 (2009), pp. 346-358.
- Screenwriting: History, Theory, Practice. London: Wallflower Press, 2009.
- ‘On Transmission: A Metamethodological Analysis (after Regis Debray)’, fibreculture journal 12 (2008). http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue12/issue12_maras.html
- ‘Reading James W. Carey on the University Tradition’, Australian Journal of Communication, 34:3 (2007), pp. 23-37.
- 'Communicating criticality', International Journal of Communication 1:1 (2007 Feb 7). http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4
- ‘The Emergence of Communication Studies in Australia as “Curriculum Idea”’, Australian Journal of Communication, 33:2/3 (2006), pp. 43-62.
- 'Travelling with James W. Carey’, Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture and Policy, 120 (2006): pp. 21-34.
- 'Television, Participation and Social Capital', Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 20:1 (2006), pp. 87-109.
- 'Some Theses on Critical Communications Practice'. Conference Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Annual Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand. July 4-7, 2005. http://www.mang.canterbury.ac.nz/ANZCA/FullPapers/17PR&CommunityCommFINAL.pdf
- 'The Problem of Theory and Practice: Towards a Constitutive Analysis', Journal of Media Practice, 6:2 (2005) pp 93-103.
- 'Reflections on Adobe Corporation, Bill Viola, and Peter Ramus while Printing Lecture Notes.' M/C Journal 8:2 (2005). http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0506/05-maras.php.
- 'The Photoplay as Emergent Media Form: Victor O. Freeburg and Vachel Lindsay on Photoplay Aesthetics.' Screening the Past: An International, Refereed Electronic Journal of Visual Media and History' 17 (2004) http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/stp17/newfirstrelease/fr17/SMFr17a.html.
- 'Thinking about the History of ANZCA.' Australian Journal of Communication, 31:2 (2004): pp. 13-52.
- 'Notes on a Genre to Come: Screenwriting and the "Thesis-Film' The Cultural Studies Review, 10:2 (2004): pp. 85-98.
- 'An ANZCA Dossier' Compiled by Steven Maras. http://www.anzca.net/about-anzca/dossier.html An information resource on the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (2003)
- 'Communication and Social Capital Theory: A Preliminary Discussion.' Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture, 36:3 (2003): pp. 44-63.
- 'Presidents Reflect on ANZCA: Past and Future.' Australian Journal of Communication, 30:1 (2003): pp 1-24.
- 'The Communications Environment' Media International Australia, incorporating Culture and Policy, 106 (2003): pp. 94-109.
- 'The Status of the Film Script Under US Copyright Regulations: A Historical Note.' Media and Arts Law Review. 8:1 (2003): pp. 31-39.
- 'Re-Defining the Politique: Screenwriting, Auteur theory, and the Separation of Conception and Execution.' Interdisciplinary Humanities 19: 1/2 (2002): pp. 65-74.
- 'From Impartial Objectivity to Responsible Affectivity: Some Ethical Considerations of the 9-11 Attacks on America and the War on Terror.' Australian Journal of Communication 29: 3 (2002): pp. 17-30. With Lelia Green.
- 'The Medium as Platform: An Emerging Sense of Medium' nmediac: The Journal of New Media and Culture, 1, 2 (Summer 2002). http://www.ibiblio.org/nmediac/summer2002/platform.html
- 'A Semiotics of the Proxy.' Social Semiotics, 12:1 (2002): pp. 115-129.
- 'Multimedia Communication: An Interdisciplinary Approach', Information Technology, Education and Society 2:1 (2001): pp. 25-49. With David Sutton and Marion Benjamin.
- 'Beyond the Transmission Model: Shannon, Weaver, and the Critique of Sender/Message/Receiver', Australian Journal of Communication, 27:3 (2000): pp. 123-142.
- 'Thinking with the Medium: An Approach to Skilling', The UTS Review, 6:2 (November, 2000): pp. 141-166.
- 'One or Many Media' M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3:6 (2000) http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0012/many.php
- 'Medium Specificity Re-visited', Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 6:2 (Summer, 2000): pp. 98-113. With David Sutton.
- 'Translating Michèle Le Doeuff's Analytics' in Michèle Le Doeuff: Operative Philosophy and Imaginary Practice, Ed. Max Deutscher. Humanity Books, 2000. pp. 83-104.
- 'Baudrillard and Deleuze: Re-viewing the Post-modern Scene' in Jean Baudrillard, Vol. Four. Ed. Mike Gane. London: Sage Publications, 2000. pp. 352-375.
- 'The Rhetoric of Interactivity', Australian Screen Education, 23 (Winter 2000): pp. 36-44.
- 'The Film Script as Blueprint: Collaboration and Moral Rights', Media International Australia, incorporating Culture and Policy, 93 (1999): pp. 145-161.
- 'Audio-visualising Derrida', Australian Humanities Review (July-September 1999). http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-July-1999/maras.html
- 'Entropy and Community: Content, Meaning and Information in Network Culture', Metro 120 (1999): pp. 70-77.
- 'Philosophy in the Age of Megadisciplines', Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 12:2 (1998): pp. 197-215.
- 'The Bergsonian Model of Actualization', SubStance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism, [85] 27: 1 (1998): pp. 48-71.
- 'Videoconferencing as Video-writing', Southern Review: Literary and Interdisciplinary Essays, 30: 3 (1997): pp. 307-311. Part of a suite of articles with Lindsay Barrett, Marion Benjamin and Bob Hodge, 'Aberrant Practice: Teaching and Learning at the Limits of Videoconferencing'.
- 'The Internet Was Already Regulated: Netiquette, Censorship and Demarcation', Metro Education 14 (1998): pp. 14-20.
- 'Convergence/Divergence: Ten Definitions of Multimedia', Metro, 108 (1996): pp. 9-13.
- 'On Becoming - An Interview with Moira Gatens', Southern Review: Literary and Interdisciplinary Essays 28:1 (1995): pp. 53-68. Questions and Interview by Teresa Rizzo. Edited and Introduced by Steven Maras, from a transcript of a video interview.