Sean Phelan - Massey.

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I have been a member of the TEU (and the antecedent AUS) since I first started working at Massey

University in 2003 after immigrating to Aotearoa from my home country of Ireland. I became more

actively involved in Massey TEU as part of Massey’s Stop the Cuts committee in July 2023, and I joined

the Massey branch committee as Wellington representative in September. I am an associate professor

at Massey’s School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, who researches and teaches in

communication and media studies and I have a particular interest in critical political theory. I have

written a lot about neoliberalism, including essays and commentary on the neoliberal university. And

I’m most interested in finding creative ways of linking that intellectual work to conversations about

TEU strategy, including discussions of TEU’s role in articulating a vision of the public university that

challenges the dominant neoliberal model. So if elected to the Industrial and Professional Committee,

that would be the most distinctive element I would bring to the committee’s mahi.

Sean Phelan