Siobhan McHugh

Associate Professor, Journalism, University of Wollongong
Siobhan McHugh is founding editor (2013) of the first scholarly journal of radio documentary & podcast critical studies, RadioDoc Review. http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr/ Her research focus is on the affective power of audio storytelling, the evolution of podcasting as a new media genre and the aesthetics of the radio/audio documentary/podcast format. She was a consulting producer on the high impact podcast Phoebe's Fall, made by The Age newsroom for Fairfax media (http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2016/phoebesfall/) and on the complex investigation, Wrong Skin (https://www.smh.com.au/wrong-skin). She recorded 35 oral histories as part of an Australian Research Council project examining relational aspects in the production of Aboriginal art, and adapted them for an ABC radio documentary, The Conquistador, the Warlpiri and the Dog Whisperer (http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/the-conquistador,-the-warlpiri-and-the-dog-whisperer/9617950) and a podcast series, Heart of Artness (http://artness.net.au)

For over three decades, Siobhan has been a documentary-maker, oral historian, and writer, whose work has won prestigious awards including the NSW Premier’s Prize for non-fiction and gold and bronze awards at the New York Radio Festival. Her social histories of the Snowy Mountains Scheme (The Snowy – The People Behind the Power, 1995), Australian women’s role in the Vietnam war (Minefields and Miniskirts, 2004) and the Australian cotton industry (Cottoning On, 1996) are widely cited and held in libraries around the world. She has made over 60 radio documentaries, on topics from Australian sectarianism, the Stolen Generations and reconciliation to women in war and orphan girls of the Irish Famine.

Siobhan's academic and journalistic practice is concerned with the transformations of minority voices and synergies between oral history and the radio documentary and podcast form. Her oral history collections are held at the National Library of Australia and State Library of NSW, and have featured at the National Archives of Australia and the National Museum of Australia. Siobhan has presented her research at invited seminars at Harvard University, Concordia University and the Centre for Documentary Studies at Duke University, been a keynote speaker at the International Radio Festival, Iran, and the 2017 Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union's General Assembly, Chengdu, China and made guest appearances at the Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay Literary Festivals and the Wheeler Cultural Centre, Melbourne. She is a popular speaker on podcasting at the annual Global Editors Network media summit.