Professor John Hartley
AM, BA (Wales), PhD (Murdoch), DLitt (Wales), FAHA, FRSA, ICA Fellow
Professor of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies
Overview
John Hartley was JOMEC’s first Head (1996-2000), before taking up a post in Australia as Foundation Dean of the world’s first Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology. Now he has returned on a part-time basis to JOMEC, with an appointment through Cardiff University’s “Serious Brain Power” scheme. At the same time he is Professor of Cultural Science and Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University (Perth, Western Australia).
He is a member of the ARC (Australian Research Council) College of Experts, Fellow of the International Communication Association, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and recipient of the Order of Australia. A former ARC Federation Fellow (2005-10), he was co-founder of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (the CCI: cci.edu.au). He is a visiting researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB Berlin).
John Hartley has published over 200 articles and 24 books, including: The Uses of Digital Literacy (UQP 2009), Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts (Routledge 2011), Digital Futures for Cultural and Media Studies (Wiley 2012), Key Concepts in Creative Industries (co-author, Sage 2012), and A Companion to New Media Dynamics (co-editor, Wiley 2013). He is completing a book on Cultural Science with Jason Potts (Bloomsbury).
John Hartley was educated at University College Cardiff, graduating with a degree in English Language and Literature. While at Cardiff he co-founded Gair Rhydd, the student newspaper. He completed his PhD at Murdoch University, Western Australia, and received a Doctor of Letters (earned higher doctorate) at the University of Wales in 2000.
His career has been divided between Wales and Australia: he has worked at the Polytechnic of Wales and Cardiff University in Wales; and at Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University, Queensland University of Technology and Curtin University in Australia.
John Hartley’s recent research focus has been on the creative economy, especially the role of user-created content or “DIY” productivity in digital and social networks, and the internationalization of the creative industries (especially in China and emerging economies). He is working on a new book for Sage on “Whose Creative Industries?”
Hartley is also interested in the disciplinary modernization of cultural studies and the humanities more generally, collaborating with an international group of researchers to develop the field of “cultural science,” which seeks to connect cultural studies to recent advances in the evolutionary and complexity sciences. The objective is to reconceptualize culture as a population-wide dynamic resource for productivity, learning and innovation. Hartley is co-authoring a book on this topic for Bloomsbury Academic.
At JOMEC, Hartley is collaborating with Ian Hargreaves on the AHRC-funded “Creative Citizens” project.