A/Pr Jess Carniel

Biography

Jess Carniel is an Associate Professor in Humanities in the School of Humanities and Communication. She is also Chair of the USQ Human Research Ethics Committee and an Executive Member of the Centre for Heritage and Culture. Jess is currently a non-residential Research Fellow (2024-2026) at the Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California.

Drawing upon a broad humanistic tradition, she teaches international relations, ethics, and critical theory. She has previously taught into the areas of Australian Studies, Gender Studies, Sports Studies, International Studies, and History at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and Victoria University.

Located at the intersection of Cultural Studies and International Studies, her research reveals how various cultural phenomena, from the Eurovision Song Contest to the British royal family, help us to develop a deep and critical understanding of multicultural and globalised communities. Her research interests encompass popular culture, globalisation, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, and gender in Australian and global society.

Jess is Australia's preeminent scholar of the Eurovision Song Contest, focusing her research on understanding its meaning and significance for Australian audiences within a changing context of multiculturalism, globalisation, and shifting regional geopolitics. She is the author of Understanding the Eurovision Song Contest in Multicultural Australia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and the co-editor of Eurovision and Australia: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Down Under (with Chris Hay (UQ) Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

With her expertise in cultural studies and international studies, Jess is keen to supervise research projects that seek to understand how cultures, communities, and identities navigate contemporary society and politics in Australia and globally. This can include popular culture, local communities, and global movements and events. She is particularly interested in projects centred on ideas of soft power and cultural diplomacy.

Expertise

Eurovision Song Contest, popular culture, multiculturalism, soft power, cultural diplomacy, Pop Culture World Politics (PCWP - IR), Australian migration and migrant cultures, globalisation, transnationalism, race and ethnicity, cultural studies, fan studies, sport (esp. soccer), Australian studies, gender studies, international relations

Teaching

INR1002 Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy

INR3005 Migrant Worlds: Contemporary Global Migration

INR3007 Global Environmental Politics

HAC1005 Building Agency

HAC1006 Global Lives and Disruption

Fields of Research

• 430399. Historical studies not elsewhere classified
• 440808. International relations
• 449999. Other human society not elsewhere classified
• 470208. Culture, representation and identity
• 470209. Environment and culture
• 470210. Globalisation and culture
• 470211. Migrant cultural studies
• 470212. Multicultural, intercultural and cross-cultural studies
• 470214. Screen and media culture
• 470299. Cultural studies not elsewhere classified

Professional Membership