While a student in the late 1970s I began exploring the metaphoric structuring of cognition in independent essay topics in (visual) aesthetics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of language.

In 1983 I began my doctoral research into the nature of rationality under the supervision of Professor Brian Ellis in the Philosophy Department at Latrobe University. In this thesis I further explored the metaphoric structure of cognition to challenge the pervasive understanding of 'rationality' as 'logical reasoning'.

In 1985 I departed for the University of Maryland, USA, to work with Lindley Darden and Dudley Shapere (who had unfortunately departed for a position elsewhere), who both were working on metaphor and models in the philosophy of science. Professor Darden introduced me to George Lakoff's work on metaphor and linguistics. The work of Lakoff and other cognitive linguists proved to be of central importance in organising the various discussions of rationality I was pursuing in my doctoral thesis.

In my thesis I drew on research from the history and philosophy of science, artificial intelligence(AI), cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, Habermas's theory of communicative action, and feminist theory in order to elaborate on and ground a conception of rationality as embodied and informed by passion and desire. I used the idea of models and metaphor as the foundation of reasoning to critique objectivist models of language, theories of rational choice, causal reasoning, and cognition.

After my first year in the United States I was employed full time lecturing in philosophy on a contract basis at a sequence of universities. I began tentatively exploring my ideas about reason and reasoning in the various courses in Introductory Logic and Introductory Reasoning I was employed to teach.

While the exploration of 'embodied cognition' was somewhat in vogue in feminist philosophy at the time, Professor Genevieve Lloyd, an examiner of my thesis, comments on the 'richness of content' I achieve in my my examination of these issues by thoroughly engaging with the detailed concerns of mainstream philosophical writing, in contrast with the 'relatively empty polemic' around these ideas in the work of other feminist theorists.

In 1990 I returned to Australia and received my doctorate in Philosophy from Latrobe University in 1992.

In my doctoral thesis I explored issues associated with reason and argumentation; the philosophy and history of language and communication; rationality and collective (political) decisionmaking; and developed a critique of rational choice theory (a foundation theory in neo-classical economics).

I began my current position in Communication Studies at University of Southern Queensland in 1992.

In my teaching at USQ I proceeded to apply the idea of metaphoric structuring of cognition and discourse to my teaching of environmental discourses and to ideas of communication, power and control. In the former I was also able to use the idea of metaphoric analysis to examine scientific, economic and political discourses.

In the latter course I serendipitously discovered that by explicitly teaching the nature of models, metaphors, and how to apply and test them as is done in the physical sciences, I was also teaching students how to analyse, use and develop arguments and theories more effectively than any direct teaching of argumentation and logic had ever achieved.

1992   PhD in philosophy at Latrobe University, Australia 1992
Dissertation: 'Eros and Rationality: From an Algorithmic to an Erotic Conception of Reason'

In this thesis I challenge the pervasive understanding of 'rationality' as 'logical reasoning'. I explore the explosion of research in history of science, artificial intelligence [AI], cognitive science, psychology, and feminist theorising in order to elaborate on and ground a conception of rationality as embodied informed by passion and desire.

The concept of models, metaphor, and paradigms is explored and developed in relation to models of language, theories of rational choice, causal reasoning, and cognition.

1983  BA Hons Latrobe University 1983 'Models of Science and the Growth of Knowledge'

I explore the relation between the growth of individual knowledge and the growth of scientific knowledge. I argue that experimental and observational studies of the growth of children's knowledge in particular can serve as a source of understanding for revising models of the growth of scientific knowledge.

2005  with Kathleen Fahy, 'Constructivist Research: Methodology and Practice', and 'Postmodern & Feminist Qualitative Research: Methodology, Methods and Practice',  both in Methods of Research in Sports Sciences: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, (eds) G. Tenenbaum. & M. Driscoll, Meyer and Meyer, Oxford, UK, pp660-739.

1985   Review of Richard Bernstein’s Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, in Telos, No. 63, Spring 1985, 223-227.

1985   Review of Dudley Shapere’s Reason & the Search for Knowledge, in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 63, No. 4, Dec. 1985, 558-60.

1985   Review of Husain Sarkar’s A Theory of Method, in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 63, No. 2, June 1985, 244-5.

2002 ‘Categories as containers: classification and the type-hierarchy explanation of models’, invited speaker, Agent Modeling and Cross-Disciplinary Discourse Conference, Mew Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA, January, 2002, sponsored by US Department of Defense.

2001 ‘Critical realism and emancipatory practice’, invited speaker, IAFFE Conference in Oslo, Norway
22–24 June, 2001.

1999 ‘Metaphysics and metaphor in the Social Sciences’, AAHPSSS (Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, & Social Studies of Science) Conference, Sunshine Coast, Australia.

1999 ‘Ontological commitments and bias in environmental reporting’, Environment and Society Conference, Sunshine Coast. Australia.

1993 ‘Causality & embodiment’, AAHPSSS Conference, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.

1993 ‘Reason embodied and scientific bad faith’, Sex/Gender in Techno-Science Worlds Conference, Melbourne University, Australia.

1989 ‘Gender, rhetoric and economic knowledge’ co-authored with Diana Strassmann, Southern Economics Association Meeting, Florida, USA.

1990 ‘Interactional properties and rational choice’, University of Queensland.

1988 ‘Feasibility constraints on models of minds and brains’, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Texas.

1987 ‘Is Euthyphro irrational?’

         - Rice University, Houston, Texas

         - St Cloud University, Minnesota

         - Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania

1987 ‘Eros and reason in Plato’

         - University of Melbourne

            - University of Auckland, NZ