Research

Staff from the Arts Academy are involved in a number of innovative research programs

The Arts Academy has had graduate candidates enrolled since 1996, with our first successful completions (two PhD candidates) occurred in 1999.

Prior to this the Arts Academy developed an Honours Course from the Graduate Diploma that offered the only post-undergraduate opportunity at the time. The Honours was planned as a potential pipeline for enrolments into Masters and Doctoral studies. And so it has proved, with approximately 40 - 46% of our graduate cohort coming from our Honours programme. It is worth noting that the Arts Academy became a leader within the University for its Honours enrolment (initially 12 students quickly became a norm of 16 – 20 annually) and Honours enrolments remains a University priority, as does graduate enrolments and completions. Here again the Arts Academy is one of the leaders within the University for our annual graduate enrolments and for our successful completion rates. To date we have had 15 successful completions, 11 Masters and 4 Doctoral candidates. It is anticipated that over the next five-year period we will complete a minimum of 12 Masters and 9 PhD candidates, all of who are currently enrolled on a Full-time or Part-time basis.

The academic staff members of the Arts Academy are engaged in numerous research activities that includes exhibition and performance related investigations.

Although the Arts Academy does not have a strong record of traditional ‘text-based’ publication and research outcomes, it was pleased to lead the way with an investigation into the exegesis route for practiced-based research degrees. ‘Illuminating the Exegesis’ was a symposium that attracted speakers and delegates from around Australia and across disciplines ranging from Architecture to Writing. The outcomes from this still reverberate, and we currently have a paper by staff members that continues the focus accepted for the 2006 annual ACUADS conference. (‘Exegesis: Underpinning Practice-based Creative Research with Quality Supervision’ Sillitoe, J. Button, L. and Mann, A.) Additionally we have staff members who regularly contribute scholarly work to national and international conferences and workshops. 

To find out more about our current activities please e-mail artsinfo@ballarat.edu.au or telephone (03) 53278600.