Rate My Professor Brett Nicholls

Associate Professor Brett Nicholls serves in the Department of Media, Film and Communication at the University of Otago, where he earned his academic standing following a BA (Hons) and PhD from Murdoch University. His research specializations include media studies, critical theory, extremist political movements, Baudrillard studies, discourse analysis, and postcolonial studies. Nicholls focuses on media and politics, offering critical analyses of documentary film, wearable fitness devices, social media, television, and the historical evolution of reactionary politics in Australia and New Zealand. He is a specialist in Jean Baudrillard’s thought, examining ideological formations, their temporal development, and integration into mainstream political discourse. Key publications encompass 'The communist empty signifier: the Australian League of Rights and the Voice to Parliament referendum' (Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 2024), 'A satanic master signifier: The prosperity preacher, the President, and the disobedient virus' (Journal of Religion & Popular Culture, 2023), 'Baudrillard in a “Post-Truth” World: Groundwork for a Critique of the Rise of Trump' (MEDIANZ: Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2016), and co-edited 'Post-Truth and the Mediation of Reality' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Additional works include chapters such as 'Power and politics in Adam Curtis’ Can't Get You Out of My Head' (Routledge, 2024) and 'Everyday Modulation: Dataism, Health Apps, and the Production of Self-Knowledge' (2016).

Nicholls has an extensive record of postgraduate supervision, completing 12 PhD theses, including Paul Kirkham’s 'Mimesis and power' (2019), recognized on the Humanities Divisional List of Exceptional Doctoral Theses; six MA theses; and 19 Honours dissertations. His supervision covers topics like queer performativity, ideology in David Lynch films, media governmentality, Chinese TV drama, neoliberal apparatuses in social media, and affective technologies in activism. Currently, he seeks PhD students in far-right politics, poststructuralist discourse analysis, Baudrillard and culture, political pundits, and ecofascism. Recently promoted to Associate Professor, Nicholls contributes through peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and edited collections, advancing understandings of post-truth mediation, antagonistic discourse, and cultural politics.