Skip Navigation

Dr Brad West

Email: brad.west@flinders.edu.au
Phone: (61 8) 8201-2188
Fax: (61 8) 8201-3521
Room: 3117 SSN

Senior Lecturer
PhD (2002) University of Queensland
BA (Hons) (1996) University of Queensland
BA (1995) University of Queensland

Postal Address:
Department of Sociology
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5001

Curriculum Vitae

Current Teaching

SOCI2010 Knowing the Social World
SOCI2009 Shaping the Future
SOCI7002 Research and Professional Skills

Research Interests

Brad West works from a cultural sociological perspective with his research focusing on the interaction of established understandings and representations of national identity and emerging narratives. He is currently working on two major projects.

The first re-examines the process of collective memory through empirical studies of new engagement with the past. These include tourist pilgrimages to war sites in Turkey and Vietnam, the re-enacting of historical battles as a recreational activity and the consumption based representations of the nation and its history.

The second project considers the symbolic dimensions of terrorism. Key aspects of this are studies on the symbolic dimensions of soft-target terrorism, with the Bali bombings a strategic case, and the anti-heroic representation and understanding of Osama Bin Laden.

Select Publications

West, B. (2008). “Enchanting Pasts: The Role of International Civil Religious Pilgrimage in Reimagining National Collective Memory” Sociological Theory 26, 3: 258- 270.

West, B. (2008). “Collective Memory and Crisis: The 2002 Bali Bombings, National Archetypes and the Counter-Narrative of Cosmopolitan Nationalism” Journal of Sociology 44, 4: 337-353.

West, B. (2006), "Consuming national themed environments abroad: Australian working holiday makers and symbolic national identity in 'Aussie' themed pubs", Tourist Studies, 6(2): 139-155.

West, B. (2002) 'Crime, suicide and the anti-hero: Waltzing Matilda in Australia', Journal of Popular Culture, 35 (3) 127-141.