Sybil Nolan is an Associate Professor in Publishing and Communications in the School of Culture and Communication, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Melbourne. She earned her PhD from the University of Melbourne's School of Historical Studies in 2011, a Masters (Coursework & Research) from Monash University, and a Bachelors Degree from Queensland University of Technology. Before entering academia, she worked for 25 years in media industries, beginning as a daily newspaper journalist and advancing to roles as a commissioning editor and editorial consultant in book publishing.

Nolan's research specializations include the history of print culture encompassing digital media, book history, political history, and the effects of digital disruption on book publishing and traditional print culture. She co-leads the Child and Family Mediascape Research Group (CFMRG) at the University of Melbourne, where she was lead author on the group's inaugural journal article, "Books Versus Screens: A Study of Children’s Media during the COVID Pandemic" (Publishing Research Quarterly, 2022), conducted interview research with parents and librarians in 2022-23, and is currently leading the writing of the group's monograph. As a chief investigator on the ARC Discovery Project "New Tastemakers and Australia’s Post-Digital Literary Culture" led by Professor Mark Davis, she contributed to studies on digital impacts in literary culture. Nolan has been publisher at Grattan Street Press, the University of Melbourne's academic publishing imprint, since 2018, facilitating work-integrated learning for students. Her key publications also feature "Robert Menzies’s Mallee: The Region as a Frame of Elite Struggle," "A sharper conversation: book publishers’ use of social media marketing in the age of the algorithm" (co-authored with Alexandra Dane), "The shrinking of Fairfax Media’s books pages: A microstudy of digital disruption" (co-authored with Matthew Ricketson, Australian Journalism Review, 2019), "Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Structural Reform in the Newspaper Industry on the Marketing of Books," and as editor of "The Dismissal: Where Were You on November 11, 1975?" (Melbourne University Publishing, 2015). She lectures in publishing and communications, contributing significantly to the field through her blend of industry experience and academic scholarship.

Professional Email: sybil.nolan@unimelb.edu.au