Adrienne Arnot-Bradshaw is an early career researcher and PhD candidate in Media and Communication at RMIT. A founding member of MIRC, her research considers the impact involvement in underground music scenes can have on developing political outlooks, with a particular focus on Melbourne’s punk and post-punk underground. Using ethnographic tools, Adrienne interrogates the scene’s politically progressive reputation and considers the ways skills and political perspectives gained through the music underground may lend themselves to broader political activism. Adrienne is also on the global steering committee for the Punk Scholars Network and is the current chair for its Australian branch.

Associate Professor Shelley Brunt is an ethnomusicologist who researches the relationship between parents, young children and the popular music industry. Her work includes the book Popular Music and Parenting, which examines family-friendly live music concerts, musicians as parents, and children's music media.

Ethan Bryant, a PhD Student at RMIT University, has a keen interest in exposing often overlooked aspects of the pop music industry, particularly around the exploitation of women in stardom. Ethan completed his honours in Media and Communication in 2022, writing on Kylie Minogue as a gay icon through the tri-lenses of artistic reinvention, the diva, and drag.

Dr Mike Callander is a Lecturer at RMIT University and a DJ, music producer and Ableton Certified Trainer. His practice-led research examines the intersections between DJ technique, recorded music formats, performance technologies and dance music culture. The reach of his work is vast: highlights include music festivals across Europe, an art gallery in Singapore, record stores in Tokyo, and morning TV in Melbourne. He has collaborated with chart-topping commercial artists such as The Avalanches and The Presets, while also maintaining a coveted weekly DJ residency at Revolver Upstairs, arguably Australia’s best-known nightclub, since 2010. In 2013 Mike became Ableton Certified, one of less than 400 people worldwide to be endorsed by the makers of Live (software) and Push (hardware), and one of only two in Australia to hold this qualification alongside a PhD. Accordingly, he has taught music production and performance in conservatoriums, abandoned warehouses, retail stores and in the homes of rockstars. Recently Mike brought Techno DJ practice to the unlikely realm of Research Higher Degrees at the University of Melbourne, where he completed a PhD in 2022. His subsequent work challenges the traditional form of recorded music and music performance.

Lauren completed her PhD at Griffith University in 2023. Her project 'Representing Reggaeton' explored cultural heritage stakeholders and practices related to the Afro-Caribbean popular music genre, reggaeton. Her research interests include unpacking the role that museums, archives and galleries play in the delivery of cultural and social justice outcomes.

Sebastian is a Lecturer in Music Industry at RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication. An audio engineer and music producer, specialised in videogame music, popular music, and ethnomusicology. His main area of research is ludomusicology, the study of videogame music, focusing on why people listen to videogame music when they are not playing the game. This involves market research, studying fandom and game audiences; and people’s personal relationships with music and games.

Sebastian has been awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Learning and Teaching 2019, and the KPMG Acclaimed Educator Award in 2019.

Tami Gadir is a researcher in music, society, culture, and politics. Her work addresses dance music/DJ cultures and, more recently, has turned to the social life and history of labour choirs. Gadir runs the MIRC Music Studies Reading Group (all welcome).

Professor Mark Gibson researches cultural industries and cultural policy, with a particular focus on fringe cultures as sites of value formation. His recent co-authored book Fringe to Famous examines cross-over between fringe cultures in Australia and the mainstream, including punk and post-punk music since the 1970s. The book argues for a ‘post-creative industries’ approach to cultural policy – one that recognises contradictions and tensions between cultural and economic value – with the music industry as a key case. He is currently working on a project on performance comedy in Australia as an agent of social and cultural change. The project, Comedy Country, is in partnership with Arts Centre Melbourne, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the National Film and Sound Archive among others. Musical forms are, again, key examples.

Moses Iten is a PhD candidate at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, researching digital cumbia as a process of creolization and the influence of Mexican sonidera sound system culture. Moses also investigates Australia’s contribution to global sound system cultures with the University of Sydney for the Sonic Street Technologies research project (2021-2025) coordinated by Goldsmiths, University of London. His methodology is built on twenty years of practice as a professional DJ/music producer, radio broadcaster and documentary producer. His research contributes to the study of ways of knowing connected to sound system and electronic dance music cultures, as well cultural change in complex and contested contexts marked by colonization and globalization. Moses is Foreign Languages Editor at Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music and his working languages are English, German, Spanish and French. As a DJ/producer of the Cumbia Cosmonauts project, Moses has toured every continent and has released music on numerous labels in Australia, Europe and the Americas.

Jeri is a PhD Candidate at RMIT University. Her research focusses on women and gender-diverse instrumentalists in Melbourne music scenes, as well as broader issues relating to gender in the music industry. She has played the drums in several bands over the past 15 years in both Perth and Melbourne.

Dr Paige Klimentou is a sessional lecturer and tutor at RMIT University. She graduated with her PhD in 2022, and her research focuses on fandom, feminism, and archiving by looking at band tattoos in the Australian hardcore scene. She plays bass in sadgaze band World Sick, and emo band Welfare.

Angus Maclaurin is a PhD Student at RMIT’s School of Media and Communication researching the intersections between electronic music, culture, and philosophy. His PhD research is centred on demarcating the cultural phenomenon of post-rave: a period of British electronic music in the mid-90s and early-2000s.

As a second year PhD candidate at RMIT University, Charlotte is researching the status of rock in Australian popular culture. While Charlotte’s work has previously investigated blues appropriations in contemporary popular rock music, her current research explores the rock canon and what positions rock to become understood and upheld as “the best of all time”.

Al Marsden is a PhD candidate at RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication. His research focuses on the relationship between humour and hegemony in heavy metal music; how metal media has the potential both to maintain normative attitudes and to critique systems of power through humour. He has presented papers on this topic at conferences hosted by the Australasian Humour Studies Network and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Australia/New Zealand.

Al’s research interests are at the intersection of popular culture and music industry, areas which inform his teaching (RMIT, Monash University) and publishing (Perfect Beat) activities.

Max Melit is a PhD student at RMIT University, studying the mediatized infrastructure of music scenes and how capital flows across social media platforms. Max completed a Master of Philosophy at QUT in 2023 and is also the founder and editor-in-chief of a music zine, Stew Mag, which has been in circulation since 2020 with over 25 issues printed.

Dr Kat Nelligan is a proud Gamilaraay woman and Lecturer in Music Industry. Her research areas include branding and storytelling in music, and music and youth justice, as well as music and social and emotional wellbeing. Her forthcoming book, Brand Lady Gaga (Bloomsbury 2024), explores the role of stars and stardom in the twenty-first century. She is song writer, music producer, and performer who composes music under the artist name of Zaffiri (zaffirimusic.com).

Kate Pattison is a third year PhD Candidate at RMIT. She researches pop music fandom, with a focus on fans of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Delta Goodrem and BTS. Her PhD research looks at the relationship between pop music fandom, skill development, creativity, and professional pathways. She was on the steering committee for the Swiftposium, co-organised the Fanposium, and was awarded the Postgraduate prize at the annual IASPM-ANZ conference in 2022. Kate also works as a social media consultant in the entertainment industry, through her business The Idea Cult, and is currently the Web Officer for the Australia-Aotearoa/New Zealand branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).

Dr Ian Rogers is a Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication. He is the author of numerous articles on musician ideologies, music policy and local music history. His last book-length work is Popular Music Scenes and Cultural Memory with Andy Bennett.

Joel Stern is a researcher, curator, and artist living in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia, and currently holds the position of Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in DSC|School - Media & Communication, RMIT. With a background in experimental music, Stern’s work focuses on practices of sound and listening and how these shape our contemporary worlds.

Associate Professor Catherine Strong researches popular music in relation to gender issues, the climate crisis, heritage and music as a workplace. She has worked with industry bodies such as APRA, the VMDO and Music Victoria. Her books include Unsilenced: Women Musicians, Gender-Based Violence and the Popular Music Industry (forthcoming 2024), Music City Melbourne (2021), Grunge: Music and Memory (2011) and the edited collections Interrogating the Music City (forthcoming 2024), Towards Gender Equality in the Music Industry (2019), The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage (2018) and Death and the Rock Star (2016). She is co-editor of Popular Music History journal and associate editor of DIY journal. She is also a committed climate activist.

Sam is a 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University. His research is primarily focused on issues of capital, labour, technology and value as they relate to the music industries and the cultural economy. Sam's previous research has included work with the University of South Australia, SA Music Development Office, City of Adelaide, National Live Music Office, City of Melbourne, Monash University, and the University of Tasmania. His recent book, Small Venues, is out now.

A founding member of MIRC, George oversees office morale and researches the cultural significance of 2000 smash hit ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ by Baha Men.