Personal profile

Research Biography

I am an Australian theatre and cultural historian, with particular expertise in the pre-New Wave period between 1949 and 1975 and the contemporary mainstage. In all of my research, I'm interested in the institutionalisation and legitimation of live performance, and what this can reveal about national preoccupations and anxieties. My work has been recognised with significant research grants, including an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) between 2020 and 2023, and prizes (including ADSA's Marlis Thiersch Prize for best journal article in 2022).

Research Expertise

My research expertise can be separated into three broad strands:

  1. The hidden and shadow traces of forgotten theatrical texts and practices in Australia, particularly in the subsidised sector; 
  2. The historiography of performer training in Australia, extending to innovative contemporary training methodologies; and
  3. The experience of liveness in contemporary performance, including through intermedial events like the Eurovision Song Contest.

I'm available to supervise PhD- and Masters-level research across all three of these strands, in both theory- and practice-led modes. In particular, I'm looking to support projects that interact with and support the development of the AusStage database (www.ausstage.edu.au), which I currently lead.

Education/Academic qualification

PhD, Learning to Inhabit the Chair: Knowledge Transfer in Contemporary Australian Director Training, University of Sydney

Award Date: 13 Jun 2014

External positions

Co-President, Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama, and Performance Studies

Co-Editor, Journal of Australian Studies

Supervision

  • Registered

Research Areas

  • Drama and performance

Supervisory Interests

  • Australian drama
  • Theatre historiography
  • Directing, performance making and actor training