Rate My Professor Kayt Davies

Dr Kayt Davies serves as a Lecturer in Journalism at Curtin University’s School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry within the Faculty of Humanities. Her professional journey began in high school contributing to local media, leading to a cadetship at The West Australian and finance journalism roles at The Western Mail. She worked in international news at Visnews in London, edited Perth Woman magazine, and acted as editor-in-chief for a group of six magazines at an independent media company. Entering academia, she spent 12 years at Edith Cowan University, completing her Doctor of Philosophy at Curtin University on an ethnographic study of women’s magazine editors, alongside an M.Phil in English and Comparative Literature and a BA (Honours) in Psychology. During this time, she headed the journalism program, served five years on the executive of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA), supervised postgraduate students, and built a research portfolio. In 2009, she was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Citation and an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Since February 2020, Dr Davies has been teaching at Curtin University courses such as Introduction to Journalism Writing, News Writing and Reporting, Features Journalism, and postgraduate Entrepreneurial Journalism. Her research focuses on using journalism as a scholarly methodology, challenges for journalists in Pacific nations, integrating data journalism into undergraduate curricula, and ensuring safety for journalists and sources in oppressive environments. Notable publications include “Data Journalism in the Pacific: Practices and Perceptions” (2019), “Getting Started with Data Journalism: A Baby Steps Approach” (2018), “Data Journalism Classes in Australian Universities: Educators Describe Progress to Date” (2016), “Why I Do Not Talk About Computational Thinking in Journalism Classes: Sorry (Not Really Sorry)” (2020), and “Landholder perceptions of revegetation on the Atherton Tablelands, far North Queensland” (2020). She serves as site coordinator for The Junction, a JERAA news service, and contributes opinion pieces to Curtin University’s Futures Platform on topics like AI in education and academic innovation.