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Dr Jo Pollitt
Dr Jo Pollitt
Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow
| Telephone: | +61 8 6304 5029 |
|---|---|
| Mobile: | 0407 473 241 |
| Email: | j.pollitt@ecu.edu.au |
| Campus: | Mount Lawley |
| ORCID iD: | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2821-7768 |
Jo is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Associate Director Creative Research Impact with the Centre for People, Place and Planet.
Current Teaching
- DAN3400 Improvisation
Background
Jo Pollitt is an artist scholar who lives and works on Whadjuk Noongar County. As a Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow with the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Centre for People, Place & Planet at Edith Cowan University, her research is focussed on a long-term transdisciplinary project focussed on weather instability called ‘Staging Weather’. Grounded in a twenty-five year practice of working with improvisation as methodology, and with a choreopoetic practice of writing as dancing, her work is situated across multiple performance, choreographic, curatorial and publishing platforms. Jo was an inaugural Forrest Creative and Performance Leadership Fellow (2022), convenor of Dance Research Australia (2022-2025), and is co-lead of #FEAS: Feminist Educators Against Sexism. She is the author of The dancer in your hands (2019, UWA Press) and co-editor of Listening Pedagogies: Creative and Arts-Based Approaches for Education in Unstable Times (2026, Routledge).
Professional Associations
- Dance Research Australia (Convenor 2022-2026)
- Gender and Education (Editorial Board member)
- Climate Aware Creative Practices (CACP) (member)
- #FEAS Feminist Educators Against Sexism (Co-director)
- Artrage (Honorary Lifetime member)
Awards and recognition
- 2019 - Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Research Medal
National and International awards
- 2022 -2023 Forrest Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowship
University and National Teaching Awards
- 2020 Awarded Best Group supervision as The Ediths. ECU School of Education
National and International Research Awards
- Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Raewyn Connell Award - Gender, Sexualities and Cultural Studies (2023-2025)
Research areas and interests
- Artistic research
- Bringing arts and science together through transdisciplinary and creative methods.
- Feminist Environmental Humanities, particularly weather
- Dance, particularly dance improvisation.
- Choreographic writing.
- Dramaturgy and curation
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Edith Cowan University, 2019.
- Master of Arts (Creative Arts), Edith Cowan University, 2002.
Research Outputs
Journal Articles
- Grehan, H., Pollitt, J., Slater, O., Fox, S. (2026). Relating to Difficult Weather through Creative Practice: Responses to Marrugeku’s Cut the Sky. Environmental Education Research, xx(xx), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2026.10185.
- Grehan, H., Pollitt, J. (2026). The Practice of Endings in a Work that has no End: Marrugeku’s Jurrungu Ngan-ga. Performance Research: a journal of the performing arts, 29(8), 100-107. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2024.2608502.
- Pollitt, J., Rachev, R. (2026). Weathercasting: Counter-Cartographies for Place-Based Sensing in Artistic Research (An Unexpected End-of-Life project). THE METAMORPHOSIS PROJECT JOURNAL, xx(2), 82-90.
Book Chapters
- Hickey-Moody, A., Pollitt, J., Blaise, M. (2025). RSVP Cycles: Post Humanist Pedagogies. New Materialist Affirmations: Creative Research Interventions in Methods and Practice (41-60). Edinburgh University Press Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399505376.
Journal Articles
- Pollitt, J. (2025). Weather under pressure: kin/aesthetic practice and dancerly scores for unstable times. Swamphen: a Journal of Cultural Ecology (ASLEC-ANZ), 11(2025), 16 p.. https://doi.org/10.60162/swamphen.11.18131.
- Rachev, R., Pollitt, J., Nicoletti, E. (2025). Clouds Running Out of Juice: A Special Podcast Episode Featuring Tim Winton’s Climate Fiction. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 41(3), 690-704. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2025.10050.
- Gray, E., Ullman, J., Blaise, M., Pollitt, J. (2025). Masculinism, institutional violence and #MeToo: understanding Australian University responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 57(2), 159-175. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2024.2317386.
Book Chapters
- Blaise, M., Gray, E., Pollitt, J., Acton, R., Barraclough, S., Bodén, L., Cullen, F., Dekker, K., Gröndal, H., Leon-Dyer, S., Murray, P., Nordstrom, S., Rahm, L., Sjödin, ES., Tudor, R. (2024). Creatively attending to unfinished business, everyday sexisms, COVID-19, and Higher Education: The #FEAS FAKE JOURNAL. The Routledge International Handbook of Transdisciplinary Feminist Research and Methodological Praxis (380-412). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003303558-45.
Journal Articles
- Mereweather, J., Pollitt, J., Blaise, M. (2024). Young Children Moving through Ecological Anxiety and Grief: Dancing with Demolition. Journal of Dance Education, 2024(Article in press), 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2024.2403757.
- 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.
Creative Arts Research Outputs
- Pollitt, J., Blue, L. (2024). Boatbird. [Hardcover book]. . Upswell Publishing.
- Pollitt, J., Blue, L., Jones, D., Fernandez, E. (2024). Forecast. [Forecast concept and development in collaboration with AGWA, The WA Bureau of Meteorology and invited artists Dianne Jones and Eva Fernandez]. Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) Gallery 09.
Book Chapters
- Pollitt, J. (2023). Choreographies of Presence: Improvisation as Feminist Practice. Dance Research Methodologies: Ethics, Orientations and Practices (48-60). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003145615.
Journal Articles
- Blue, L., Pollitt, J., Blaise, M. (2023). Conversations with rain: Proposing poetic and non-linear interpretation strategies in the Art Gallery. International Journal of Education and the Arts, 24(1.2), 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.26209/ijea24si1.2.
- Pollitt, J., Gray, E., Blaise, M., Ullman, J., Fishwick, E. (2023). Performing feminist research: creative tactics for communicating COVID-19, gender, and higher education research. Gender and Education, 35(5), 487-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2023.2213727.
- Gray, E., Ullman, J., Blaise, M., Pollitt, J. (2023). ‘I'm broken but I'm alive’: gender, COVID-19 and higher education in Australia. Higher Education Research and Development, 42(3), 588-602. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2096576.
Creative Arts Research Outputs
- Pollitt, J. (2023). All ways fire she gives. Westerly. 68.
Book Chapters
- Blaise, M., Pollitt, J., Merewether, J., Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2022). Resilience as More-Than-Human. Young People and Thinking Technologies for the Anthropocene (17-30). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- Pollitt, J., Blaise, M., Gray, E. (2022). Enacting a feminist pause: Interrupting patriarchal productivity in higher education. Creative Approaches to Health Education: New Ways of Thinking, Making, Doing, Teaching and Learning (28-40). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003126508-3.
Journal Articles
- Berry, A., Pollitt, J., Nelson, N., Hodgins, BD., Wintoneak, V. (2022). Dis/orientating the Early Childhood Sensorium: A Palate Making Menu for Public Pedagogy. Journal of Childhood Studies, 47(3), 74-91. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs202218330.
- Gray, EM., Pollitt, J., Blaise, M. (2022). Between activism and academia: Zine-making as a feminist response to COVID-19. Gender and Education, 34(8), 887-905. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1931045.
- Mauro-Flude, N., Pollitt, J. (2022). I am _your_ Pyrate Dancer: Choreographic Computabilities Dancing Inside the Interstices of a Visceral World. Leonardo, 2022(November 28), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02301.
Creative Arts Research Outputs
- Pollitt, J., Blaise, M., Gray, E. (2022). #FEAS Unfinished Business. [Exhibition of mixed media works plus #FEAS archive and videos]. Spectrum Gallery.
Journal Articles
- Pollitt, J., Kind, S., Delgado Vintimilla , C., Blue, L. (2021). Choreographing collaboratories: studios of situated improvisations. Children's Geographies, 2021(Article in press), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2021.2006144.
- Pollitt, J., Blaise, M., Rooney, T. (2021). Weather bodies: Experimenting with dance improvisation in environmental education in the early years. Environmental Education Research, 27(8), 1141-1151. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1926434.
- Pahara, T., Pollitt, J., Raheem, A., Schmidt, T. (2021). Ensemblography: Making collaboration through performing writing. Global Performance Studies, 4(2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.33303/gpsv4n2a2.
Creative Arts Research Outputs
- Pollitt, J. (2020). The dancer in your hands <>. . UWA Publishing.
Journal Articles
- Blaise, M., Rooney, T., Pollitt, J. (2019). Weather wanderings. Journal of Public Pedagogies, 4(2019), 166-170. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/8289.
- Pollitt, J. (2019). The State of Dancingness: Staying with Leaving. PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, 2(2), Article no. 4. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/5904.
Creative Arts Research Outputs
- Pollitt, J., Blue, L., Blaise, M. (2019). Conversations with rain: a multi-platform research-creation project. Art Gallery of Western Australia. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/8939.
Journal Articles
- Pollitt, J. (2017). She Writes like She Dances: Response and radical impermanence in writing as dancing. Choreographic Practices, 8(2), 199-218. https://doi.org/10.1386/chor.8.2.199_1.
Creative Arts Research Outputs
- Francis, M., Pollitt, J., Leach, P., Polain, M. (2012). Quiet Beast. Jo Pollitt and Paea Leach.
- Lehrer, J., McCarthy, K., Peacock, S., Pollitt, J., Whaites, M. (2012). Diversify. Michael Whaites.
Research Projects
- Hitting the Limits: Intersectional sexisms in Australian universities, Australian Research Council, Discovery Projects (DP26), 2026 ‑ 2029, $44,507.
- Creative Forrest Fellowship - Amaara Raheem, Forrest Research Foundation, Early-Career Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowships, 2026 ‑ 2028, $543,065.
- Contemporary Ecofeminist Education: a critical and creative response to ecofeminists legacy of human-environment relations in crisis, Academic Staff Association of Edith Cowan University, Solidarity Research Fund (SRF), 2024 ‑ 2025, $14,833.
- Early-Career Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowships, Forrest Research Foundation, Early-Career Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowships, 2022 ‑ 2023, $239,804.
Research Student Supervision
Principal Supervisor
- Doctor of Philosophy, Not All Clouds Are Created Equal: Speculative Frictions as a Methodology for Expanding and Reimaging Weather Knowledges
Co-principal Supervisor
- Doctor of Philosophy, Leda and the Black Swan: Ecofeminist Interventions in the Australian Landscape
Associate Supervisor
- Master of Education, Leadership Beyond the Studio: Investigating Secondary School Dance Teachers' Pathways to Leadership Positions
- Doctor of Philosophy, Reimaging forecasting: broadening institutional meteorology on Noongar Country.
Associate Supervisor
- Doctor of Philosophy, Walking-With Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River: Experimentations With Methodological and Pedagogical Practices in Early Childhood Education
- Master of Arts (Performing Arts), Talking back: A new theatrical representation of Noongar women's experience
- Master of Education, PAYING ATTENTION TO WATER RELATIONS: Poetic Inquiry and Pedagogical documentation as curious practices
- Master of Education, Drama, Education, Artistry: Australian Practitioners Fostering Connection Across Cultures and Disciplines in China
- Doctor of Philosophy, Slow Choreographies: Addressing everyday sexisms in Australian Universities through embodied creative methods.