Staff Research
This segment spotlights the brilliance of Murdoch University’s esteemed academics, including tutors, academic chairs, accomplished alumni and more. These industry projects represent the pinnacle of research, showcasing the university’s dedication to innovative exploration.
From scientific breakthroughs to tech innovations and social studies, these projects unveil the invaluable contributions of Murdoch’s academics. Join us in celebrating Murdoch’s visionaries, whose work shapes industries and inspires future innovators. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness the forefront of academic innovation, where ground-breaking research meets real-world impact.
Dr Yolandi Botha
Yolandi Botha is a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Communication at Murdoch University and a Research Fellow in the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has 14 years’ experience in higher education teaching, supervision, and curriculum development in both online and blended modes of tuition. Yolandi is an NRF-rated researcher in South Africa with a multidisciplinary research focus in communication and management sciences. She has published various articles, papers, and book chapters on strategic and organisational communication, stakeholder engagement, stakeholder inclusivity, crisis communication, and sustainability communication.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Tauel Harper
Tauel completed his undergraduate and PhD degree at Murdoch University before going on to work at the University of Liverpool, University of Western Australia and University of Canberra, before returning to work in Media and Communication at Murdoch in 2024.
His research work focuses on the intersection of technology and communication, and he has a particular interest in public communication and democratic theory. During the COVID epidemic he led research into vaccine disinformation on social media for the Department of Health, and he has also contributed research to developing tools to counter extremism.
Tauel is also a keen game player and has written extensively about game culture, game production and the joys and benefits of play.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Lauren O’Mahony
Lauren O’Mahony is a Senior Lecturer in Communications at Murdoch University, Western Australia. Her research focusses on Australian women’s literature as well as media analysis, media audiences and creativity. Her research has been published in many journals and edited collections including Theorizing Ethnicity and Nationality in the Chick Lit Genre (2019) and The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction (2021). In 2023, Creativity and Innovation: Everyday Dynamics and Practice (co-authored with Terence Lee and Pia Lebeck) was published by Springer books.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Exploring intersections of media, law, communication and crime
Reimagining happily ever after in Rix Weaver’s New Holland colonial romances
The everyday experiences of female electric vehicle owners: insights from Western Australia
Howard Lee
Howard Lee is a lecturer in communication at Murdoch University where he also received his PhD in Journalism and Communication Studies. He served more than a decade as a public communication professional and was a former editor of an online news site in Singapore. His research areas include media governance, governmentality and resistance, social surveillance, media freedom, and public communication. He has written for various journals, book projects and academic websites on topics relating to Singapore media and politics, freedom of information, technology and social media, and the governance of journalism.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
‘Warming the Cockles’: Social Media and Singapore’s Political Celebrity-Scape
Dr Elizabeth Burns-Dans
Elizabeth teaches in the History program of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Her background is in Art History, with her current research focusing on the way in which historical artworks (and the dialogues that surround them) continue to influence how we understand our own past and present. In particular, she is researching how contemporary artists are reinterpreting and reimagining historical artworks for modern audiences.
Key Artwork:
Sohan Ariel HAYES, Panoramic View of Albany (Kinjarling), The Place of Rain, 2019, three-channel colour digital video with sound, 10:08 minutes, Artist Proof. Purchased for Boola Katitjin in 2023, Murdoch University Art Collection.
Boola Katitjin: Level 4, Breezeway North
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Panoramic View of Albany (Kinjarling), The Place of Rain
Abstract of recent work:
What appears real is not always true. And what is true needn’t appear real.
One of the most striking (and challenging) records of Australia’s colonial history is etched visually into the sketches, watercolours, lithographs and oils produced throughout the colonial period. Works of these colonial contexts served to present homogenous and harmonious narratives that served the colonial power. They often had little connection to the cultural, social and political reality of the land and people they depicted.
Contemporary artists, working across a variety of media can use strategies of visual dissonance—including absurdity, surrealism and deliberate unreality—to unsettle the authority of colonial artworks, and open new pathways for reimaginings of colonial histories. In doing so, they bring us closer to a fuller and more inclusive understanding of historical truth.
One such artist is Perth-based media artist Sohan Ariel Hayes. Hayes’ 2019 digital work, entitled Panoramic View of Albany (Kinjarling), The Place of Rain makes direct visual reference to colonial artist, Robert Dale’s 1834 Panoramic View of King George’s Sound, a three-metre-long panoramic work depicting the landscape of the Albany region. His panorama shows a fertile landscape, rich in ecological diversity, and inhabited by friendly Indigenous Australians living in harmony with the newly arrived soldiers. Using digital animation, Hayes transforms Dale’s panorama into a 10-miunte moving image which depicts a great storm sweeping across Dale’s landscape, changing the scene from day to night, and from pastoral idyll to colonial nightmare. This ‘colonial storm’ would permanently alter the lives of the indigenous people depicted in the opening frame of the work (and throughout), and with catastrophic cultural effects. When the storm clears, King George’s Sound would never again look the same, just as Australia would be irrevocably changed by colonialism.
Mary-Anne Romano
Mary-Anne is a lecturer in communications in the School of Media and Communication. After working as a journalist and producer, she shifted her focus to academia with a particular interest in gender roles in newsrooms. After studying overseas, Mary-Anne’s research focused on crime, particularly female gender violence, crimes that are both perpetrated by and involve women and people who have gone missing. Her PhD, focused on the Claremont Serial Killings was a defining time in her life and for women living in Perth, where the perpetrator was unknown, the WA Police force laboured under a long investigation and the community was surrounded by fear.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Ritual in journalism: shaping realities in the Claremont serial killings
Terence Lee
Terence Lee is Professor in New Media, Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China. He leads the newly established Digital Governance Research Priority Area within The Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies (IAPS) China. Terence is the Managing Editor of Communication Research and Practice and the Essay Editor of the Asian Journal of Communication, and is an editorial board member of Media International Australia and Continuum. He is an Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University and an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Welcome to the next decade of communication research and practice
‘Warming the Cockles’: Social Media and Singapore’s Political Celebrity-Scape
Leo Murray
Recently my creative work has focused on collaborative productions or exhibits where sound can be used to communicate the ecological impacts of climate change: ‘Anthropoiesis’ (sound installation) at the Venice 2023 Architecture Biennial; ‘Scenes from the Climate Era’ (MU theatre production) in 2024; ‘Ingrained’ (audiovisual installation) FORM Gallery, Perth.
Traditional research outputs work in conjunction with the creative: ‘Anthropoiesis: Slow listening to scalar extremesat the Venice Biennial’ was published in Performance Research in 2025, and I presented a paper ‘Life imitating art – film sound design and the sound of vehicles’ at the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS 2025) conference.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Anthropoiesis: Slow listening to scalar extremes at the Venice Biennial
Eko Pam
Eko Pam is a researcher and designer with expertise in sustainable design practices, particularly for retail spaces. Holding a PhD in Spatial Design, her work bridges theory and application, emphasising sustainability in both academia and professional design. Eko’s research spans design thinking, service design, and spatial design, with contributions to publications, exhibitions, and conferences. Her interdisciplinary focus and collaborative projects highlight her commitment to integrating innovative, sustainable approaches into the built environment and design education.
Erica Mason
As a designer, I look to investigate how design can be utilised as a critical tool to enhance our societal systems, economic policies, natural environments and holistic connections to everything in between. Design is powerful and capable of helping us enhance our world without creating more problems for the future. My research pivots around discovering new ways to innovate via this lens. The results of findings in this area of research is consequently embedded into my curriculums at Murdoch University to ensure that our up and coming designers are perpetuating the most forward thinking methods for design around the world.
Service Design Project: Synergy Environmental Stewardship Program
After an environmental audit highlighted areas for improvement, Synergy initiated a year-long project to shift organisational behaviour from a compliance-driven mindset to proactive environmental stewardship. The aim was to increase environmental maturity across all business units in line with Synergy’s Environmental Strategy.
The project applied a design thinking and codesign approach through four phases: contextual research, ethnographic research, defining insights, and proposing solutions. Research revealed challenges such as siloed communication, fear-based compliance culture, under-resourced environmental teams, and limited integration of sustainability into everyday processes.
Eight interconnected outputs were developed to embed environmental values into Synergy’s culture and operations:
- Integration of environmental and health & safety reporting
- Personalisation of the environmental strategy for all roles
- Organisational redesign for transparency and collaboration
- Improved communication systems
- Embedding environmental values in hiring and induction
- Strengthened procurement processes
- Environmental champions across teams
- Incentives to drive motivation
Implementation was mapped over three years, starting with foundational changes in communication and strategy personalisation, followed by organisational design and system integration. The approach emphasised codesign, pilot testing, and continuous improvement to ensure ownership, cultural alignment, and long-term sustainability.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Dr Glen Stasiuk
Academic Program Chair of Screen Production, Lecturer & senior Indigenous researcher at Murdoch University and a Western Australian Screen Award (WASA) winning director, Glen is a maternal descendent of the Minang-Wadjari Nyungars (Aboriginal peoples) of the South-West of Western Australia whilst his paternal family emigrated from post-war Russia. These rich and varied cultural backgrounds have allowed him, through his filmmaking, research and writing to explore culture, knowledge and diverse narratives.
This is evident via his extensive film productions and academic writings – including his PhD exegesis Wadjemup: Rottnest Island as black prison & white playground and films The Forgotten 2002, and Wadjemup: Black Prison – White Playground 2014 which were respectively awarded the Best Documentary at the 2003 WA Screen Awards, and Outstanding Achievement Feature Film – Factual at the 2014 WA Screen Awards.
His latest film as Producer – I’m Not a Nurse (2022) part of the Screen West ELEVATE initiative has received nominations and awards globally. He is currently working on a short-film entitled KAYAMATAH as Producer and as writer/director/producer on a Noongar railway project and production with RMIT University and another 3 x documentaries entitled Wadjemup Wirin Bidi, Men of Wadjemup (Wadjemup Maarmaan Wirin) & Wadjemup Walbraaniny (‘Healing Roittnest’), with the Rottnest Island Authority.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Dr Damian Fasolo
Damian Fasolo is a lecturer and researcher in Screen Production at Murdoch University, and a multi-award-winning cinematographer and filmmaker. His work spans music videos, documentaries, television, and feature films, with credits for major local and international clients. His short films have received multiple ACS Awards and WASA nominations and screened at global festivals. Having worked with BBC News in London, his research explores cinematic aesthetics and the democratisation of filmmaking. Damian completed a PhD on low-budget independent film and has recently co-published a paper on vlogging and authorship.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
Carine Thevenau
Photographic Series: 13 in the Anthropocene.
What is it like to be 13 years old in 2025? A time period that can be described as the Anthropocene. An epoch that recognizes the overwhelming impact humanity has had on our planet. This is a world that includes the climate crisis, artificial intelligence and social media. The tempo of life is fast and at times, seems erratic and nonsensical.
Being thirteen is also an age that is defined by fluctuation and confusion. Thirteen emerges as a mysterious and wondrous space between childhood and adulthood. It is characterized by rapid physiological and psychological change caused by cascading hormones that influence neural pathways associated with risk-taking, exploring autonomy, identity, and seeking out novel experiences. In 2023, is the experience of being 13 different than previous generations? Photographer Carine Thevenau asks our future people about their experience in the world, during a time of significant disruption and uncertainty.
The photographic series captures the portraits of Australian thirteen-year-olds. The portraits are photographed on black and white film and hand-painted using watercolour pigments. The technique of hand-colouring photographs emerged during the late 19th century, alongside the invention of photography and the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. We are currently living through a time period described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where artificial intelligence is able to construct and manipulate photographic projections of ourselves. Through hand-painting the portraits Carine pauses our contemporary teenagers in time, referencing past periods of shifting tides, whilst emphasizing the consistent inevitability of transitional change.
Explore the works by clicking the links:
