Helena is a Vice Chancellor's Professorial Research Fellow at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Background
Helena graduated from Murdoch University with a PhD in Theatre Studies in 1998.
She taught undergraduate and postgraduate students at Murdoch in theatre, creative arts and literature from 1998-2019. From 2019-2023 she taught HDR candidates in the cross-campus Accelerated Research Masters with Training. Helena has supervised over 20 HDR candidates to completion. She has published six scholarly books (sole, co-authored and co-edited) and numerous articles and chapters, several of which have won prizes for research excellence. She has also led major externally funded collaborative grant projects. Helena joined WAAPA in February 2024.
Professional associations
- 1999-present, Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
- 2002-present, PSi (Performance Studies International)
Awards and recognition
National and International awards
- 2023 - Elected a Fellow of The Australian Academy of the Humanities
- 2021 - Won (with co-editor Professor Peter Eckersall) the Australasian Drama Studies Association Joanne Tompkins Prize for excellence in editing
- 2019 - Awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished and Sustained Achievement in Research, Murdoch University
- 2011 - Won the Australasian Drama Studies Association Marlis Thiersch Research Award for excellence in theatre studies scholarship
- 2010 - Won the Australasian Drama Studies Association Rob Jordan Book Prize for excellence in theatre studies scholarship
University and National teaching awards
- 2008 - Won Murdoch University's Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award
Research areas and interests
Her current research deals with the following topics:
- Questions of ethics and responsibility in and in response to contemporary art practice, with a focus on performance, installation and digital arts
- Digitisation and post-digitisation futures for vulnerable HASS collections
- Art and ethics in the context of extreme weather events
- The politics of performance and spectatorship