Ray Misson is Director and Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching).

Prior to this, he was Head of the Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education. Other roles he has held in the Faculty include Associate Dean (Preservice) and Associate Dean (International). He was Head of the School of International Communication and Languages in Melbourne University Private. He currently chairs the University's Postgraduate Coursework Programs Sub-COmmittee.

Ray began his teaching career in the English departments at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, teaching medieval literature. His M.A. thesis is on the Icelandic sagas, and his PhD thesis is on medieval drama (the plays of the Wakefield Master). After coming to the predecessor institutions of the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, he initially taught widely in the field of Literature, but then began to specialise more in the areas of Literary Theory and Cultural Studies, with particular emphasis on popular culture, sexuality studies and critical literacy. He had a long association with Year 12 English in the state of Victoria, including being Chief Examiner for VCE English (1991-1996) and Convenor of the VCE English Text Selection Committee (1995-1997). He has been invited to give many plenary and keynote addresses at conferences for English and literacy teachers.

B.A., M.A. (Melb,) Ph.D. (Monash)

Areas of Supervision

Ray's main supervision interest is in the implications of cultural studies and critical literacy for education. He is interested in the teaching of texts, both literary and non-literary, in schools.

Teaching

Ray's teaching is limited at the moment to "guest appearances" in various subjects, because of his administrative role.

In recent years he has taught in the Language in Education subject in the Bachelor of Teaching and Graduate Diploma in Education courses, and an undergraduate subject on texts in society. At postgraduate level, he has taught subjects on Discourse Analysis, Popular Culture, Critical Literacy and Postmodernism.

Ray has just completed a book on the aesthetic and how it relates to critical literacy, in collaboration with Dr Wendy Morgan of QUT. This can be seen as yet another aspect of a concern that has been driving his work over the last few years, a concern with questions of how one theorises such things as individuality, expressiveness, agency, and imagination within a poststructuralist socially critical framework. He has been very much concerned with the affective elements of texts and teaching, and has written widely on the pleasures of popular culture.

He has also written on sexuality issues, particularly in relation to English teaching and the ways in which heterosexism might be countered in English classrooms.

Books

Misson, R., & Morgan, W. (2006). Critical Literacy and the Aesthetic: Transforming the English Classroom. Urbana, Illinois: NCTE

Misson, R. (1994a). A Brief Introduction to Literary Theory. Melbourne, VATE (Revised New Zealand Edition, published 1998 Christchurch, NZATE. Also republished as part of Teachers rethinking English: Critical theory and reflective practice ed. C. Worth and R. Guy, Melbourne, VATE 1998.)


Edited book

Christie F and R. Misson (1998). Literacy and Schooling. London and New York, Routledge.


Book chapters

Misson, R. (2005a). Sexual identity. In J. T. Sears (Ed.), Youth, education and sexualities: An international encyclopedia (pp.778-781). Connecticut: Greenwood.

Misson, R. (2005b). Social class. In J. T. Sears (Ed.), Youth, education and sexualities: An international encyclopedia (pp.799-803). Connecticut: Greenwood.

Misson, R. (2005c). Stereotypes. In J. T. Sears (Ed.), Youth, education and sexualities: An international encyclopedia (pp.836-839). Connecticut: Greenwood.

Misson, R. (2004c). Teaching reality TV. In W. Sawyer & E. Gold (Eds.), Reviewing english in the 21st century (2nd ed.)(pp.250-253). Sydney: Phoenix.

Misson, R. (2002). Not telling it straight. In G. Bull & M. Anstey (Eds.)(pp. 221-234), Crossing the boundaries. Frenchs Forest: Prentice Hall.

Misson, R., & Morgan, W. (2000). Teaching an embodied aesthetic: Towards a different practice of English. In C. O'Farrell, D. Meadmore, E. McWilliam & C. Symes (Eds.), Taught bodies (pp. 91-104). New York: Peter Lang.

Misson, R., & Christie, F. (1998). Framing the issues in literacy education. In F. Christie & R. Misson (Eds.), Literacy and schooling (pp. 1-17). London and New York: Routledge.

Misson, R. (1998d). Theory and spice, and things not nice: Popular culture in the primary classroom. In M. Knobel & A. Healy (Eds.), Critical literacies in the primary classroom (pp. 53-62). Newtown: PETA

Misson, R. (1998a). Poststructuralism. In W. Sawyer, K. Watson & E. Gold (Eds.), Re-viewing English (pp. 144-153). Sydney: St Clair Press.

Misson, R. (1998b). Questioning popular culture. In W. Sawyer, K. Watson & E. Gold (Eds.), Re-viewing English (pp. 85-89). Sydney: St Clair Press.

Misson, R. (1998c). Telling tales out of school. In F. Christie & R. Misson (Eds.), Literacy and schooling (pp. 104-128). London and New York: Routledge.

Misson, R. (1996f). What's in it for me?: Teaching against homophobic discourse. In L. Laskey & C. Beavis (Eds.), Schooling and sexualities: Teaching for a positive sexuality (pp. 117-129). Geelong: Deakin Centre for Education and Change.

Misson, R. (1994d). Every newsstand has them: Teaching popular teenage magazines. In B. Corcoran, M. Hayhoe & G. Pradl (Eds.), Knowledge in the making: Challenging the text in the classroom (pp. 73-89). Portsmouth NH: Heinemann Boynton/Cook.


Articles

Misson, R. (In press). Connecting with the World of Texts. Idiom.

Misson, R. (2005d). The origin of literacies: How the fittest will survive. English in Australia, 142, 37-46.

Misson, R. and W. Morgan (2005). Beyond the Pleasure Principle? Confessions of a Critical Literacy Teacher. English in Australia, 143, 17-25.

Misson, R. (2004a). Friends and families and other funny things: TV comedy in the socially critical classroom. Screen Education, 37, 124-128.

Misson, R. (2004b). Proliferating subjectivities and the new media. Papers: Explorations into children's literature, 14(2), 70-73.

Misson, R. (2004d). What are we creating in creative writing? English in Australia, 141, 32-40.

Misson, R. (2003a). Humane creativity': Creativity, innovation and English teaching. English in Aotearoa, 50, 4-14.

Misson, R. (2003b). Imagining the self: The individual imagination in the English classroom. English in Australia(138), 24-33.

Misson, R. (2000). Effective/affective English: Making reading and writing matter. English in Aotearoa, 40, 4-9.

Misson, R. (1999).