Hailing from Perth, Western Australia, I research and teach in the field of popular music studies. I am the editor of Geographically Isolated and Peripheral Music Scenes: Global insights and perspectives (Palgrave, 2021), and the co-editor (alongside Dr Allan Watson) of Music Cities: Evaluating a global cultural policy concept (Palgrave, 2020). I am a Collaborator with the global research NGO Center for Music Ecosystems, an Editorial Board Member for the Anthem Impact in Music Business, Technology and Culture series, and Member-at-Large of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), having also served on the Editorial Board of the IASPM Journal (2019 - 2023). I have undertaken a range of research consultancies for music advocacy bodies and state government arts' departments in my native Australia and was the Research Fellow (2016 - 2019) on the Australian Research Council Linkage Project, Making Music Work: Sustainable portfolio careers for Australian musicians (LP 150100497).

My teaching experience has encompassed undergraduate level research-informed popular music history and popular music culture courses, practice-informed creative industries courses and theory-informed communications courses as well as postgraduate level research methods and research design programs (including for artistic research/ creative practice projects).

My research and teaching expertise is further complemented by experience in the arts, entertainment and media sectors in areas such as community radio, event ticketing, magazine publishing, media intelligence, music retail and print and online music journalism.

My research is primarily focused on examining the structure and function of place-based music industries and scenes, including their associated career, business, and infrastructure development, and music-related urban governance. In turn, it considers the role of music in creative and cultural cities paradigms - including the music cities concept and the emergent music ecosystems framework - and places a strong focus on the influences of locality, particularly geographical isolation and peripherality, on the ways in which music industries and scenes function.

I am currently writing a manuscript for the Bloomsbury 33 1/3 Oceania series on The Triffids' breathtaking 1986 album Born Sandy Devotional, while continuing to expand on my research agenda in music's relationship to place. This includes upcoming research and publishing projects exploring the capacity for arts and cultural engagement within chronourbanist frameworks, and the place-specific impacts of creative and cultural cities frameworks and associated initiatives.

In the 2024- 2025 academic year I will be providing undergraduate dissertation supervision while also teaching into the following courses:

1st half-session
MU1026: Introduction to Music Studies (including course co-convening)
MU5022: Research Practices (including course convening)

2nd half-session
MU1528: Writing About Music
MU3558 Music and Place/ Music in Place (including course convening)
MU5523: Research Communication (including course convening)

I will also be programming and convening the Department of Music's fortnightly reseach seminars.

Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded: 2013
Awarding institution: Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.
Dissertation: Bury me deep in isolation: A cultural examination of a peripheral industry and scene.

Graduate Diploma of Education (Tertiary and Workplace)
Awarded: 2018
Awarding institution: Murdoch University, Western Australia.

Bachelor of Communications (Hons) (Journalism and Mass Communication)
Awarded: 2009
Awarding institution: Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.
Dissertation: Regulating the notes: A case study into the impact of government regulation on the live music performances of Perth's original contemporary musicians.