Sean Brawley

Professor Sean Brawley joins us from Macquarie University where he was Professor of History and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Programs and Pathways). Before Macquarie, he was Professor of History and Associate Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW. Professor Brawley has also taught at the Australian Catholic University, Massey University (New Zealand) and Georgetown University (USA). His first academic job was at the University of Wollongong.

Despite executive leadership and management roles at MQ and UNSW, Professor Brawley has remained research productive throughout his academic career. He is sole author or co-author of eight A1 books, two textbooks, two edited collections, 24 B1 chapters and 38 C1 publications. His work has explored themes of migration, war, sport and terrorism in the Asia-Pacific in transnational focus and especially Australia’s Asian context. His last book (co-authored with Chris Dixon, MQ) was The South Seas: A Reception History from Daniel DeFoe to Dorothy Lamour (Rowman and Littlefield) and another monograph, Beyond the Beach, which explores surf lifesaving history will be published by New South Publishing in 2022. Professor Brawley has also commenced work on a biography of local Illawara artist and film-maker George Gittoes.

A holder of institutional and national teaching awards, Professor Brawley's other area of research impact is in the field of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He has published both locally and internationally on a range of T&L issues including role-play, integrating graduate attributes, ethics and professional responsibility, transdisciplinarity and signature pedagogy, learning and teaching fellows, peer review, internationalization, SOTL and national difference, TEQSA and standards, and Learning Outcomes Assessment. Professor Brawley is a former Asia-Pacific Director and Vice-President of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL).

At Macquarie, Professor Brawley led two major institutional strategic projects; one on curriculum architecture and the other on Quality Assurance, Enhancement and Improvement (QAE&I) processes. Admissions pathways, widening participation and the Macquarie University College also sat within his portfolio responsibilities. Much of Professor Brawley's focus in 2020 and 2021 was around contingency and recovery planning related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Brawley is Principal Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales.