Dr Therese Davis - Researcher Profile

Biography

My career in Film and TV Studies has taken a unique cross-disciplinary path. I have an undergraduate degree in Communications and an MA in Cultural Studies, both undertaken at University of Technology, Sydney. I later completed my PhD at University of Western Sydney. My dissertation on the face, death and spectatorship in the media age was published as The Face on the Screen: Death, Recognition and Spectatorship (Intellect, 2004). This project formed the platform for several interrelated projects on spectatorship and cross-cultural recognition in the Australian cinema: 1) the widely referenced co-authored book with Felicity Collins, Australian Cinema After Mabo (CUP, 2004), and 2) a collaborative Australian Research Council Discovery project with Nancy Wright and Brooke Collins-Gearing ($199,000) (2006-2009) on collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Filmmakers in Australia. My research is primarily located in Film Studies, but it also draws on and establishes new dialogues with debates in Cultural Theory, History, and Indigenous media. I am currently developing a new research project on online film and digital culture. And in addition, I am very interested in political cinema in general as well as teen film and TV and women’s cinema. I am currently co-director of the Monash Research Unit for Film Culture and Theory.

Qualifications

PHD HUMANITIES

Institution: Universtiy of Western Sydney

Year awarded: 2001

Publications

Books

Collins, F.J., Davis, T.V., 2004, Australian Cinema After Mabo, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Davis, T.V., 2004, The Face on the Screen: Death, Recognition and Spectatorship, Intellect Books, Bristol UK.

Book Chapters

Davis, T., 2012, Beyond good/should/bad: Teaching Australian indigenous film and television, in After Taste: Cultural Value and the Moving Image, eds Julia Vassilieva, Constantine Verevis, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 155-160.

Collins, F., Davis, T., 2010, Remembering the lost child and black tracker in Australian cinema, in The Politics of Cultural Memory, eds Lucy Burke, Simon Faulkner and Jim Aulich, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, pp. 92-114.

Davis, T.V., 1998, The many faces of HIV/AIDS, in Face to Face with HIV/AIDS, University of Queensland Museum, Brisbane, pp. 14-23.

Journal Articles

Davis, T., Morton, R., 2011, "Working in communities, connecting with culture": Reflecting on U-matic to YouTube a national symposium celebrating three decades of Australian Indigenous community filmmaking, Screening the Past [P], vol 31, La Trobe University, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Davis, T.V., 2011, Darlene Johnson on making films in Arnhem Land: An interview, Screening the Past [P], vol 1, issue 31, The Screening the Past Group and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-6.

Davis, T., 2010, Beyond good/should/bad: teaching Australian Indigenous film and television, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies [P], vol 24, issue 5, October 2010, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 799-804.

Davis, T.V., 2009, Indigenising Australian History: contestation and collaboration on First Australians, Screening the Past [P], vol 26, La Trobe University, Melbourne Vic, Australia, pp. 1-9.

Davis, T.V., 2009, Love and social marginality in Samson and Delilah, Senses of Cinema [P], vol 51, Senses of Cinema Inc, Melbourne Vic, Australia, pp. 1-6.

Davis, T.V., 2008, A post-apology national history: first Australian's: the untold story of Australia, Metro, vol 159, Australian Teachers of Media Inc, Melbourne VIC Australia, pp. 104-109.

Davis, T.V., Plate, C., 2008, Surrendering control: Two Laws as collaborative community film-making: an interview with Carolyn Strachan and Alessandro Caadini, Studies in Documentary Film, vol 2, issue 2, Intellect, Bristol UK, pp. 149-168.

Davis, T.V., 2007, Remembering our ancestors: cross-cultural collaboration and the mediation of Aboriginal culture and history in Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer, 2006), Studies in Australasian Cinema, vol 1, issue 1, Intellect, Bristol, UK, pp. 5-14.

Collins, F., Davis, T., 2006, Disputing history, remembering country in the Tracker and Rabbit-Proof Fence, Australian Historical Studies [E], vol 37, issue 128, Routledge, Australia, pp. 35-54.

Davis, T.V., 2006, The Spirit, the Heart, and the Power: Music as History - The Stiff Gins, Aboriginal History [P], vol 30, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, pp. 111-123.

Davis, T.V., 2003, First Sight: Blindness, Cinema and Unrequited Love, Journal of Narrative Theory, vol 33, issue 1, Eastern Michegan University, Michigan USA, pp. 48-62.

Davis, T.V., 2001, Mabo- The Name and Face of Native Title - A Question of Recognition, Metro, vol 127, Australian Teacher of Media and Australian Film Instiute, Melbourne, pp. 24-28.

Other

Davis, T.V., 2008, A Road Movie by John Gillies, Video Logic, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 45-46.

Davis, T.V., 2008, All I Desire (Douglas Sirk, USA, 1951), Director's Suite - The Films of Douglas Sirk, Madman DVD & Video Entertainment, Melbourne VIC Australia.

Davis, T.V., 2008, Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community, Jennifer Deger, (2006), Studies in Documentary Film, vol 2, issue 2, Intellect, Bristol UK, pp. 219-221.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Supervisors:

Martin, A (Main), Davis, T (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Beyond eurocentric and exotic views of Southeast Asian cinema: Gazing empathetically at the works of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong (Joe) Weerasethakul.

Supervisors:

Martin, A (Main), Davis, T (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Girl interrupted, girls in-between: Queer teen temporality and queer girl screen culture..

Supervisors:

Davis, T (Main), Khoo, O (Associate), Perkins, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Human rights films: Visions, missions and illusions.

Supervisors:

Smaill, B (Main), Davis, T (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Ned Kelly and Jandamarra: Mythopoesis of Identity and Resistance in White and Indigenous Australia..

Supervisors:

Davis, T (Main), Smaill, B (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Shaping Australian film production: making, marketing and viewing..

Supervisors:

Williams, D (Main), Davis, T (Associate).

Completed Supervision

Student:

Frost, C.

Program of Study:

"Want to play a game?" Torture porn, violence, media convergence and spectatorship. (PHD) 2012.

Supervisors:

Davis, T (Main), Williams, D (Associate).

Student:

Mitchell, S.

Program of Study:

Human nature: popular representations of psychoanalysis in the films of Charlie Kaufman. (PHD) 2011.

Supervisors:

Smaill, B (Main), Davis, T (Associate).