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What's your role here at Monash Uni?

I’m a lecturer at the Department of Theory of Art and Design in the Faculty of Art and Design.

How long have you been working at Monash Uni?

I started at Monash in 2004 as a sessional tutor and then I became a research assistant a few years later. I was appointed as a Research Fellow in 2007, and was able to focus more on my own research. At the start of this year, 2010, I applied for an ongoing position as lecturer and was lucky enough to be appointed.

What did you do before coming to Monash Uni?

I worked in a print gallery that sold etchings and lithographs. I would look after prints for hotels as well as individuals. It was a very commercial environment. It was fun, but I like the research much more.

Why did you come to Monash to work?

What appealed to me most about Monash for visual culture and art history was that it is very contemporary. There were strong connections to industry. Those were factors in my decision to become a student here, and they were also very much factors when I was looking for work as.

I’m an art historian and an art theorist, and in this Faculty we have an art school on our doorstep. I have a painting studio across the hall from my office. We’re very much embedded in fine arts practice and enjoy very close relationships with the art world.

How did you get into your field of expertise?

My area of expertise is photography. I studied photography as an undergraduate and really loved it, so I decided to focus on it in my PhD. It has all rolled along from there.

Photography is not my only area of research. I also research other aspects of visual art, but it’s something that I particularly love, because of its connections to the real world. Art is also very much embedded in the social world, but photography has an immediacy that other arts do not have. It is closely tied to social history and politics, and it is associated with so many different types of practices; journalism, art, family photographs. I’m free to research all of these areas. They’re all very much interconnected.

Where did you complete your PhD?

I completed my PhD in the Arts faculty rather than here in the Faculty of Art and Design. It was a straight humanities PhD. The Arts Faculty is a wonderful place to study, but when the visual culture department moved here to the Faculty of Art and Design, I moved as well to begin work as a Research Assistant.

How has Monash supported your teaching / research work?

Monash has supported my work tremendously, particularly in the last few years. I’m an early career researcher and the structures that are in place to support early career researchers are fantastic.

There is the early career researcher network, for example, where early career researchers are encouraged to get together. We have workshops where people come to speak to us about building our publication record, how to best apply for grants and all of those skills which are necessary for a successful research career.

More recently there is the Monash Researcher Accelerator program, which I was very lucky to become a part of recently. The MRA offers financial and non-financial support to boost and build the careers of ECRs much more quickly. There is a whole range of supports both financial and non-financial that are built into the scheme.

I should also point out that the administration staff are incredible. The Research Office and the faculty staff here are very supportive and generous with their time.

Are there any facilities / resources you think having access to sets Monash Uni apart from other employers?

It’s all about the people. The Researcher Accelerator Program offers wonderful financial support, but it wouldn’t be what it is without the people that are supporting it. Everywhere I’ve turned since starting at Monash I’ve had generous support, all the way up the ladder.

There’s professional development training available for all sorts of aspects of your work, but the key for me has been the ways in which co-workers and senior staff are always so generous with their time and their knowledge. Teams like that are very hard to come by.