Associate Professor Jo Coghlan

Biography

Associate Professor Jo Coghlan is an Australian academic and interdisciplinary scholar whose work brings together sociology, political theory, and popular culture studies to examine how culture — from film, television, food and fashion to celebrity and material life — reflects and shapes social meaning, identity, and power. Jo’s research explores subjects such as gendered political dress, death and mourning in popular culture, class and violence in cinema, critical landscape studies, petro-culture, and the cultural history of animals and posthumanism.

She is also a respected HDR supervisor and research mentor, having guided numerous PhD and MPhil candidates in popular and material culture studies. Her work exemplifies intellectual leadership, critical engagement, and a sustained commitment to understanding how popular culture narrates — and contests — the political and moral landscapes of contemporary life.

The Popular Culture Research Network

Jo is the Co-Founder and Lead Researcher of the Popular Culture Research Network (PopCRN) at the University of New England — Australia’s foremost hub for the interdisciplinary study of popular culture. Established in 2021, PopCRN was created to serve as a positive and creative space for researchers examining how cultural forms shape and reflect social life.

PopCRN brings together scholars, postgraduate students, independent scholars and creative practitioners working across film, television, music, fashion, literature, theatre, sport, and digital media. It provides a collaborative platform for interdisciplinary exchange, mentorship, and publication, enabling researchers to share innovative work that bridges academic and public audiences.

Through its annual symposia and special issues, PopCRN has attracted international contributors from across the humanities and social sciences, fostering a dynamic research community united by a shared interest in the politics, aesthetics, and meanings of everyday culture. Its members produce cutting-edge scholarship that challenges disciplinary boundaries and expands understandings of identity, representation, and cultural transformation.