Research

Creative and Performing Arts

The Creative and Performing Arts area in the School of Education and the Arts fosters a dynamic, innovative and collaborative research culture with a focus on applied research with a practical or professional focus. Staff and higher degrees students conduct research in both arts practice and scholarship. As can be seen in the individual interests outlined below, staff and postgraduate students are conducting research in a wide range of creative areas that include music, theatre, performance, multimedia design, visual arts, creative and professional writing and the creative industries. As creativity lies at the core of all our programs, it is also reflected in not only the topics of our research but also the approach we take. Whether internal or studying by distance, research students can complete a creative work, which they present for examination together with a written exegesis dealing with the critical and cultural contexts of the work, or a conventional thesis on an aspect of the creative and performing arts. The Creative and Performing Arts hosts a monthly research seminar, and a themed annual research symposium, for staff and research students that focuses on sharing research in progress and collaboratively assisting participants towards achieving high level publication outcomes.

Staff

Professor Donna Lee Brien
Assistant Dean, Research and Postgraduate, Creative and Performing Arts
BEd (Deakin), MA (By Research) (UTS), PhD (QUT), GCHighEd (UNE)
AAWP (Executive Committee); Convenor, Creative and Performing Arts Special Interest Group, LTERC; AHA; PopCAANZ

Donna researches in the areas of creative nonfiction writing and publishing particularly memoir, biography and food writing, as well as in the creative industries, creativity, the ethical dimensions of nonfiction writing and publishing, and postgraduate supervision and examination. Current work focuses on food writers and their influence. She is on the editorial committees of a number of scholarly journals, and has won a number of major grants into, and a national award for, her postgraduate supervision.

Dr Judith Brown
EdD (CQU), MAA (CQU), Dip Ed (UQ), Hons B Mus (U. Adelaide), LMusA., AMusA ISME, ANZARME

Judith’s research interests include autoethnography, flow in collaborative music performance, lifelong learning in the performing arts, and the education of the professional performer with a particular interest in piano accompaniment and all forms of collaborative performance.

Dr Ian Gaskell
BA (Hons) Waterloo, MA (Toronto), PhD (Toronto)
Actors’ Equity Association

Ian researches in the areas of applied theatre, drama (especially South Pacific drama), acting, rhetorical theory and documentary film.

Dr Clive Graham
MA  (Syd) MEdAdmin (UNE) EdD (CQU)
IERC

Clive’s research interests lie in transdisciplinary knowledge production, the socio-political landscape of Thailand, and the creative industries.

Dr Ashley Holmes    
BAFA (UniSA), PhD (UniSA)

Ashley’s research includes fine art practice especially lens-based and interactive media, interactivity in public art, interactivity in social media, interaction design, virtual collaboration, team-based work integrated learning, and creativity in science and art. He trains and examines emerging researchers in these and related fields and is an active editorial reviewer.

Dr Derrin Kerr
BMus (Queensland Conservatorium), MMus (Michigan State), EdD (CQU)
LTERC

Derrin’s research interests include performance training within jazz education and music education in general. He has published in peer-reviewed journals in the field of music education and has wide experience in contemporary music education.

Peter McKenzie
B. Jazz (CQU), Grad Dip L&T (CQU), MLM (CQU)
LTERC

Peter’s research interests in the area of music include beginner jazz improvisation and composition.

Brendan Murphy
B. App. Sci (Phys) (CIAE), BA (Hons) (CQU)

Brendan’s research interests are in photomedia, an art form in which he is a practitioner, and in the relationship between artistic practice, social media and digital technology.

Associate Professor Steven Pace
BAppSc (UCCQ), MAppSc (CQU), PhD (ANU)
MACS (Snr) CP

Steven’s research includes work in the areas of digital media, human-computer interaction, experience design, game design, web design, the flow experiences of computer users, autoethnography and grounded theory.

Jeffery Sams
BA Hum (Griffith)
Board member, Multimedia Art Asia Pacific

Jeffery’s research interests are in the areas of Indigenous media engagement, augmented learning environments, game based learning, multiuser immersive learning environments, archiving and transferring the experience of multi media art practice, contemporary multimedia arts practice

A snapshot of higher degree research

Writer Jill Adams won a CQUniversity Strategic Scholarship to use cookbooks and magazines to research the roles and aspirations of the 1950s Australian housewife, and how this challenges current stereotypes.

Musicologist Bernadette Ryan has been regularly travelling to Thailand to research the influence of technology on Thai popular music. She has developed contacts with a number of Thai universities and has given public presentations on her work in both Australia and Thailand.

Artist Anita K. Milroy’s practice-based project is investigating the intersection between art and science through the production of exhibition of visual art works and working alongside scientists in her data collection.

Trained as a lawyer and with a background as a legal academic, Susan Currie is writing the biography of feminist activist Dr Janet Irwin.

Dr Peter Mitchell, who recently graduated with a PhD earned by authoring an autobiography on his life as an immigration officer and manager of the controversial Sydney Villawood Detention Centre, has published the resulting memoir, Compassionate Bastard, with Penguin.