Rate My Professor John Knox

John Knox is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences. He earned his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2009 with a thesis titled 'Multimodal discourse on online newspaper home pages.' His career at Macquarie University began as a Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics around 2007, progressing to Senior Lecturer. Knox teaches in the postgraduate programs in Applied Linguistics, which have offered distance education since 1994 and online delivery since the early 2000s. These programs are recognized internationally as one of the largest and most prestigious in the field, designed for flexibility to accommodate adult learners with professional commitments and diverse international backgrounds. His teaching incorporates both synchronous sessions via platforms like Zoom and asynchronous materials, drawing on decades of experience in multimodal and distance learning environments.

Knox's research specializations include systemic-functional linguistics, multimodality, visual-verbal communication in online media, and language classroom dynamics. Key publications encompass 'Realisation(s): systemic functional linguistics and the language classroom' (2006, with Anne Burns), 'Visual-verbal communication on online newspaper home pages' (2007, Visual Communication), 'Punctuating the home page: image as language in an online newspaper' (2009, Discourse & Communication), 'Classrooms as Complex Adaptive Systems: A Relational View' (2011, TESL-EJ, with Anne Burns), and 'Online news galleries, photojournalism and the photo essay' (2012, Visual Communication, with Helen Caple). His scholarship has earned over 300 citations and shaped advancements in media discourse analysis and applied linguistics pedagogy. Knox has supervised PhD theses on topics such as critical discourse analysis of employability discourse, genre-based pedagogy, and academic literacy development. In 2018, he contributed to a team receiving the Faculty of Human Sciences Dean's Award for Programs that Enhance Learning, for piloting a peer review of teaching framework promoting reflection and curriculum improvement. He also serves in commissioning roles for linguistics publications.