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Dr Tom Doig
Dr

Tom Doig

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Overview

Background

Dr Tom Doig is a creative nonfiction author, investigative journalist and scholar. Tom was the recipient of the 2023 CLNZ-NZSA Writer's Award for his work on prepper subcultures in Aotearoa New Zealand. He has written two books about the unprecedented 2014 Hazelwood mine fire disaster: Hazelwood (Penguin Random House, 2020) and The Coal Face (Penguin Books Australia, 2015). Hazelwood was a finalist for the 2020 Walkley Book Award, Journalism and the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards, Best True Crime and Highly Commended in the 2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Non-Fiction. The Coal Face was joint winner of the 2015 Oral History Victoria Education Innovation Award. Dr Doig has also written a humorous travel memoir, Mörön to Mörön: Two men, two bikes, one Mongolian misadventure (Allen & Unwin, 2013). He is the contributing editor of the interdisciplinary collection Living with the Climate Crisis: Voices from Aotearoa (Bridget Williams Books, 2020).

Dr Doig teaches creative nonfiction and poetry.

As a scholar, Dr Doig is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the accelerating climate crisis, with a focus on the cultural, social and psychological aspects of climate breakdown. He is currently researching a new book: We Are All Preppers Now (forthcoming with Scribe Publications), documenting survivalists, doomsday preppers, climate activists and other subcultures of imminent collapse around the world.

Availability

Dr Tom Doig is:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of English Literature, University of Auckland
  • Graduate Diploma of Creative Writing, University of Melbourne
  • Bachelor (Honours) of English Literature, University of Melbourne
  • Masters (Research) of Creative Writing, University of Melbourne
  • Doctor of Philosophy of Journalism, Monash University

Research impacts

Doig'sThe Coal Face (2015) put pressure on the Victorian Labor government to reopen the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry (2015-16), to investigate the public health harms (illness and death) caused by the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire. Information in The Coal Face was cited by prosecuting lawyers in the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry, and by prosecuting lawyers for injured mine worker David Briggs in his succesful case against WorkCover Victoria. The reopened Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry contributed to the early closure of Hazelwood Power Station in 2017, at that time the most-polluting coal plant in the OECD.

Works

Search Professor Tom Doig’s works on UQ eSpace

25 works between 2013 and 2024

1 - 20 of 25 works

Featured

2023

Other Outputs

Friday essay: if the world’s systems are ‘already cracking’ due to climate change, is there a post-doom silver lining?

Doig, Tom (2023). Friday essay: if the world’s systems are ‘already cracking’ due to climate change, is there a post-doom silver lining?. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Conversation Media Group.

Friday essay: if the world’s systems are ‘already cracking’ due to climate change, is there a post-doom silver lining?

Featured

2022

Other Outputs

The preppers next door

Doig, Tom (2022). The preppers next door. Auckland, New Zealand: New Zealand Geographic.

The preppers next door

Featured

2020

Book

Living with the Climate Crisis: Voices from Aotearoa

Doig, Tom ed. (2020). Living with the Climate Crisis: Voices from Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books. doi: 10.7810/9781988587530

Living with the Climate Crisis: Voices from Aotearoa

Featured

2019

Other Outputs

Hazelwood

Doig, Tom (2019). Hazelwood. Melbourne, Australia: Penguin Random House Australia.

Hazelwood

Featured

2015

Other Outputs

The coal face

Doig, Tom (2015). The coal face. North Sydney, NSW, Australia: Penguin Books Australia.

The coal face

Featured

2013

Other Outputs

Mörön to Mörön: two men, two bikes, one Mongolian misadventure

Doig, Tom (2013). Mörön to Mörön: two men, two bikes, one Mongolian misadventure. Crow Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Mörön to Mörön: two men, two bikes, one Mongolian misadventure

2024

Journal Article

Ten years on from Hazelwood: last decade’s second-worst disaster

Doig, Tom (2024). Ten years on from Hazelwood: last decade’s second-worst disaster. Meanjin, 83 (1), 95-108.

Ten years on from Hazelwood: last decade’s second-worst disaster

2024

Other Outputs

Billionaires are building bunkers and buying islands. But are they prepping for the apocalypse – or pioneering a new feudalism?

Guinness, Katherine, Bollmer, Grant and Doig, Tom (2024, 03 01). Billionaires are building bunkers and buying islands. But are they prepping for the apocalypse – or pioneering a new feudalism? The Conversation

Billionaires are building bunkers and buying islands. But are they prepping for the apocalypse – or pioneering a new feudalism?

2024

Other Outputs

Preppers and survivalism in the AustLit Database

Doig, Tom, Millar, Andrew, Mills, Catriona and Nolan, Maggie (2024). Preppers and survivalism in the AustLit Database. St Lucia, QLD Australia: AustLit.

Preppers and survivalism in the AustLit Database

2023

Other Outputs

Best books of 2023: our experts share the books that have stayed with them

Webb, Jen, Howard, Alexander, Gorman, Alice, Clark, Anna, Rhodes, Carl, Carol Lefevre, Dennis Altman, Edwina Preston, Heidi Norman, Hugh Breakey, Novitz, Julian, van Loon, Julienne, Ricketson, Matthew, Haslam, Nick, Davis, Oscar, Mares, Peter, Latty, Tanya, Doig, Tom, Hughes-d'Aeth, Tony and Sun, Wanning (2023, 12 05). Best books of 2023: our experts share the books that have stayed with them The Conversation

Best books of 2023: our experts share the books that have stayed with them

2023

Other Outputs

THIS

Namana, Priya, Kapuscinski-Evans, Jess, Manderson-Galvin, Kerith, Park, Minsun, Homsey, Jonathan, Sifis, Eva, Dunn, Trevor, Mcmahon, Theo, Miles, Sean, Chapple, Aliki, Wang, Yuyu, Haynes, Jon, Paolini, Patrizia, Jadé Maravala, Persis, Parr, Nick, Grant, Ben, Doig, Tom, Spearim, Maurial, Kelly, Sean and Woods, David (2023). THIS. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Rising Festival (Melbourne).

THIS

2023

Other Outputs

'Dear Valued Guest'

Doig, Tom (2023). 'Dear Valued Guest'. Count every breath: a climate anthology. (pp. 100-101) edited by Vinita Agrawal. Calcutta, India: Hawakal Publishers.

'Dear Valued Guest'

2022

Other Outputs

'Dear Valued Guest,'

Doig, Tom (2022). 'Dear Valued Guest,'. Online: Stride Magazine (Rupert Loydell).

'Dear Valued Guest,'

2022

Other Outputs

Doomsday bunkers, Mars and ‘The Mindset’: the tech bros trying to outsmart the end of the world

Doig, Tom (2022, 10 04). Doomsday bunkers, Mars and ‘The Mindset’: the tech bros trying to outsmart the end of the world The Conversation

Doomsday bunkers, Mars and ‘The Mindset’: the tech bros trying to outsmart the end of the world

2022

Conference Publication

Witnessing the climate crisis and children’s mental health: a framing analysis of international news media from 2019-2021

Murray, Linda, Breheny, Mary, Doig, Tom , Mooney, Maureen, Erueti, Bevan, Severinsen, ‪Christina and Shanley, James (2022). Witnessing the climate crisis and children’s mental health: a framing analysis of international news media from 2019-2021. Population Health Congress, Adelaide, SA, Australia, 21-23 September 2022.

Witnessing the climate crisis and children’s mental health: a framing analysis of international news media from 2019-2021

2022

Book Chapter

Writing the climate crisis

Horrocks, Ingrid and Doig, Tom (2022). Writing the climate crisis. Tū Rangaranga: rights, responsibilities and global citizenship in Aotearoa New Zealand. (pp. 161-179) edited by Sharon McLennan, Margaret Forster, Rand Hazou, David Littlewood and Carol Neill. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University Press.

Writing the climate crisis

2022

Other Outputs

Living Underwater in Brisbane

Doig, Tom (2022). Living Underwater in Brisbane. Auckland, New Zealand: The Spinoff.

Living Underwater in Brisbane

2021

Other Outputs

John Summers: ink stained from the beginning

Doig, Tom (2021, 07 20). John Summers: ink stained from the beginning The Spinoff

John Summers: ink stained from the beginning

2021

Other Outputs

Despite major conservation efforts, populations of New Zealand’s iconic kiwi are more vulnerable than people realise

Castro, Isabel, Gibb, Gillian, Undin, Malin and Doig, Tom (2021, 05 13). Despite major conservation efforts, populations of New Zealand’s iconic kiwi are more vulnerable than people realise The Conversation

Despite major conservation efforts, populations of New Zealand’s iconic kiwi are more vulnerable than people realise

2021

Other Outputs

The Domestication of Disaster

Doig, Tom (2021). The Domestication of Disaster. Literary Journalism: The newsletter of the IALJS, 15 (1), 9-10.

The Domestication of Disaster

Supervision

Availability

Dr Tom Doig is:
Not available for supervision

Supervision history

Current supervision

Media

Enquiries

Contact Dr Tom Doig directly for media enquiries about:

  • bunkers
  • climate activists
  • climate crisis
  • disasters
  • doomsday preppers
  • preppers
  • social movements
  • societal collapse
  • subcultures of imminent collapse
  • survivalists

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