TOROA TEAM
Co-Director
Dr Gudrun Frommherz
A researcher of digital communication, Gudrun inquires into the technological and visual aspects of communication with a particular interest in the visuality of the future. She also investigates creative practice as a research paradigm.
Co-Director
Associate Professor
Petra Theunissen
Petra's work focuses on stakeholder relationships, both interpersonal and mediated, in contemporary communication practice.
Co-Director
Associate Professor
Helen Sissons
Helen researches the professional practices of journalists and public relations practitioners and the intersection of both. She is particularly interested in how power is negotiated between these professionals.
Deputy Director
Associate Professor
Philippa Smith
Philippa's expertise lies in the critical analysis of (new)-media texts, particularly those that relate to social issues such as prejudice and discrimination. She was a visiting scholar at the Oxford Internet Institute in 2018.
Researcher
Deepti Bhargava
Deepti is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and her research interests include culture, diversity, PR pedagogy, digital communication and PR measurement, evaluation and reflection.
Researcher
Rachel Daniels
Rachel’s decade and a half of television production experience has influenced her research, which looks at the multitude of different platforms, specifically subscription video on demand and its impact on New Zealand broadcasting.
Researcher
Dan Fastnedge
Dan's research focuses on contemporary advertising, including how brands navigate controversial issues and shifting audience expectations.
Researcher
Dr Melissa Gould
Melissa is a critical media studies researcher. Her research focuses on promotional and popular culture, with an interest in child and youth audiences, gender representations, and media literacy.
Researcher
Dr Matthew Guinibert
Matt is a digital media practitioner and educational technologist with a passion for creative and transformative pedagogies both in and out of the classroom.
Researcher
Matt Halliday
Matt’s interest lies in how communication can help save the world. He is currently researching Aotearoa’s communication response to Covid-19, and the work done by non-government communicators that has kept New Zealand relatively Covid-free.
Researcher
Justin Matthews
Justin focuses on the areas of user inter- face and experience, future studies, gaming studies, and popular culture. He currently researches speculative user interface designs from science fiction and their relationship to contemporary technology experiences.
Researcher
Dr Atakohou Middleton
Atakohu is a journalist of Ngāti Māhanga and Pākehā whakapapa who researches Māori-language journalism.
Researcher
Dr Danielle Mulrennan
Danni is a practice-based researcher of journalism studies. She has a background in television broadcast news and sports production. Her research focuses on user-generated video content and television news.
Researcher
Associate Professor
Angelique Nairn
Angelique works in multiple research areas including morality and identity, online racism, organisational communication, and the experiences of creative workers. She recently co-edited a book on gender and voice.
Researcher
Aditya (AD) Narayan
AD is a practice-based researcher interested in community-driven video production, and future directions in the development of extended reality technologies.
Researcher
Dr Wan Norbani Wan Noordin
Wan's research focuses on communication technologies, their development and impact on academia and practice. She is the Director of the Transnational Education department at iCEPS, UiTM in Malaysia.
Researcher
Khairiah Rahman
Khairiah’s research intersects media and self-representations of marginalised communities, issues impacting diversity and inclusion, and crisis and communication paradigms in practice. Her current research is on tenets of Islamic Communication.
Researcher
Patrick Usmar
Patrick's research focus is on media literacy in adults. He also researches audience attitudes and the language of brand communications.
Researcher
Dr Zak Waipara
Zak researches traditional pūrākau (mythology) to address modern issues. He is experienced in methodologies that relate to design and creative technologies, including practice-based, heuristic, and kaupapa Māori/ indigenous research methods.
Researcher
Associate Professor
Katharina Wolf
Katharina Wolf is an Associate Professor in the School of Management and Marketing at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, and Lead of the Faculty of Business and Law’s public relations program.
Affiliate Researcher
Mark Rasquinha
Mark's PhD research focuses on elections, interest groups and political parties. He is interested in how power is negotiated between communication professionals in the practice of political public relations.
Affiliate Researcher
Dr Stephanie Sageo-Tapungu †
Stephanie researched the relationships and interactions between journalists and PR practitioners in Papua New Guinea. She was a scholar at the Divine World University Madang, Papua New Guinea. Her enthusiasm, generosity and kindness will forever guide us.
Affiliate Researcher
Sophia Spivak
Sophia is a visual communicator and a digital experience designer working across public, private and tertiary education sectors. Sophia’s research interests lie in exploring digital technology in museography and exhibition communication.
Affiliate Researcher
Karl Udy
Karl researches in the areas of not-for-profit and digital communication, with a particular focus on new media and religion.
Graduate Researcher
Antionette Gyan
Antoinette is a researcher in the field of women's leadership. She is passionate about women's empowerment and gender equality. Her advocacy covers voice and representation, social constructs, stereotypes and gender parity in public relations.
Graduate Researcher
Cindy Wang
Cindy is a student researcher in the field of social media, and visual and digital communication. She is currently doing her PhD on content creation strategies for vlogs by vloggers.