Student Profile

Madeline Carr, BA(Hons) (University of Tasmania)

After graduating with first class honours, Madeline began her PhD in 2006. Her thesis, entitled 'A political history of the internet: Implications for US power', has two research aims. First, it seeks to identify how changing ideas about US power have shaped the development and management of internet technology over the past four decades, and second, how the emergence of internet technology in turn, has influenced ideas about US power. This study adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, employing a social construction of technology methodology. By treating the relationship between technology and politics as an intersubjective one, this project will not only enrich the history of internet technology by introducing previously neglected but important political factors, it will also help to develop a more nuanced approach to international relations theories about power in the information age. Madeline went to the United States on fieldwork for this project in August 2008 and again in February 2009.

In 2004, Madeline worked as an intern for a Tasmanian state representative and her report on privatising public hospitals was subsequently published and tabled in Parliament. In 2005, she was awarded the W.A. Townsley Honours Prize for Best Results in Political Science or Public Policy Honours.

Madeline's research interests include American foreign policy, international relations theory, the philosophy of technology and the nexus between the media and politics. She tutors for AusAID in the Graduate Studies in International Affairs program at ANU.

Email: madeline.carr@anu.edu.au