Culture and Creativity Seminar Series

Vic McEwan is an artist, artistic director, and researcher, who works in collaboration with diverse non-arts partners to explore complex, and often difficult themes using sound, video, photography, installation, and performance. His artistic outcomes have toured at venues such as the National Museum of Australia, and Tate Liverpool. Some of these key projects include The Harmonic Oscillator, which investigates the adverse effects of noise in hospital environments and Face to Face: The New Normal, developed in partnership with the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic. Vic sits on the executive of the Arts Health Network NSW/ACT (AHNNA), is a Creative Producer for the Griffith Hospital Redevelopment, was a co-author of the RPA Hospital Curatorial Strategy, and in 2024 provided feedback on the NSW Health and the Arts Framework V2.0. In 2023, Vic became the first artist to complete an arts-led PhD from the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.​​

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to Vic_McEwan.pptx

Lachlan Brown is a senior lecturer in English at Charles Sturt University, Wagg Wagga. He is the author of two books of poetry with Giramondo and has collaborated with artists including Tony Curran, James Farley, Christine Reid, and Juanita McLauchlan. His commissioned work includes a poetic biographical portrait for Memory Book: Portraits of Older Australians (eds Cassandra Atherton and Jessica Wilkinson), poetry about running about the Parramatta River for The River Project (the Powerhouse Museum, edited by Jemma Birrell), and poetry about COVID19 daily walks for ABC Everyday. Lachlan’s poems have been shortlisted for prizes including the Blake Poetry Prize, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, and the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize.

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to Lachlan_Brown.pptx

Paul Magee is Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR) at the University of Canberra. He writes poetry, and has also published extensively on the history, ethnography and philosophy of poetic composition, the links between orality and writing, and the relationship between creativity and traumatic thought. Paul’s long involvement in socially impactful deployment of Creative Arts for wellbeing and repair includes his decade-long role as a Co-Investigator on the Defence ARRTS Programme and his work with Indigenous communities as a member of the Story Ground team.

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to Paul_Magee.pptx

Bridget Vincentworks at the intersection of poetry and ethics. Her research interests include ecological writing, the ethical dimensions of ekphrasis, ecological writing, the changing critical and ideological fortunes of close reading. She is a lecturer in English at ANU.

This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to Bridget_Vincent.pptx

Owen Bullock is a poet specialising in haiku and experimental works. He is Chief Investigator for the Poetry and Wellbeing program (UC Hospital), Co-Investigator on the Defence Arts for Recovery, Resilience, Teamwork and Skills (ARRTS) Program, and Discipline Lead for Creative Writing & Literary Studies at the University of Canberra.​

Oz Hardwick is a poet and academic, with particular interests in prose poetry, ekphrasis, and collaborative composition. His recent work has focused upon creative writing and neurodiversity, and his current work explores temporal and textual fragmentation in relation to autism. His most recent poetry collection is the chapbook Retrofuturism for the Dispossessed (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2024). Oz is Professor of Creative Writing at Leeds Trinity University (UK).​

Ella Kurz is a former midwife and current poet. She received the University of Canberra Stephen Parker medal for her PhD which explored how written memories can be used to understand how identities come into existence in the healthcare world – and how this understanding can lead to better healthcare experiences. She co-edited the poetry anthology What We Carry: Poetry on Childbearing and is the author of the early reader, My Mother is a Midwife.

Irfan Master is an award-winning author of novels, shorts stories, poetry and plays. His debut novel, A Beautiful Lie, (Bloomsbury, 2011) was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book prize and the Branford Boase award for debut authors and translated into ten languages. His second novel for young adults,  Out of Heart (Hot Key, 2017), was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2019 he contributed an article highlighting the importance of greater representation in literature for young people that featured in Breaking New Ground, a round-up of British writers of colour produced by BookTrust and Speaking Volumes. Irfan is a passionate advocate for creative projects in the community and has developed programs and mentored young people in how to gain access to the creative arts. He has worked with English PEN, the British Council and the Arvon Foundation to deliver writing workshop and is currently writing a PhD on postcolonial literature and eternal recurrence.​​​​​