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WAAPA welcomes two new Research Fellows

Thursday, 04 April 2024

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  • Professor Helena Grehan, Dr Renee Newman & Dr Jo Pollitt

    L-R Professor Helena Grehan, Dr Renee Newman (Associate Dean Research) & Dr Jo Pollitt

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Edith Cowan University is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Helena Grehan and Dr Jo Pollitt to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) research team.

Professor Grehan has been appointed as Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Research Fellow and Dr Jo Pollitt as Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow.

Professor Helena Grehan

Professor Grehan's research investigates the intersections of art, technology, politics and spectatorship in the contemporary context. She has published four scholarly books and two co-edited books, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Several of her publications have won prizes for research excellence. She is also the Deputy Editor of the journal Performance Research.

In 2023 Professor Grehan was awarded the highest honour in the humanities when she was elected a Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

She has led major Australian Research Council (ARC) funded collaborative grant projects and has held several leadership roles at Murdoch University. She has also supervised over 20 Research Higher Degree candidates to completion.

Professor Grehan said she was delighted to be joining WAAPA and looks forward to working closely with colleagues across the University.

“It is inspiring to walk around and see and hear all of the creative work being undertaken each day,” she said.

“I’m very impressed by the passion and dedication of staff in all areas and I feel that I have been very warmly welcomed into the community.”

View Professor Helena Grehan's online profile.

Dr Jo Pollitt

Dr Jo Pollitt has been appointed as Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow.

She is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar with ECU’s Centre for People, Place and Planet.

Her work is grounded in a twenty-year practice of working with improvisation as methodology across multiple performed, choreographic and publishing platforms.

Dr Pollitt is co-founder of the feminist research collective The Ediths, artist-researcher with #FEAS Feminist Educators Against Sexism, and convenor of Dance Research Australasia. Her debut novella The dancer in your hands was published in 2020.

Her current research is ‘Staging Weather’ which brings together artist-led, meteorological, and First Nations weather knowledges to develop nuanced human relations with place-based weather amidst the instability of climate change.

Dr Pollitt said:

"I am excited to contribute to a lively culture of research and to amplifying the vital practices artists bring in responding to unstable times. It feels like coming home."

WAAPA Associate Dean of Research Dr Renée Newman welcomed the appointments of Professor Grehan and Dr Pollitt.

“Their appointments are exciting and timely as WAAPA research grows in scope and dynamism,” Dr Newman said.

“Now is the time for WAAPA to be contributing research on innovations in how we make performance and how we teach the next generation of performing artists while also interrogating how art can speak to the complexities of our times.”

“I am very excited for the future of research at WAAPA.”

View Dr Jo Pollitt's online profile.

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