Susan O'Rourke is head of undergraduate programmes and programme leader, Bachelor of Communication Studies, in the School of Communication Studies at AUT University.
Her research interests include interpersonal communication, business communication, intercultural communication, the teaching of writing and export education.
She is the co-author of several business and interpersonal communication books, including Effective Business Communication in New Zealand (2003) and Human Communication: The New Zealand Edition (2000), an adaptation of De Vito’s classic text. Susan has also published several articles on various aspects of teaching writing.
Her latest book, co-authored with Sandy Barnett of Manukau Institute of Technology, Communication: Organisation and Innovation (3rd ed.), is currently in press (publication September 2011).
Between 2006-2011, Susan headed a major cross-cultural curriculum development programme in communication studies with the Ministry of Higher Education and the Colleges of Applied Science in Oman. Her work (in collaboration with H. A. al-Bulushi) on the quality assurance aspects of this project has been published in Quality in Higher Education. A chapter (with Rosser Johnson) entitled "Internationalising a Media Studies degree in Arab Higher Education: A case study arising from an agreement between New Zealand and Oman" will be included in Arab Cultural Studies: Mapping the Field to be published by IB Tauris in September 2011.