Dr Paul Mountfort

Chair, AUT Centre for Creative Writing

Phone: +64 9 921 9999 ext 6620

Email: pmountfo@aut.ac.nz

Qualifications:

• Doctor of Philosophy (Auckland)
• Master of Arts Hons. (Canterbury)
• Bachelor of Arts  (Canterbury)

Biography:

Paul is Chair of the AUT Centre for Creative Writing and leader of the BA English and New Media Studies and BA Creative Writing. He is Vice-president of the Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ), editor of the Journal of Asia-Pacific Popular Culture (Penn State U Press, US), and sits on the editorial boards of The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (Intellect, UK) and The IAFOR Journal of Asian Studies (IAFOR: Nagoya, Japan).

Paul’s research interests are in popular culture studies, transmedia and fan practices. He has published widely in the areas of comics, sci-fi, fantasy and related storyworlds and franchises. His most recent book project has been Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom (Intellect Books: UK, 2018). He has also spoken widely at conferences internationally, including the 2017 opening keynote at the European Popular Culture Association annual conference at London University of Arts, College of Fashion.

In 2006 he was awarded the inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for his approach to research led, student directed learning. He was one of three shortlisted for best lecturer (Applied Humanities) in 2007, and in 2010 he received the AUTSA/Awesome Best Post Graduate Supervisor at AUT award.

Research Areas:

• Popular Genres
• Transmedia storytelling
• Storyworld and franchises

Research Projects

Paul’s current and past supervision of research projects range from creative literature to web-based media.

PhD - In progress

• 2017 - PhD, Two Rivers / Turangawaewae: A Place to Stand, a Voice to Write
• 2017 - PhD, The Pocket Atlas of Personal
• 2017 - PhD, Only in Moonlight

PhD – Graduated

• 2018 - PhD, Idoko Ojabi, Black River
• 2017 - PhD, Zana Bell, Finding Billie
• 2015 - PhD, Rod Fee, The Assault on Mount B: Understanding the role of story in self-delusion in our personal histories
• 2011 - PhD, Lisa Williams, Beyond Words: an investigation into aspects of meaning articulated through the material forms of 'old' media as expressed in a polysemous narrative

Masters - Graduated

• 2016 - MCW, Maria Kim, From Autumn to Summer; MCW, Esmee Myers, Mindless; MCW, Panisa Pitigaisorn, Darkness Within
• 2015 - MCW, James George, Sleepwalkers Songs; MCW, Nicole Michelle, Little Bird; MCW, Katelyn Notman, Tumble/Losing the Plot
• 2014 - MCW, Katie Henderson, Arlitz and Righting the Self; MCW, Samantha Harris, The Chaos of Writing Fiction; MCW, Mark Johnson, FireWall; MCW, Maxine Fleming, The Real Story
• 2013 - MCW, Karen Tay, Ice Flowers
• 2012 - MPhil, Belinda Nash, Sweet Nothing; MCW, Andrew Dryden, Closer: A Collection of Letters; MCW, Maggie Tarver, Arnwood 1&2; MCW, Sam Orchard, Stories of Queen Identities in Aotearoa; MCW, Carin Newbould, Celebrating 42; MCW, Allison Oosterman, Maccabe’s Heirs; MCW, Craig Neilson, Circle; MCW, Jucinda Jackson, How Not to be a Princess; MCW, Malual Garang, The Dispersed Seeds;MCW, Anthony Browne, My Brother's Keeper; MCW, Irena Tovic, The multiplicity of “I”
• 2011 - MCW, Susan Younger, Beyond Belief: An Exegesis to Roimata: A Novel; MCW, Stephanie Wilken, Strings of Time [Co-supervisor; Awarded; MCW, Sarah Shepherd, Fleeting Glimpses, Fragile Moments: An Exegesis to Stay; MCW, Melanie Seligman, Rules and Rebellion: An Exegesis to Gauntlet Road; MCW, Rachel Peacocke, The Grafton Light; MCW, Helen McNeil, Learning to Stand Upright Here: Who we are and Who is Our Land; MCW, Gayle King-Tamehana, Post-Colonialism, A Matter of Perspective: Native Narratives in A Language of Violence and Pain; MCW, Jodie Dalgleish, Pathways to Principalship; MCW, Alana Cooke. The Country of the Past: An Exegesis to “Great and Glorious Intent”; MCW, Alan Brash Sex, Vows and Jellybeans Screenplay; MCW, Julie Scott, Character and Genre: An Exegesis to A Change of Stars

Publications:

Books

• Planet Cosplay: An Interdisciplinary investigation into the Global Practice of Costume Play (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books/Chicago, IL,: Chicago University Press, 2018), with Anne-Pierson Smith and Adam Geczy.
• Nordic Runes (Rochester, Vermont: ITI/Destiny Books, 2003). Also translated into Czech and Turkish.
• Ogam: The Celtic Oracle (London: Ebury Press/Random House, 2001; Rochester, VT: Destiny Books 2002).

Refereed articles

• “Science-fictional doubles: The Technologization of the Doppelgänger and Sinister Science in Serial Sci-fi tv,” The Journal of Popular Television 1.1 (2018), 16-32.
• “Giardino Dei Tarocchi/The Tarot Garden: Niki de Saint Phalle (Permanent Installation), Località Garavicchio, Capalbio, Italy,” The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 5:1 (2016), 75-78.
• "The I Ching and Patterning in The Man in the High Castle,” The Journal of Science Fiction Studies 43 (2016).
• “Tintin as Spectacle: A Backstory of the Franchise and Late Capital,” The Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture 1.1 (2016), 37-56.
• “Runecasting: Runic Guidebooks as Gothic Literature and the Other Gothic Revival,” Aeternum: The Journal of Gothic Studies 2.2 (2015), 16-32.
• “’Yellow skin, black hair…Careful Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism,’ The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 1:1 (2012), 33-49.

Book chapters

• “Tintin and the Secrets of Food: The Body Fantastic, Cultural Others and Limits of Language,” in (eds.) Lorna Piatti-Farnell and Donna Lee Brien, The Routledge Companion to Food and Literature (London: Routledge, 2018), 101-110.
• “Lords of the Franchise: The Lord of the Rings an, IP Rights, and Policing Appropriation,” in Lorna Piatti-Farnell (ed.), Fan Phenomena: The Lord of the Rings (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books/Chicago, IL,: Chicago University Press, 2015), 84-94.
• “Tarot Guides as a literary genre,” in Emily Auger(ed.) Tarot and Culture: Volume One (Canada: Valleyhome Books, 2015), 1-62.

Books – edited, editorials and Proceedings

• Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 8^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2017), i-209.
• “Editors Log: Stardate 2017: An Overview of Proceedings,” Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 8^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2017), vi-viii.
• Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 7^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2016), i-146.
• “Editors Log: Stardate 2016: An Overview of Proceedings,” Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 7^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2016), vi-ix.
• Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 6^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2015), i-186.
• “Editors Log: Stardate 2015: An Overview of Proceedings,” Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 6^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2015), vi-x.
• Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 5^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2014), i-217.
• "A Five Year Mission Renewed,” Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 5^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2014), vii-ix.
• Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 4^th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ, 2013), i-338.
• ‘“To Boldly go… an overview of proceedings,’ in Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 4^th Annual Conference, (PopCAANZ, 2013) viii-xi.
• “Tintin as a Metonym for the Twentieth Century,” in Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings of the 4^th Annual Conference, PopCAANZ, 2013, 178-197.
• “Collaboration unplugged: Herding a Flock of MOAS,” with T. Cochrane, L. Antonczak, A. Withell, D. Mulrennan, and V. Narayan, in Electric Dreams:  30^th Ascilite Conference, Macquarie, Sydney, Australia, H. Certer and J. Hedberg (ed.s) (Proceedings, 2013).

Conference papers and symposia:

• “Defending the Candid: Street Photography, the Civil Contract and New Public Morality,” EUPOP 2018: 7th International Conference of the European Popular Culture Association (EPCA), Charles University, Prague, Czechia, 24-26 July, 2018.
• “Cosplay at Armageddon: A Photo-Essay in Costume Play, Fan Affinity and Popular Media Memes,”  Fashion, Costume and Visual Cultures Conference, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, 17-19 July, 2018.
• “Armageddon Expo: A Cosphotography Essay,” 9^th Annual Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ) Conference, AUT, Auckland, New Zealand, 2-4 July, 2018.
• “Blade Runner 2049: the Sequel as Palimpsest,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCAACA) Annual Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, 28-31 March, 2018.
• Opening Keynote/Plenary “Cosplay, Photography and Fan Capital,” EUPOP 2017: 6th International Conference of the European Popular Culture Association (EPCA), London University of Arts, London, U.K., 25-27 July, 2017.
• "Tintin, Gender and Desire,” 8th Annual Conference, Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ), Massey University, College of Creative Arts, 10-12 July, 2017.
• "Reclaiming Runes: The Other Gothic Revival,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCAACA) Annual Conference, San Diego, California, 12-16 April, 2017.
• “Beyond Fashion? Dressing-up as a Citational Act in Cosplay,” The End of Fashion Conference, Massey University, College of Creative Arts, 8-9 December, 2016.
• “Cosplay: Citation or détournement?,” EUPOP 2016: 5th International Conference of the European Popular Culture Association (EPCA), Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, Paris, France, 20-22 July, 2016.
• “Tintin and the Secret of Food: the body fantastic, cultural others, and limits of language in Hergé’s Adventures (1929-1983),” 7^th Annual PopCAANZ Conference, Sydney University Village, Sydney, Australia, 18-20 June, 2016.
• “A Multi-versal Labyrinth’? Quantum Physics, the Many World Interpretation (MWI) and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCAACA) Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington, 22-25 March, 2016.
• “Science-fictional doubles: The Technologization of the Doppelgänger and Sinister Science in Serial Sci-fi tv,” 4^th Annual European Popular Culture Association (EPCA) Conference, Humbolt University, Berlin, 2015.
• “Tintin as Spectacle,” 6^rd Annual Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ) Conference, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, 29 June – 1 July 2015.
• “Lords of the Franchise: LOTR, IP and Fandom,” 3^rd Annual EPCA Conference, London University of Arts, High Holborn, London, 29-31 July, 2014.
• “iWrite: Digital Literacies in Learning Contexts,” 5^th Annual PopCAANZ Conference, Hobart, Australia, 18-20 June, 2014.
• “Teaching Creative Writing,” with Brian Walpert, Robert Sullivan, Christina Stachurski, Adrienne Jansen, and Diane Brown, at the Inaugural Professing Creativity Symposium, Massey University Creative, 2014. [Invited contributor, roundtable discussion].
• “Tintin as Metonym for the 20th Century: A Post-Situationist Reading,” 2nd Annual EPCA Conference, University of Turku, Finland, 31 July -2 August, 2013. [Conference paper].
• "Tintin as Metonym for the 20th Century: A Post-Situationist Reading,” 4^th Annual PopCAANZ Conference, Sofitel, Brisbane, 24-26 June, 2013.
• “Tintin Goes to Hollywood,” Inaugural EPCA Conference, London College of Fashion, London University of Arts, London, 11-13 July, 2013.
• “‘Oh heavens, I’ve barged into a film company’: Spielberg’s The Secret of the Unicorn as Pixelated Spectacle,” 3^rd PopCAANZ Annual Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 27-29 June, 2012.
• "Ninja Scrolls and the Nine Ryu: Mythologies of Ninjutsu as a Modern Martial Art,” East Asian Popular Culture Association Inaugural Conference, Taipei, Taiwan, 1-4 September, 2011.
• ‘“Yellow skin, black hair…Careful Tintin’: the Orient and Orientalism in Hergé’s The Blue Lotus,” Inaugural PopCAANZ Annual Conference, Sydney, Australia, 30 June-2 July, 2010.
• “Tarot Guidebooks as a Literary Genre,” PCA/ACA Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, 8-11 April, 2009.
• “A Scanner Darkly: Visualizing Philip K. Dick’s American Dystopias,” PCA/ACA Annual Conference, San Francisco, California, 19-22 March, 2008.
• “Oracle-text/Cybertext in The Man in the High Castle,” PCA/ACA  Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 12-16 April, 2006.
• "Tarot: a machine for constructing stories,” PCA/ACA Annual Conference, San Diego, California, 22-27 March, 2005.