Tania is the Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT.
Tania Lewis is a Professor in the School of Media and Communication. She has a background in cultural studies and media studies and was a medical doctor in a former life. Over the past couple of decades, her research has been concerned with the politics of lifestyle, sustainability and consumption. Her current research is on the future of work and the digitisation of home life. She has conducted a wide range of empirical research including video ethnographic studies of household recycling, backyard permaculture and digital ethnographic research on people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tania has published over 70 journal articles, book chapters and reports while her most recent book, Digital Food: From Paddock to Platform (Bloomsbury 2020), is the first monograph to engage with everyday digital practices and food culture.
Tania is also the author/co-author of a number of other books including Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practices (Sage); Smart Living: Lifestyle Media and Popular Expertise (Peter Lang), and Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia (Duke University Press).
Tania is on the editorial and advisory boards of: Cultural Studies, Media International Australia, Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia (Book Series, Routledge) and Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
Tania has worked as a doctor in New Zealand and has held five competitive national and international Fellowships. She has worked and conducted research in a range of disciplinary contexts including media studies, sociology, cultural studies, public health, education, and American Studies.
Tania has worked as a doctor in New Zealand and has held five competitive national and international Fellowships. She has worked and conducted research in a range of disciplinary contexts including media studies, sociology, cultural studies, public health, education, and American Studies.
Her previous positions include:
- Senior VC Fellow, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University
- Charles La Trobe Research Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Monash University.
- Visiting Scholar, Institute for Comparative Culture, Sophia University, Tokyo.
- R. D. Wright Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne.
- Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies of the Humanities, University of Edinburgh.
- Lecturer, Media and Communications Program, University of Melbourne.
- House Surgeon working in medicine, surgery and psychiatry in NZ (1990-1994)
Editorial and advisory boards:
Tania is on the editorial and advisory boards of:
- Critical Studies in Media Communication
- Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia (Book Series, Routledge)
- Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
- Communication, Politics and Culture Journal
- [Sic]: A Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation
Supervisor projects
Assembling Digital Labour: Exploring Rural Female Live Streamers, Guilds, and Platforms in Neo-authoritarian China
14 Nov 2023
Household and Food Consumption: Cross-cultural Analysis of Online Food Delivery Service in Surabaya and Melbourne
17 Dec 2021
Chinese Otaku Culture: Between Fandom, Market, and the State
2 Jan 2019
Creative Care: Designing resources for those who have experienced trauma and their trusted others
7 May 2018
Regenerative: The Making of Social Media Savvy Neo-Farmers
2 Mar 2015
Re-imagining eating spaces of an inner-urban university as pathways to sustainable outcomes
8 Aug 2014
Waste not want not: an exploration of the value in so-called inedible food waste in the home
16 Feb 2014
Making Sense of 'Food' Animals: A critical exploration of the persistence of 'meat'
4 Mar 2013
Teaching interests
Sociology of media and culture; culture and globalization; lifestyle politics; reality TV; consumer culture; ethical consumption; green citizenship; cultural approaches to sustainability; social and cultural theory; lifestyle media and consumption in Asia
Research interests
Sustainability and urban futures; Ethical consumption and sustainable lifestyles; Urban farming; Food cultures; Food and media; Digital and media methods; South East Asian media cultures; Sustainability and South East Asia; Ordinary expertise; Green citizenship; Theories of individualization and life politics; Class, gender and lifestyle; Interdisciplinary creative projects
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.