Rate My Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley

Bridget Griffen-Foley is a Professor of Media in the School of Communication, Society and Culture, Faculty of Arts, at Macquarie University. She completed her BA in Modern History and English (1991), BA Honours in Modern History with the University Medal (1992), and PhD in Modern History, titled 'The Packer Press: A History of Consolidated Press, 1936–1974' (1996), all at Macquarie University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Sydney, she returned to Macquarie in 2003 as an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellow in the Department of Modern History and Politics. In 2013, she was appointed Professor of Media in the Department of Media, Communication, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, received an ARC Future Fellowship in 2014, and served as Director of Research and Innovation from 2022 to 2024. She founded the Centre for Media History and coordinated the Media Archives Project. She has also served on the board of the State Library of New South Wales (2003-2012), as historical consultant for the television mini-series Power Games: The Packer–Murdoch Story (2013), selector for the Australian Media Hall of Fame (2015-2019), and member of the Sounds of Australia expert advisory panel for the National Film and Sound Archive.

Griffen-Foley's research specializes in the history of the media, particularly the Australian media. Her major publications include The House of Packer: The Making of a Media Empire (1999), Sir Frank Packer (2000, reprinted 2014), Party Games: Australian Politicians and the Media from War to Dismissal (2003), Changing Stations: The Story of Australian Commercial Radio (2009, shortlisted for the Ashurst Business Literature Prize and longlisted for the Walkley Book Award), A Companion to the Australian Media (2014), a comprehensive reference work featuring 300 contributors, Australian Radio Listeners and Television Viewers: Historical Perspectives (2020), and she co-edited the fifth edition of The Media and Communications in Australia (2024, with Sue Turnbull). A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities since 2011, her honors include the University Medal for Modern History (1992), Evatt Foundation Essay Prize (1992), Excellence in Publication Award (2000), Executive Dean’s HDR Award for best work in building an inclusive research culture (2016), and Australasian Sound Recordings Association Award for Excellence (2015). She chairs the New South Wales section of the Australian Dictionary of Biography and serves on the editorial boards of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television and the Australian Journal of Politics and History.