Teaching

Since 2020, I have worked as a sessional tutor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney, where I have taught undergraduate courses on avant-garde performance history, transgressive and political performance, directing, practice-based research, and performance analysis. Since 2023 I have taught, lectured, and mentored undergraduate and postgraduate students at Australia’s prestigious training conservatoire, the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), on cultural subsidy and arts funding, as well as critical theory for performance-making, practice-based research, climate dramaturgy, First Nations contemporary performance practice and methodologies, and artificial intelligence.

Pedagogy

My teaching philosophy is anchored in five core values: community, knowledge, reflexivity, creativity, and fun. These principles guide my lesson planning, student engagement, and assessment methods. I strive to create a productive learning environment that is welcoming and open, in which my students feel a rapport and sense of community with their peers. I encourage a brave space for idea exchange through mixed-mode discussions that promote critical thinking and reflective participation. Even complex or serious topics are approached with an element of joy in my classroom.

Like my research, my teaching approach is interdisciplinary, incorporating theories and concepts from sociology, history, performance studies, and political economy, as well as embodied learning methods and creative inspiration from the arts and daily life. My teaching has been praised by students and colleagues alike, with student feedback highlighting the fun, engaging, and safe atmosphere of my classes. I am also mindful of the various learning styles present in any classroom and use my graphic design skills to create compelling visual aids for my lessons.

I am committed to the continuous decolonisation of my teaching methods and knowledge dissemination. In my classes I encourage students to look to embodied and/or oral histories, cultural knowledge, and embodied modes of learning as rich sources of knowledge and ideas. I hold truth-telling as essential to a brave and critically-engaged classroom environment, and I am passionate about decentring the place of written knowledge and colonial histories in the curriculum.

Teaching assets for lecture, ‘Money’, presented to NIDA second year Contexts in Performance students , 2024.

Experience

I have taught a range of tertiary undergraduate courses in university and conservatoire environments. I have taught online-only zoom classes (with remote students attending from continents and time zones all over the world), interactive seminars, practical workshops, and traditional university tutorials. In 2021 I adapted the first-year Theatre and Performance Studies core unit, Making Theatre: The Work of the Director, to an online format to exceptional student feedback (reflected in the comments below).

I've guided students in creating performances, honing presentation skills, understanding research methodologies—including practice-based research—and developing writing skills in various formats, while also conducting thorough assessments in these domains. In addition, I have examined a number of Masters’ projects across several courses at NIDA and mentored postgraduate students’ research projects in NIDA’s MFA Cultural Leadership and Writing/Directing programs.

Since 2024, I have been fortunate to teach into the ‘First Nations first’ curriculum for the second year ‘Contexts in Performance’ unit at NIDA. Guided by the NIDA First Nations team, in this course I have taught students about Indigenous modes of storytelling in contemporary performance through a case study of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Bennelong.

Expertise

In addition to my research areas, my teaching expertise includes:

  • Theatre, performance, and avant-garde art history (late 19th-21st century)

  • Social and critical theory, in particular regarding class, gender, feminism, and critical race studies

  • Embodiment and phenomenology

  • Practice-based research methods, particularly group devised performance-making

  • Performance analysis

Student feedback