My research sits at the intersection of library and information studies, knowledge production, and critical theory, with connections to International Relations scholarship and open knowledge practices.
I work across two related research streams: doctoral research examining open scholarly practices through the lenses of knowledge and library diplomacy, with a focus on openness, knowledge translation, and knowledge equity; and practice-led research focused on evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP) that aligns with strategy, values, and public impact.
Current projects
Open Knowledge Diplomacy: The role of Australian university libraries in open practices for climate scholarship
2022 – Current | Curtin University
Supervisors: Professor Lucy Montgomery and Dr Karl Huang
This doctoral research examines how Australian university libraries contribute to open and collaborative scholarship on global challenges, with a focus on climate change. Engaging with concepts of knowledge diplomacy and library diplomacy, the project investigates questions of openness, knowledge translation, and equity in local and global contexts, asking not just what libraries do, but how they participate in shaping knowledge governance and who those systems serve.
A disability lens for open knowledge governance
2025 – Current | Curtin University
Supervisors: Professor Lucy Montgomery and Dr Karl Huang
Drawing on disability culture values (including interdependence, collective access, and tolerance for lack of resolution), this research interrogates the assumptions embedded in open knowledge systems. The research engages with critical theory and scholarship on ethics of care in open publishing and asks how disability justice might reframe not just access as an outcome, but the processes through which knowledge is produced, governed, and shared. It connects Scout’s doctoral research on open knowledge diplomacy to their lived experience as a disabled and neurodivergent scholar, positioning disability culture as a framework for building access and openness differently.
The OPEN framework: Turning evidence into public value in open education
2022 – Current | University of Southern Queensland and Murdoch University
Evidence should help guide our decisions in universities, but many of the tools available were designed for healthcare, not education. The result is lost insight, unclear stories, and a public value that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. The OPEN framework (Objective, Purpose, Evidence, and Narrative) helps to close that gap. OPEN supports practitioners in moving beyond output metrics and articulating the strategic, values-driven, and public impact of open education, particularly for students facing cost, access, and digital barriers.
- Developing an OPEN Framework for Asking EBLIP Questions in Open Education
- Values Based Approaches to Evidence for OER Advocacy
- Values-Based Practice in EBLIP: A Review
Past projects
Users’ experiences in a regional academic library makerspace
2022 | University of Southern Queensland
Co-investigators: Emilia C. Bell and Stephanie Piper
A qualitative case study of a makerspace in a regional university Library at the University of Southern Queensland. This project explored users’ experiences of participation using a visual research method alongside semi-structured interviews.
The library as soft power actor: Understanding soft power discourse in the National Library of Australia
2021 | Charles Sturt University
Supervised by Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Anne Kennan
This research sought to understand the relationship of libraries with concepts of soft power, public diplomacy, and cultural diplomacy. It asks how the National Library of Australia engages with soft power in its Annual Report 2019–20 through a critical discourse analysis that applied a discourse-historical approach.