Rate My Professor Brooke Gizzi-Stewart

Brooke Gizzi-Stewart is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Newcastle, within the Discipline of Politics and International Relations at Newcastle Business School. She earned a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Comm.) and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (BA Hons) prior to completing her Doctor of Philosophy in Politics at the same institution, awarded in 2019. Her doctoral thesis, submitted in August 2018 and titled 'The language of strategy: a study in Australian prime ministerial rhetoric and campaign speechmaking 1983-2013,' was supervised by Professor Jim Jose. This work investigates the rhetorical strategies and persuasive language used by Australian prime ministers in federal election campaign speeches over a 30-year period, analyzing how such discourse shapes political narratives and national identity.

Gizzi-Stewart's academic interests encompass political communication, rhetorical analysis, political oratory, political psychology, and Australian politics. In 2016, she published 'New visions and vintage values: Shifting discourses of Australian national identity in 21st century prime ministerial rhetoric' in Communication, Politics & Culture. The article employs a hybrid quantitative and qualitative textual analysis of prime ministerial campaign launch speeches from 2001, 2007, and 2013, revealing shifts from themes of endurance and stoicism in 2001 to more optimistic national images amid global complexities in later years. That same year, as a PhD candidate, she served as a Summer Scholar at the Australian Prime Ministers Centre, Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra, conducting foundational research that informed both her publication and thesis. She has also explored the mechanisms of persuasive language in Australian federal election campaign speeches as part of her doctoral research. Currently listed as a research student at the University of Newcastle, Gizzi-Stewart contributes to the study of how political rhetoric functions in contemporary Australian contexts.