Researchers : Academics | Researchers: Industry | Project Staff

RESEARCHERS : Academics

Principal Researcher: Associate Professor Angela O'Brien

Current Appointment: Associate Professor, Research and Postgraduate Coordinator

Department: School of Creative Arts

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 8216

Fax: +61 3 9344 8462

Room: A202

aob@unimelb.edu.au

Role: Chief Investigator - Project Coordinator.

Details: Recognised as a national expert and leader in the field. This research brings together three areas of expertise and interest: creative arts, education and juvenile justice. Angela O'Brien's major research area has been the use of theatre for social purposes in the Australian context. Her doctoral work on the socialist new theatre movement has been followed by further related research, for example, the use of theatre to support communities through local tragedies. As an arts educator she has presented papers on the ways in which the arts impact on the lives of young people and has also supervised two PhDs on the uses of recreational drama in the transition of youth to adulthood and theatre for young people. In 1996 she completed a Bachelor of Laws honours thesis on juvenile justice in Victoria which notes both the complex factors leading to youth offence and the need for creative diversionary practices. Since 1996 she has been collaborating with the Deputy Chief Magistrate in various projects which have identified the need for systematic research into the evident impace of creative arts engagement on young people at risk.

Associate Professor Angela O'Brien was foundation Head of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1995-2004.  Prior to that she was Deputy Head of the School of Visual and Performing Arts Education.  She continues to act as Research and Graduate Studies Coordinator in the School. Professor O'Brien sits on many internal and external committees, including Chair of the Theatre Board at the University of Melbourne.  Her research interests are in the social impact of the arts and Australian theatre.  She is currently co-Chief Investigator with Dr Kate Donelan on two arts-based projects with marginalised young people.

Principal Researcher: Associate Professor Christine Alder

Current Appointment: Associate Professor

Department: Department of Criminology

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 9446

Fax: +61 3 9344 4259

cmalder@unimelb.edu.au

Role: Chief Investigator and Principle Supervisor in criminology discipline for one PhD Candidate (Kiersten Coulter).

Details: The focus of Assoc. Profeesor Alder's research and teaching throughout her carerr has been juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice. She has 17 book chapters and 6 article published in international refereed journals listed among her career best publications. Assoc. Prof. Alder's reputation in this field relates primarily to her work on the experiences of young women in the juvenile justice system. Her 1986 article on the relationship between unemployment and work is interantionally recognised as significant, both in relation to the issues raised and the research methodology approach. She was invited to give the first international keynote address in 1997 to the US Academy of Criminal Justice Scientists on her work on juvenile justice practice and young women. Assoc. Prof. Alder's co-edited volume (Alder and Wundersitz, 1994) on this topic was one of the first to present critical analyses of this approach in juvenile justice and is weidely cited internationally. She has given invited presentations on this topic at international conferences and universities in the US, UK and Germany. A testimony to Assoc. Prof. Alder's contribution to feminist criminology was included in an internationaly refereed series published in Women and Criminal Justice (Wundersitz and Chesney-Lind, 2000).

Principal Researcher: Dr Kate Donelan

Current Appointment: Senior Lecturer and Head of Drama

Department: Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 8354

Fax: +61 3 9349 4290

Room: 404

kdonelan@unimelb.edu.au

Role: Chief Investigator.

Details: Her current research focuses on the arts in schools and community education. She teaches qulitative research methods to post-graduate arts educators. Kate Donelan has held leadership positions in arts education organisations and played an active role in policy development in Australia and internationally for the past 15 years. She is currently an executive member of Drama Australia and Drama Victoria. She co-edited Drama, Culture and Empowerment (O'Toole and Donelan, 1996), a highly acclaimed book with contributions from thirty of the world's foremost drama and theatre educators.

Dr Kate Donelan is Head of Drama and Deputy Head of the Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education at the University of Melbourne. She was the Vice President of IDEA and a former President of NADIE, Drama Australia.  Her doctoral research was an ethnographic study of intercultural education through drama and the performing arts. 

Associate Researcher/Student Researcher: Ms Kiersten Coulter

Current Appointment: PhD Candidate Researcher

Department: Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 9626

Fax: +61 3 9349 4259

Room: 416

kcoulter@unimelb.edu.au

Role: PhD Researcher/Candidate

Details: This Australian Postgraduate Award Industry (APAI) Scholarship candidate will refine her thesis topic in relation to Clients. The Industry Partner specifically supporting her is Whitelion Incorporated. Kiersten Coulter was orginally trained at Flinders University and at the Ensemble in Sydney as a performer and theatre technician. She has worked extensively as a community artist/performer with young people at risk and young offenders in the community and in detention centres in Adelaide as well as with prisoners in the adult prison system. She worked on several research projects during this time for Juvenile Justice and the University of South Australia. After completing a double major in sociology and criminology at the University of Melbourne she worked as a researcher and project cocordinator in 1997-98 on the project 'Hanging Out - Young People's Use of Public Space' with Associate Professor Rob White and funded by the Federal Department of the Attorney General. This involved analysis of interviews with rural, remote and urban young people including Indigenous young people and Elders. Her honours thesis (2001) is based on a series of arts-based pilot programs run in Parkville Youth Residential Centre for young female offenders in detention with serious durg addictions. In the past eighteen months she has presented at three international and two national conferences - including The Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, The Third International Conference on drugs and Young People, and The World Symposium on Arts, Health and Design. Two publications are pending from these. Since 2001 she has worked as a tutor and sessional lecturer in the Department of Criminology.

Assistant Researcher: Ms Kim Scorpecci

Current Appointment: Postgrad study deferred, Jazz singer

Company: The Decibels

Phone: +61 3 8344 9039

Fax: +61 3 8344 8462

Room: A216

kims@unimelb.edu.au

Role: Researcher

Details: Kimba has a diverse range of skills across several arts modalities and brings to the project her strong research ethic and experience in interpersonal communication. Kimba is an accomplished musician, theatre practitioner and cabaret performer . She has coordinated a diversionary therapy program for elderly people, been a technical writer and sub-editor for a web based training provider and taught theatre skills to young people at The Canberra Youth Theatre Company. She currently works as a volunteer telephone counsellor with CARERING. Since graduating from The School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne, Kimba has also been involved in a number of research projects, including the MUD (Melbourne University Drama) Theatre Database.

Assistant Researcher: Ms Melinda Hetzel

Current Appointment: Researcher

Department: School of Creative Arts

Insitution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 8698

Fax: +61 3 8344 8462

Room: A205

mhetzel@unimelb.edu.au

Role: Researcher

Details: Since graduating in Creative Arts Melinda has been pursuing her passion for directing ensemble-based visual and physical theatre. In addition to her Melbourne-based work she has directed co-productions in Singapore and Germany. She is artistic director of theatre company Peepshow Inc and her most recent work, Puppet Peepshow - Underneath, premiered at 2004 Next Wave Festival. Melinda currently works as a research assistant on two ARC-funded projects at the University of Melbourne.

RESEARCHERS : Industry

Associate Researcher (Industry) : Brian Barrow

Current Appointment: (WAS) Deputy Chief Magistrate

Department: Magistrates' Court of Victoria

Role: Brian Barrow's particular role will be to identify appropriate contacts and negotiate support within three regions. He will play a key role in contexualising the findings in relation to the juvenile and criminal justice systems and the development of policy recommendations in relation to the appropriateness and potential utilisation of similiar projects in this sector.

Associate Researcher (Industry) : Judy Morton

Current Appointment: Research Manager

Organisation: Arts Victoria

Associate Researcher (Industry) : Mark Watt

Current Appointment: Co-Founder and CEO of Whitelion

Department: Management

Organisation: Whitelion

Role: Client Services Researcher. Mark Watt will work closely with Kiersten Coulter in her research project. He will monitor the project from the client services perspective and critique the end user relevance of the research.

Project Staff

Research Coordinator: Dr Kruno Martinac

Current Appointment: Research Coordinator

Department: School of Creative Arts

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 8698

Fax: +61 3 8344 8462

Room: A216

kruno@unimelb.edu.au

Role: Research Coordinator

Details: Dr Kruno Martinac is an art historian and social researcher. He participated in a number of projects as a research assistant and research coordinator. These projects included various academic institutions (Curtain University of Technology, University of Western Australia, Queensland University of Technology, Murdoch University), as well as various government and non-government institutions (Department of Immigration, Department of Housing, Community Centres, Migrant Resource Centres, medical institutions, justice institutions, educational institutions etc.) Dr Martinac worked as a gallery curator and coordinator of education at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and John Curtain Gallery, Curtin University of Technology, where he communicated with different audiences, especially young people. He also worked as a program assistant for Deckchair Theatre Company and Perth Theatre Company on international theatre projects and tours. He has been a NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) accredited Interpreter and Translator for eight years. During this period he was engaged as an interpreter by the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affiars, The Royal Perth Hospital, ASeTTS (Association of Services to Torture and Trauma Survivors), Health Department, Department of Training, Centrelink, Employment agencies, Government Housing and many others. During this time he extensively communicated with various migrant and refugee groups during their initial settlement period. His main research interests are in semiotics or art, cross-cultural communication and social implications of new technologies.

Project Administrator: Mr Tim Stitz

Current Appointment: Project Administrator (April 2005 - April 2006)

Department: School of Creative Arts

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Role: Project Administrator

Details: Tim completed a BA (Hons.) and a BCom at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include twentieth century history and genocide studies, languages and organisational psychology. In the arts he has worked for the Victorian Arts Centre, Auspicious Arts Projects and John Paxinos and Associates. Tim is also an actor and regularly appears in productions at La Mama and other Melbourne theatre venues.

Email: tstitz@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +61 3 8344 9039

Fax: +61 3 8344 8462

Room: A216

Project Administrator: Ms Gabrielle Baker

Appointment: Project Administrator (2003 - April 2005)

Department: School of Creative Arts

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Role: Project Administrator

Details: Gabrielle Baker has managed several government subsidised arts companies, events and projects since 1986. She has managed in the areas of contemporary opera (Chamber Made Opera) theatre (Anthill Theatre, Six Years Old - a bicentennial project of the Syndey Theatre Company), contemporary classical music (Contemporary Music Events Company) and dance (Danceworks). She is also a practising visual artist who has completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons.) at the Victorian College of the Arts and is now studying for a Master of Creative Arts (Visual Arts) by Research at the School of Creative Arts, University of Melbourne. She has an earlier degree, a Bachelor of Education (majoring in politics and English literature) obtained at Melbourne State College now the University of Melbourne.

Assistant Project Manager: Ms Christy Dena

Appointment: Project Administrator (December 2003 - April 2004)

Department: School of Creative Arts

Institution: University of Melbourne, Australia

Role: Project Manager, Administrative Assistant and Web Developer

Details: Christy Dena brings project management skills from her years working in television production and theatre. She has worked as a mediator in Parent/Adolescent, Victim/Offender and Neighbourhood disputes for the Attorney General's Department. As a writer, producer and performer she has worked in theatre, television and short film for many years. Her media production skills have been utilised on online and mixed media productions in advertising, entertainment and tertiary sectors. Christy is currently studying a Masters in Creative Arts by Research (New Media & Creative Writing) at the University of Melbourne.

Read about the Community Artists working on the project