9 November 2017
Laura Maran is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at RMIT University, involved in the enhancement of professionally accredited higher education programmes such as the Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) and the MPA/CPA Australia extension. She has integrated academic learning with practical experiences in her courses and is an advocate of visualisation practices to respond to industry demand for 21st century graduates. For her leadership and innovation in teaching and learning she has received a number of College of Business teaching recognition awards and a University teaching award in 2017.
Laura is currently visiting the University of Edinburgh as part of her research leave from RMIT University. Her major research interests are management accounting and control systems in the public sector as well as accounting history, with an emphasis on the link between accounting and dynamics of power, including non-traditional accounting and sociological paradigms, such as Foucault, Bordieu, Latour, Kant, Spinoza and Locke. She is interested in how New Public Management (NPM) reforms have shaped the development paths of public organisations such as hospitals, universities and municipalities and determined shifts in internal power dynamics.
The aim of Laura’s research leave is to investigate how management accounting tools mediate the relationships between not-for-profit organisations in social and healthcare services and the public sector, for comparative purposes between Australia and Europe.
Prior to joining RMIT University (in 2012), she worked in the private and public sector in Italy, for seven years. In Europe, she has also collaborated with different professional and industry bodies. The collaborations have included European research funds on firms’ innovation, implementation of performance evaluation tools in the public sector, and evaluation of healthcare treatments. This extensive background has contributed to an appreciation of the interdisciplinary role of accounting in industry and as a profession. It has been translated into higher education, through a continuous challenge to students and scholars to move out of their comfort zone and embrace a transformative experience.
Laura publishes in the fields of Accounting History and Management Accounting for the Public Sector. She maintains a strong link with the European scientific community and actively participates in professional and academic accounting associations both in Australia and Europe. She is a member of the editorial board of Accounting History and Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; she is guest editor of the Special Issue of Accounting History: ‘Histories of accounting in educational institutions’ and ad-hoc referee for a number of journals in her field, such as Critical Perspectives in Accounting.
Some of her publications include:
- Maran L., Bracci, E. and Inglis, R. (2017), “Examining the process of performance measurement system design and implementation in two Italian public service organizations”, Financial Accountability and Management, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 406-421
- Maran, L., Bracci, E. and Funnell, W. (2016), “Management of power under Napoleon’s occupation of the Commune of Ferrara (1796-1799)”, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 34, pp. 60-78
- Madonna, S., Maran L. and Cestari, G. (2014), “The 1771 and 1824 Reforms of the University of Ferrara: A Foucauldian analysis of papal interests”, Accounting History, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 507-532
- Maran, L., Castellini, M. and Bisman, J. (2013), “Peter Leopold’s reform of Tuscany (1774): management, organization and regulation at the local level”, Management and Organizational History, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 26-44
- Vagnoni E. and Maran, L. (eds) (2013), Il controllo di gestione nelle aziende sanitarie pubbliche – Il lungo cammino (The management control in the public health care organizations – The long way), Maggioli: Santarcangelo di Romagna (peer-reviewed book)