Rob Cover (born 31 May 1982, Canberra, Australia) is a social theorist and media scholar, specialising in critical

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied wi ...

studies, digital

media theory Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...

, minority

stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

and media scandals, with work on LGBTIQ youth suicide, cultures of

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

and audience interactivity, as well as cultural and media representations of

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

. He is Professor of Digital Communication at

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scie ...

, Melbourne, and formerly an associate professor at The University of Western Australia, from 2013 to 2019 where he served as Deputy Head of the School of Social Sciences. Previously, he was senior lecturer in Media at The University of Adelaide and has held visiting research and teaching fellowships at

The University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, Adelaide University, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He received his PhD from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

, and is a frequent speaker and online commentator on contemporary media and minority issues. He is a chief investigator on an

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

Discovery Project on belonging and sexual citizenship among gender and

sexual minority A sexual minority is a group whose sexual identity, sexual orientation, orientation or practices differ from the majority of the surrounding society. Primarily used to refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or non-heterosexual individuals, it can als ...

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

, and on another on the representation of gender and sexual diversity in Australian screen media, its histories and its role in social change, and on an Australian Research Council Linkage Project with on LGBTQ Migration and Mobility with the History Trust of South Australia. He was a founding member of th
Critical Suicide Studies Network
which promotes the development of theoretical and practical tools for understanding

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

derived from the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the ti ...

and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

s, and opposes the individual pathologisation of those who suicide as found in many dominant medico-psychiatric approaches to suicide prevention and research.

Works

The author of numerous academic journal articles and creative short fiction, his books include: * ''Queer Youth Suicide, Culture and Identity: Unliveable Lives?'' Ashgate, 2012, * ''Vulnerability and Exposure: Footballer Scandals, Masculine Identity and Ethics'', UWAP Scholarly, 2015, * ''Digital Identities: Creating and Communicating the Online Self'', Elsevier, 2016, *''Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders and Relationships in a Digital Era,'' Routledge 2018, *''Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship'' (co-edited with Peter Aggleton, Deana Leahy, Daniel Marshall and Mary Lou Rasmussen), Routledge 2018, *''Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating Intimacies'' (co-authored with Alison Bartlett and Kyra Clarke), Palgrave 2019, *''Population, Mobility and Belonging: Understanding Population Concepts in Media, Culture and Society,'' Routledge 2020, *''Fake news in Digital Cultures: Technology, Populism and Digital Misinformation,'' Emerald 2022, *''Identity and Digital Communication: Concepts, Theories, Practices,'' Routledge 2023,

References

External links

Rob Cover
Faculty Profile at The University of Western Australia
Academia ProfileResearchGate ProfileGoogle Scholar CitationsOn Line Opinion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cover, Rob Monash University alumni