Dr Alex Burns is a political scientist and experienced research administrator based in Melbourne, Australia. This reactivated account will host a document archive of scholarly based research; journalism; and internet based work.
Monash University conferred the PhD dissertation The Development of Strategic Culture in Terrorist Organisations on 29th April 2020. This PhD dissertation informed the background research for episode 5 on Japan’s new religious movement Aum Shinrikyo and its later founder Shoko Asahara for the Netflix series How To Become A Cult Leader (2023) (Citizen Jones Associate Producer Narag Momdjian, email, 11th January 2022). He has MA (2007), MSc (2005), and BA (2002) degrees from Monash University; Swinburne University of Technology; and La Trobe University. He is currently a graduate student in the TESOL education program at the University of Wollongong.
His research expertise is primarily in counter-terrorism and strategic studies informed by a broad and deep transdisciplinary, policy relevant, and translational perspective. His research outputs and public engagement have informed the National Broadband Network’s services rollout; Australian foreign policy; Australian and United States internet, media, and journalism practices; and several Australian government inquiries. Routledge, Taylor & Francis, Punctum Press, and others have published his academic research.
Dr Burns has had an extensive career in Australia’s higher education sector, having worked at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Queensland, Bond University, Victoria University, and Swinburne University of Technology. He has worked across all three major functions: (research) administration / management; research; and teaching. He has taught at Swinburne University of Technology; Oases Graduate School; Swinburne Online; and Monash University in politics, criminology, media and communications policy, marketing, and futures studies / strategic foresight units.
He has worked with valued commercial research partners including Telstra, Sensis, and Westpac. As a research manager / administrator, he has worked with the Australian Research Council; the National Health & Medical Research Council; Canada’s Social Science & Humanities Research Council; the United States based National Institutes of Health; and with other valued national and international funders, collaborative and contract research partners, and philanthropic foundations.
Dr Burns has been invited to speak at the International Studies Association’s annual and virtual conventions; Australian International Political Economy Network workshops; the Oceanic Conference in International Studies; the East-West Center (delivered in absentia); the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference; the AVERT Network’s annual research symposium; the Australasian Research Management Society’s annual conference; the Communications Policy & Research Forum; and to Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre workshops and stakeholders.
Earlier in his career, Dr Burns was site editor / writer during two periods for the former New York City based website Disinformation (1998-2008), and wrote for REVelation, 21C, Marketing, Information Age, internet.au, Artbyte, and Photofile magazines. He was involved at the invitation of Marcus Westbury and Sean Healy with the Newcastle based youth arts initiative This Is Not Art from 1999 to 2004.
Dr Burns is on X & BlueSky; maintains this Substack blog; which has searchable earlier iterations; has a reactivated Academia.edu document archive; has a Google Scholar profile; and has an ORCID profile.
