Current roles

I am Associate Professor of Film and Associate Head of School, Partnerships and International, in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University. I facilitate partnerships between Deakin University and arts institutions/initiatives that align with our own values and aims, both as a creative arts institution, and as a place of inclusive learning that engages students at all levels (and from all backgrounds) in creative research and practice.

I am also Deputy Director of the Deakin Motion Lab. In this capacity I lead an interdisciplinary research and knowledge community focused on digital screen experiences.

Active around the world

I am an Australian and UK passport holder who was born in Hong Kong and subsequently educated in Australia, Finland, the US and France. I have resided (chronologically) in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Espoo, Los Angeles, Bologna, Paris, Manchester and Milan. I am fluent in French and Italian and have a working knowledge of Finnish. My work has been translated into Chinese, French, and Italian

Current projects

1. I have completed a University of California Press monograph entitled Transnational Trailblazers: Sarah Bernhardt, Gabrielle Réjane, Mistinguett. This will be available through the University of California's Luminos site, which is open access and free, in May 2023.
2. I am  developing an oral history project collecting memories of the End of British empire in Hong Kong (1960s-1997). This is provisionally entitled The End of Empire project. I will produce a national archive (online), a VR archive, and a series around this. 
3. I am on the founding editorial board for Feminist Media Histories (University of California Press) and on the editorial board of Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film (SAGE) as well as .

Curator and programmer

During my 30 year career as a media professional, I have curated film programs, art exhibitions, and organised and hosted internationally significant conferences. A selection of these include 

• programming two XR workshops ("Extending Realities Forum") with Misha Myers and PhD student, Katy Morrison. This was hosted in July 2021 at Deakin University and joined makers, producers, academics, and curators from Australian XR, Film, and Performing Arts industries ( Australian Centre for Moving Image, Australian National Sound and Film Archive, Melbourne International Film Festival, VRTOV Studio, Phoria, League of Geeks, Sandpit and researchers from Monash University, University of Melbourne, RMIT and Swinburne University). A journal special issue is forthcoming, and Katy Morrison secured a research placement opportunity with Melbourne International Film Festival as part of their new XR Commission initiative in 2022.
  
• programming for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy). This is the world's leading international silent film festival. 
• programming for Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna
• I am leader of the archive initiative, Guglielmo Giannini: A digital archive of film, theatre, and political activism. This includes an archive, workshops, an international conference, a book (Guglielmo Giannini: Uomo di Spettacolo, ed, Edizione di Pagina, Bari, 2021) as well as a 2023 exhibition at Co.As.It and screenings at Cinema Nova. 

• Women and the Silent Screen VII international conference, convener and programmer. This hosted over 60+ international scholars from across the globe, partnered the University of Melbourne with the Ian Potter Centre and the National Film and Sound Archive, and was the first time the conference was brought to the Australasia region. I edited a special journal issue was published. Because of my advocacy, the following iteration of the conference was held in the Theatre Museum in Shanghai, China.
• I helped organise and convene Try Walking in My Shoes: Empathy and Portrayals of Mental Illness on Screen conference, University of Melbourne and the Dax Center (2014)
• A Dinner Party, WestSpace art gallery and symposium 
• The Feminist Salon Residency: The Envelope, West Wing, West Space Gallery 
• Paul Cox: Miracle Maker, screenings and international conference, Victoria College of the Arts

My speaking engagements include keynote lectures delivered at 

• Festival Sinema Australia Indonesia (on virtual production (2023) and microbudgets (2019)); held in Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, Yogyakarta & Bandung, in partnership with DFAT
• the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, in French)
• the University of Bochum 
• the University of Bologna (in Italian)
• the Society for Theatre Research (Swedenborg Hall, London) 
• Columbia University (USA)
• the University of Otago (NZ) 
• the Humanities Research Centre, ANU.

Posts in education 

1. I obtained my first academic post in 1999 as a lecturer in French Cinema at the Centre Parisien d'Études Critiques, Paris. 
2. I was the inaugural lecturer in Screen in the (4*) Drama Department at the University of Manchester, UK.
3. I am the first non-native Italian speaker to teach film at the Università Cattolica, Milan (in the Department of Communication and Performing Arts under the direction of Francesco Casetti.
4. In 2009, I re-located to Melbourne for family reasons, founding graduate classes across the creative arts at the Victorian College of the Arts. During this period, I was also the external assessor for creative work (NTRO) for the University of Sydney.

Early Years

• I was the first Australian student ambassador to Finland, pioneering Youth For Understanding's exchange program in 1986. I attended Kaitaan Lukio in Espoo, learning Finnish, and bonding with a family and friends (who remain my chosen family). 
• In 1992, I was awarded an Education Abroad Fellowship as well as a University of Melbourne Stipend to undertake my Honours Year at UCLA. 
• In 1993, I was the first international student to be awarded a 2 year non-resident tuition scholarship from UCLA for my MA. I was subsequently awarded a 4 year non-resident tuition scholarship for my PhD from the School of Theater, Film, and Television, UCLA (1993-1995; 1995-1999). During these 6 years, I maintained a 4.0 GPA, and was  the recipient of UCLA's Graduate School Leonard Howard Fellowship, the Regents Fellowship and the Otis Ferguson Award for Critical Writing. My PhD wonUCLA's Center for the Study of Women's PhD Award.
• I was UCLA's first international student to be awarded the Charles Boyer Award for doctoral study in France. This gifted me 2 years of research and study in Paris (Sorbonne, Paris III, including the Paris Critical Theory Program, under the direction of Sam Weber). 
• My dissertation was completed with distinction under the supervision of Carlo Ginzburg, Vivian Sobchack, Peter Wollen, and Teshome Gabriel. 

Awards & Grants

Visiting Professorships, Invited Fellow and Academic in residence.

Professional Memberships