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Dr Vahri McKenzie

Senior Lecturer, Arts and Cultural Management

Staff Member Details
Telephone: +61 8 6304 7809
Email: v.mckenzie@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Mount Lawley  
Room: ML3.230  
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4600-0543

Vahri is Course Co-ordinator, BA (Arts and Cultural Management) within the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Background

Vahri is an educator, artist and scholar whose work frames creative engagement as a model of, and practice for, ways of being together in a complex world. Over 2021-22, Vahri was Research Fellow in Arts and Health within the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at University of Canberra. She developed transdisciplinary applied arts projects with industry and government partners, working with artists, arts workers and arts organisations to evaluate creative practices using methods that position artistic contributions as new knowledge. Recent projects include Creative Recovery and Resilience for artsACT; Project Alchemy (Black Summer Bushfire Recovery) Evaluation Framework for Rebus Theatre; Evaluating with ARRTS mentors for ADF Arts for Recovery, Resilience, Teamwork and Skills.

Professional associations

  • Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at University of Canberra
  • Member, Australasian Drama Studies Association

Awards and recognition

University and National Teaching awards

  • 2018: Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Engagement in Research, Edith Cowan University: for an outstanding contribution to engaged research through an ethos of practical and relational creative inquiry.
  • 2016: Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Engagement in Learning and Teaching, Edith Cowan University: for building community partnerships that facilitate creativity and empower students.

Research areas and interests

  • Artistic research design and methodologies
  • Theories and practices of contemporary performing arts
  • Relationality and agency in creative practice
  • Artistic responses to science and technology

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Edith Cowan University, 2008.
  • Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in English, The University of Western Australia, 2004.

Research Outputs

Journal Articles

  • McKenzie, V., Pollitt, J., Sun, E. (2024). TRANSLATE | TRANSFORM | TRANSDISCIPLINE: Collaborative practice across divides. Axon: Creative Explorations, 14(1), 15 pages. https://doi.org/10.54375/001/5e1qzvv97s.

Book Chapters

  • McKenzie, V., Webb, J. (2023). Re-enactment as Conversation: Yoshiko Shimada’s Becoming a Statue of a Japanese Comfort Woman. Difficult Conversations (33-40). British Council Northern Ireland. https://doi.org/10.57884/SHTK-J226.

Journal Articles

  • Somerville, W., McKenzie, V., Fuller, L., Godden, N., Harrison, A., Isaacs-Guthridge, R., Turner, B. (2023). “Kind regards”: negotiating connection to Country and place through collective storying. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 39(3), 336-348. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2023.24.
  • McKenzie, V., Thwaites, D., Hope, C. (2023). Careful and Curious: A Transformative Ethos for Artistic Evaluation. Performance Paradigm, 18(2023), 128-148. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/3701.
  • Dela Cruz, EV., Dyson, G., Gaspar, R., Goudouna, S., Haines, T., Laine, E., Larson, B., McKenzie, V., Ortúzar, J., Ranwalage, S., Tzakou, A., Wan, E. (2023). Everywhere, All the Time, 3:42 Collaborative encounters with the mundane. Performance Research: a journal of the performing arts, 28(4), 5-6. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2023.2303704.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

Journal Articles

  • McKenzie, V. (2022). Between freedom and control: A chorus-centred bakkhai for community ensemble. Australasian Drama Studies, 2022(80), 253-277.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2022). Creative Recovery and Resilience Forum, Creative ACT. various.
  • McKenzie, V., Frederick, U., Hayne, K. (2022). Upending | Mending. Pivot Gallery, Belco Arts.

Book Chapters

  • McKenzie, V., Thompson, N., Moore, D., Ben-Ary, G. (2021). cellF: Surrogate Musicianship as a Manifestation of In-Vitro Intelligence. Handbook of Artificial Intelligence for Music (315-932). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72116-9_32.
  • McKenzie, V., Boxall, K. (2021). ‘Come all savage creatures’: Becoming Bakkhai in the southwest of Western Australia. Affective Movements, Methods and Pedagogies (142-157). Routledge. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/9775.

Journal Articles

  • McKenzie, V., Florence, C. (2021). A Matter of Balance: Visual Arts in the Australian Defence Force AARTS Program. Axon: Creative Explorations, 11(2), 189-206. https://doi.org/10.54375/001/uqgffie70v.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2021). Colour Me, Beautiful. Bunbury, Australia: Bunbury Regional Art Galleries..

Journal Articles

Creative Arts Research Outputs

Journal Articles

  • Boxall, K., McKenzie, V., Henderson, G., Shizleen, S., Mazza, D. (2018). Reimagining social work case studies: a social work—creative writing collaboration. Social Work Education, 37(7), 881-894. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2018.1458831.
  • McKenzie, V., Ferguson, N. (2018). Only the Envelope: artistic interpretations of eye-tracking imagery. Journal for Artistic Research, 15(2018), 7. https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.332658.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

Book Chapters

  • McKenzie, V. (2017). Dancing With a Bullet: Moving into Memory with Music. Performing the Remembered Present: The Cognition of Memory in Dance, Theatre and Music (197-223). Methuen Drama. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/4211.

Journal Articles

  • McKenzie, V. (2017). Placing knowledge in the body: Western Australian choreographers dancing With a Bullet. Brolga: an Australian journal about dance, 41(December), online.
  • McKenzie, V. (2017). Only the Envelope: An Artistic Exercise in Data Retention. PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, 1(2), Article 5.
  • McKenzie, V. (2017). Only the Envelope: Opening Up Participation, Surveillance, and Consent in Performance. Performance Matters, 3(2), 57-71.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2017). Beer-n-Bubs. Crush: Stories about love. MidnightSun Publishing.

Conference Publications

  • McKenzie, V. (2016). Entering the Regional Scene with a Contemporary Lysistrata. Resilience: Revive, Restore, Reconnect. Proceedings of the Australasian Association for Drama Theatre & Performance Studies (57-67). Artworx.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2016). Only the Envelope. Alisa Blackeney [BRAG Exhibitions Curator].
  • McKenzie, V. (2016). Likes to Measure. Newcastle Short Story Award Anthology 2016. Hunter Writers Centre.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V., Pilla, S. (2015). Nurture. Bunbury Regional Art Galleries.
  • McKenzie, V. (2015). Underscore Alchemy: Extending the Underscore for Creative Artists. Contact Improvisation Newsletter. Contact Collaborations.
  • McKenzie, V. (2015). Lysistrata (Director).

Journal Articles

  • McKenzie, V. (2014). Underscore Alchemy: Extending the Underscore for creative artists. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 6(2), 159-173. https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp.6.2.159_1.
  • McKenzie, V. (2014). Extending Underscore Alchemy. Brolga: an Australian journal about dance, December(39), 35-42.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2014). Freedom in surrender. dancewest, September 2014. Australian Dance Council - Ausdance WA.
  • McKenzie, V. (2014). A visceral kind of understanding. dancewest. Australian Dance Council - Ausdance WA.
  • McKenzie, V. (2014). Against the grain. Gargouille. Sarah Wreford and Adriane Howell.
  • McKenzie, V., Lehrer, J., Ben-Ary, G., McKee, A. (2014). Telephone. Lyndall Adams, Christopher Kueh & Renée Newman-Storen.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2013). Philogyny #2. Poetry d'Amour 2014: Love poems. WA Poets Inc..
  • McKenzie, V. (2013). I Shine, Not Burn. Knitting and other stories. Margaret River Press.

Book Chapters

  • McKenzie, V. (2012). Using the Spectrum to Theorise Apparent Opposition in Creative Writing Doctorates. The Creativity Market: Creative Writing in the 21st Century (148-162). Multilingual Matters.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2012). Fool Asleep. Amber Hasler.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2011). Complications. dotdotdash 07, Winter 2011, 'Sacred'. The dotdotdash Collective.
  • McKenzie, V. (2011). Agent Provocateur. contact improvisation, new dance, movement improvisation 14.3 December 2011. Proximity Magazine Inc..
  • McKenzie, V. (2011). The Skriker-direction and production. Vahri McKenzie.
  • McKenzie, V. (2011). Design, Form, Light and Movement. Strut Dance.
  • McKenzie, V. (2011). @Shakespeare.com-Producer. Vahri McKenzie.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • McKenzie, V. (2010). Sleep Disorders. Lisa Carrie Goldberg.

Conference Publications

  • McKenzie, V. (2008). The unfulfilled promise of digital technologies for collaborative writing. The Creativity and Uncertainty Papers: Refereed Proceedings (13). ASCA.

Journal Articles

  • McKenzie, V. (2007). Liminal space: Postgraduate creative writing in Australian universities. Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, Special Edition 2007(Special Ed), 20-28.

Research Projects

  • New Work in the House - Commissioning, Bunbury Regional Theatre Inc, Grant, 2017 ‑ 2018, $15,000.
  • Case Studies and Vignettes: A social work - arts collaboration, Edith Cowan University, School of Arts and Humanities Research Grant Scheme 2016, 2016 ‑ 2017, $12,470.
  • Only the Envelope: An artistic exercise in data retention investigates our complicity in sharing personal information in the public sphere, Edith Cowan University, School of Arts and Humanities Research Grant Scheme 2016, 2016 ‑ 2017, $4,555.
  • The Other Writing Group, Edith Cowan University, School of Arts and Humanities Research Grant Scheme 2016, 2016 ‑ 2017, $3,644.
  • Moving Knowledge: using memory and music to investigate choreographic processes, Edith Cowan University, ECU Early Career Researcher Grant - 2014, 2014 ‑ 2015, $5,000.

Research Student Supervision

Principal Supervisor

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The Commonwealth of Amnesia: A collection of erasure and cut-up poems exploring the forgotten histories of Croatian and Yugoslav peoples in Australia
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Belonging: A place for, and in, children's poetry
  • Doctor of Philosophy, No-one was watching. A collection of short fiction -and-stories beyond the gates. an exegesis.
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Unravel. A novel -and- a diverse palette: Cosmic horror and weird fiction with/out Lovecraft. a critical essay.
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