Dr Brett Nicholls, Our People, Media, Film and Communication

BA(Hons) PhD(Murd) Brett_2019
Senior Lecturer

Contact

Office 3N2, 3rd floor, Arts (Burns) Building
Tel +64 3 4798819
Email brett.nicholls@otago.ac.nz
@minorpolitics
Google scholar
Research gate

Editor
Baudrillard Now
Borderlands: Culture, Politics, Law and Earth

Research

Brett is immersed in research on media and politics, critical theory, and discourse analysis. His published work includes critical analyses of documentary film, wearable fitness devices, social media, and television. He is also a specialist on Jean Baudrillard’s thought. Brett’s latest work takes a historical view of reactionary politics in Australia and New Zealand. It considers the ideological formation of this politics, its evolution over time, and its integration into today’s mainstream political discourse.

Brett has extensive experience supervising PhD and MA students and is currently looking for students in the following areas of research: Far-right politics, poststructuralist discourse analysis, Baudrillard and culture, political pundits, ecofascism.

Supervisions Successfully Completed

11 PhDs

Anita Brady, Constituting queer: Performativity and commodity culture (completed 2007).

Garth Cartright, We live inside a dream: Ideology and utopia in the films of David Lynch (completed 2011).

Anne Begg, Brand New Zealand: Media governmentality and affective biopower (completed 2012).

Ma Weijun, Fruitful land and national cadres: Mainstreaming resistance and critical realism in contemporary Chinese TV drama (completed 2012).

Florian Deffner, Communicative mobility and networked mediation in transnational lifeworlds: A case study of European expatriates in Australia (completed 2013).

Donald Reid, Solid to liquid culture: The institutional, political and economic transformation of New Zealand state broadcasting (completed 2014).

Chris Hacon, The algorithmic subject: the neo-liberal apparatus and the social media technology of power (completed 2017).

Massimiliana Urbano, Becoming-common: Affective technologies and grassroots activism in contemporary Italy(completed 2017).

Paul Kirkham, Mimesis and power (completed 2019 and added to the Humanities Divisional List of Exceptional Doctoral theses).

Thaera Yousef, Women and Islam in Malaysia: Narrative and myth in the qualitative analysis of two controversial online news stories between 2014 and 2018 (completed 2020).

Ryan Tippet, Constituitive surveillance and social media (completed 2021).

6 MAs (by thesis only and coursework dissertations)

Donald Reid, Cultural citizenship and the TVNZ charter: the possibility for multicultural representation in the commercial television environment (completed 2005).

Logan Valentine, The subject of the cell phone (completed 2009).

Alison Blair, Children of the revolution: Bolan, Bowie and the carnivalesque (completed 2017).

George Elliott, Deterrence and disappearance: A Baudrillardian analysis of war and spaceflight (completed 2021).

Caroline Morrati, Contemporary tragedy in the time of cancellation: Examining parallels between cancel culture and Greek tragedy within a framework of democratic citizenry (completed 2021).

Casey Longstreth, Alt-text and accessibility content: Translating the visual to the written (completed 2022).

18 Honours Dissertations - the most recent include:

Rosa Marden, “Spaces of information: an analysis of surveillance, the supermarket and self-scan” (completed 2012).

Alastair Lynn, “News or infotainment? an analysis of the shifting ideology in New Zealand current affairs programming” (completed 2013).

Siala Farini-Tomlin, “Poster girls: an exploration of post-fordist labour practices in the HBO show, Girls” (completed 2013).

George Elliott, "Obscene & fatal transparency: War porn, Baudrillard's hyperreal & plobal post-9/11 war" (completed 2017).

Grace Fogavai, "Trust the process: Tik Tok and its transformative impact on young social media users" (completed 2021).

Rachel Tsai, "The empty promise: A poststructuralist discourse analysis of Taiwan's 12-Year basic education (completed 2023).

Publications

Nicholls, B. (2024). The emptying empty signifier: Antagonistic discourse and the far-right Australian League of Rights. Proceedings of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Conference. (pp. 62). Retrieved from https://iamcr.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Millar, I., Nicholls, B., Overell, R., & Tutt, D. (2024). Power and politics in Adam Curtis' Can't get you out of my head: An emotional history of the modern world. In C. Owens & S. Meehan O'Callaghan (Eds.), Psychoanalysis and the small screen: The year the cinemas closed. (pp. 163-189). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003272069-11 Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2023). A satanic master signifier: The prosperity preacher, the President, and the disobedient virus. Journal of Religion & Popular Culture, 35(3), 136-149. doi: 10.3138/jrpc.2021-0057 Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B. (2023). An antagonistic history of the Australian League of Rights. Proceedings of the Australian & New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) Conference: Ka mua, ka muri: Bridging communication pasts and futures. (pp. 160). Retrieved from https://www.anzca2023.com Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Moro, S., Overell, R. & Nicholls, B. (2023, August). Barbie: Possibilities and impasses. Pop up discussion hosted by the Media, Film and Communications Programme, University of Otago, New Zealand. [Public Discussion]. Other Research Output

2024

Chapter in Book - Research

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

2023

Journal - Research Article

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Other Research Output

2022

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2022, November-December). A Satanic master signifier: The prosperity preacher, the President, and the disobedient virus. Verbal presentation at the Performing Global Crises Conference, [Hybrid].

Nicholls, B. (2022, June). It's RAT time: The rapid antigen test as (new) object of the everyday. Verbal presentation at the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) Conference: Bodies in Flux, Perth, Australia.

2021

Journal - Research Other

Nicholls, B. (2021). [Review of the book Universality and identity politics]. Continental Thought & Theory, 3(3), 400-403. doi: 10.26021/12246

Nicholls, B. (2021). Do we really want a return to normal? [Introduction]. borderlands, 20(2), 1-3. doi: 10.21307/borderlands-2021-010

Other Research Output

Millar, I., Tutt, D., Nicholls, B., & Overell, R. (2021, March). Can't get you out of my head: Power, politics and the films of Adam Curtis. Panel discussion hosted by the Media, Film and Communication Programme, University of Otago, [Online]. [Public Discussion].

2020

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B. (2020). The fate of energy: Wyrmwood: Road of the dead, ecology and Baudrillard's zombie. Baudrillard Now, 1(1), 22-28.

2019

Edited Book - Research

Overell, R., & Nicholls, B. (Eds.). (2019). Post-truth and the mediation of reality: New conjectures. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-25670-8

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2019). Postmodernism in the twenty-first century: Jordan Peterson, Jean Baudrillard and the problem of chaos. In R. Overell & B. Nicholls (Eds.), Post-truth and the mediation of reality: New conjectures. (pp. 57-77). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-25670-8_4

Overell, R., & Nicholls, B. (2019). Introduction: Post-truth and the mediation of reality. In R. Overell & B. Nicholls (Eds.), Post-truth and the mediation of reality: New conjectures. (pp. 1-12). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-25670-8_1

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Nicholls, B. (2019). In catastrophic times: Jean Baudrillard's impossible exchange with science. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy (ASCP). (pp. 77). Retrieved from https://www.ascp.org.au

2018

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B., Begg, A., Williams, J., Hayden, L., & Stutchbury, S. (2018, August). The changing face of advertising and effect it's having on business, particularly media. Panel discussion at the University of Otago Winter Symposium Series, Auckland, New Zealand.

Nicholls, B. (2018, July). The return of the object: Baudrillard in the anthropocene. Verbal presentation at the On the Anthropocene: A Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2017

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2017). Mediation. In G. Ritzer, J. M. Ryan & B. Thorn (Eds.), The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology. Wiley. doi: 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosm072.pub2

Journal - Research Article

Devadas, V., & Nicholls, B. (2017). The misplaced public of New Zealand media: Notes toward a future media scene. MEDIANZ, 17(1), 116-134. Retrieved from https://medianz.otago.ac.nz/medianz/article/view/183

Nicholls, B. (2017). Adam Curtis's compelling logic: The tortuous corridor to the hypernormal. borderlands, 16(1).

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2017, November). Baudrillard and science: Objectivity, uncertainty, and the vital illusion. Verbal presentation at the Mediating the Real 2 Conference: Mediations in a Post-Truth Era, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2016

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2016). Everyday modulation: Dataism, health apps and the production of self-knowledge. In H. Randell-Moon & R. Tippet (Eds.), Security, race, biopower: Essays on technology and corporeality. (pp. 101-120). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-55408-6_6

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B. (2016). Baudrillard in a ‘post-truth’ world: Groundwork for a critique of the rise of Trump. MEDIANZ, 16(2), 6-30. Retrieved from https://medianz.otago.ac.nz/medianz/article/view/206

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Nicholls, B. (2016). The fate of energy in the zombie film: Wyrmwood and the struggle for power in the post-apocalyptic Australian bush. Proceedings of the New Research on Horror Conference. Retrieved from http://www.otago.ac.nz/horror2016/index.html

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2016, August-September). The ambivalent object: Baudrillard, sign systems, and the mediation of the real. Verbal presentation at the Mediating the Real Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2015

Journal - Research Other

Nicholls, B. (2015). Neoliberalism, media and the political. MEDIANZ, 15(2), 96-103. doi: 10.11157/medianz-vol15iss2id156

2014

Authored Book - Other

Pearson, E., Taffel, S., Nicholls, B., Wengermeir, M., Chen, K.-W., Phillips, H., … Madill, B., Ross, J., Gallagher, S., Fisher, T., Kabir, S. N. J., Ceuterick, M., & Urbano, M. (2014). Media Studies 101: A Creative Commons textbook. Media Texthack Group. Retrieved from https://mediatexthack.wordpress.com/

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B. (2014). Edward W. Said: Cultural critic, activist, public intellectual. Critical Race & Whiteness Studies, 10(1). Retrieved from http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/223Nicholls20141_2.pdf

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Nicholls, B. (2014). Surveillance and simulation: Baudrillard, Deluze and control. Proceedings of the Surveillance, Copyright, Privacy: The End of the Open Internet Conference. Retrieved from https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/scpconf/

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2014, August). Fixing the odds: Mobile self-management technology and the ethical constitution of neoliberal subjectivity. Verbal presentation at the Competing Responsibilities Conference: The Ethics and Politics of Responsibility in Contemporary Life, Wellington, New Zealand.

Nicholls, B. (2014, October). The counting self: mobile self-management technology, data and ethics. Verbal presentation at the Media Ubiquity Symposium: Spaces, Places and Networks, Auckland, New Zealand.

Nicholls, B. (2014, December). Counting selves: Mobile self-management technology, the every day, and the rise of a new ethics. Verbal presentation at the Space, Race, Bodies Conference: Geocorpographies of City, Nation, Empire, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2013

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2013, November). The problematic practico-inert: Critiques of disaster narratives in Adam Curtis's documentary films. Verbal presentation at the Disaster! A Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Other Research Output

Huat, C. B., Schonthal, B., Voci, P., Hill, D., Ghosh, G., Devadas, V., & Nicholls, B. (2013). The Asian century: Encounters and exchanges [Panel discussion], Asian Migrations Research Theme, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Department Seminar].

2012

Journal - Research Article

Devadas, V., & Nicholls, B. (2012). The meaning of John Key. New Zealand Journal of Media Studies, 13(2), 18-31. doi: 10.11157/medianz-vol13iss2id13

Journal - Research Other

Nicholls, B., & Devadas, V. (2012). Introduction: New Zealand/Aotearoa 2011: Politics, disaster, spectacle. New Zealand Journal of Media Studies, 13(2), 1-3. [Editorial].

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2012, October). Two Spinozas: Reading Deleuze back against Negri. Verbal presentation at the Affecting Deleuze Conference: A Conference on the Ethics of Gilles Deleuze, Auckland, New Zealand.

Nicholls, B. (2012, June). Forms of social critique in the TV documentaries of Adam Curtis. Verbal presentation at the London Symposium: Film and Media: Second Annual London Film and Media Conference: The End of Representation? London, UK.

2011

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B. (2011). Documenting conspiracy: The Loose Change series and truth-telling in the state of exception. borderlands, 10(3). Retrieved from http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol10no3_2011/nicholls_documenting.htm

Nicholls, B. (2011). Hardt, Negri, and antagonism: Media and communication studies in the context of Empire. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 35(4), 322-327. doi: 10.1177/0196859911415674

Nicholls, B. (2011). East West 101 as edgy text: Television police drama and Australian multiculturalism. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25(4), 573-582. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2011.578732

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2011, November). Global citizenship and the multitude in the context of Empire. Verbal presentation at the Postcolonial Studies Research Network Conference: Citizenship in an Era of Global Crisis, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2010

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2010). Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm Von (1646-1716). In A. Parr (Ed.), The Deleuze dictionary. (Revised ed.) (pp. 145-147). Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

Nicholls, B., & Barratt, A. (2010). The Kumars at No. 42: The dynamics of hyphenation, or did Sanjeev take Parkie down? In C. Prentice, V. Devadas & H. Johnson (Eds.), Cultural transformations: Perspectives on translocation in a global age. (pp. 275-306). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Nicholls, B. (2010). Documenting conspiracy: The Loose Change series as truth telling tactic in the state of exception. Proceedings of the Association for Cultural Studies (ACS) Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference. Retrieved from http://cultstud.org/xr2010/crossroad/individual_paper.html

2009

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2009). The ludic integration of the game and film industries: The Lord of the Rings computer games as entertainment meritocracies. In H. Margolis, S. Cubitt, B. King & T. Jutel (Eds.), Studying the event film: The Lord of the Rings. (pp. 280-290). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Vincent, A., Smits, K., Marquez, X., Shogimen, T., Nel, P., Lam, C., Nicholls, B., Stringer, R., & Clements, K. (2009, May). Liberalism and comparative political theory. Panel discussion at the Workshop on Liberalism and Comparative Political Theory, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Nicholls, B. (2009, June). The Italian Foucault. Verbal presentation at the Department of Media, Film & Communication Foucault Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2008

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B., & Ryan, S. (2008). Gameplay as thirdspace. In M. Swalwell & J. Wilson (Eds.), The pleasures of computer gaming: Essays on cultural history, theory and aesthetics. (pp. 167-190). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Nicholls, B. (2008). Contesting Islamophobia: East West 101 and the imperative of liberal tolerance in Australia. In C. Fowler & R. Simmons (Eds.), Proceedings of the XIVth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand (Vol. 1: Refereed Abstracts). (pp. 58-59). Dunedin, New Zealand: Department of Film, Media and Communication, University of Otago. [Abstract]

2007

Chapter in Book - Research

Nicholls, B. (2007). Mediation. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (Vol. VI). (pp. 2923-2928). Malden, MA: Blackwell. doi: 10.1111/b.9781405124331.2007.x

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nicholls, B. (2007, February). Problematizing a small market: The construction of the media studies object in New Zealand [Plenary panel discussion: Media critique in Aotearoa/New Zealand]. Verbal presentation at the MediaNZ Conference, Wellington, New Zealand.

2004

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B., & Ryan, S. (2004). Playing in the zone: Thirdspace in Jet Set Radio Future and Shenmue II. Scan, 1(1). Retrieved from www.scan.net.au/scan/journal/display_article.php?recordID=22

2003

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B., & Ryan, S. C. (2003). Game, space and the politics of cyberplay. FineArt Forum, 17(8). Retrieved from http://www.msstate.edu/Fineart_Online/Backissues/Vol_17/faf_v17_n08/reviews/nicholls.html

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Full paper

Nicholls, B., & Ryan, S. C. (2003). Playing in the zone: Thirdspace in Jet Set Radio Future and Shenmue II. In P. Crogan (Ed.), Ludic moments, computer games for the time being. Sydney: Artspace. [Full Paper]

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Barratt, A., & Nicholls, B. (2003, December). The Kumars at no. 42: The politics of hyphenation, or did Parky take Sanjeev down? Verbal presentation at the Cultural Studies Association of Australia Conference 2003: Culture incorporated: Bodies, technologies, habitats, Christchurch.

2002

Journal - Research Article

Devadas, V., & Nicholls, B. (2002). Postcolonial interventions: Gayatri Spivak, three wise men and the native informat. Critical Horizons, 3(1), 73-101.

2000

Journal - Research Article

Devadas, V., & Nicholls, B. (2000). A contaminated critique. Third Text, 52, 86-88.

Nicholls, B. (2000). Disrupting the Kantian sublime: Gordon Bennett's painting for a new republic (the inland sea) and the rule of reason. Balayi, 1(1), 129-148.

Journal - Research Other

Nicholls, B., Rowe, D., Barker, C., Scriven, M., & Lecomte, M. (2000). Sport, culture and the media. Television globalisation and cultural identities. Television broadcasting in contemporary France and Britain. Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 14(1), 110-112.

1997

Journal - Research Article

Nicholls, B. (1997). Disrupting time: Post colonial politics in Homi Bhabha's. The location of culture. Southern Review, 30(1), 4-25.