The Research in Focus prize was a direct response to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 in 2020. AAANZ replaced the annual PhD Prize that usually runs during the conference of that year with a competition that would take place virtually. The competition was open to all current PhD students, recently submitted PhDs and early career researchers within three years of the award of their PhD. The aim of Research in Focus was to support and reward excellence in research communication about art history and practice-led research.
WINNER
$1000 sponsored by Taylor and Francis
Karike Ashworth, ‘The Crisis of Neoliberal Feminine Bravery’, (Queensland University of Technology)
Karike Ashworth’s PhD practice-led research employs cross-disciplinary methods to examine how neoliberal constructions of feminine bravery reinforce prescriptive and restrictive behaviour standards for women. Using performance, video, textiles and immersive installations to explore conceptions of feminine bravery, the research led to the development of a parodic persona, ‘Brave Girl’, who is a mock super-hero/medieval warrior inspired by popular culture, online media, cosplay and comic strip characters.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Tai Mitsuji, ‘Art History: A Slow Discipline in a Fast World’, (Harvard University)
How can art history respond to the speed of the contemporary? How can the academic discipline – defined by peer-review and extended publishing timelines – adjust to the era of Twitter instantaneity and the 15 minute book? In my lecture, I leap (somewhat biographically) between textual examples, dissecting both the practical substance and the phenomenological dimensions of our contemporary pace. All of this leaping is in the service of understanding a slow discipline in a fast world.
OTHER ENTRIES
Lisa Philip-Harbutt, ‘From Community Artist to Leadership Bricoleur, (Freelancer)
This is a short visual story of Lisa Philip-Harbutt’s PhD. After 35 years working as a community artist Philip-Harbutt was interested in venturing into a context far from her usual experience, so she took on a PhD in the Business School. She found people searching for new models of leadership but still working within systems that were biased toward the charismatic hero. Informed by Arts-based research, Philip-Harbutt ran a series of art interventions in academic and industry workplaces, playfully pursuing post-heroic forms of Shared Leadership.
Nikolas Orr, ‘Digital archives and social media as sources’, (University of Newcastle)
With lock-downs preventing international travel and access to physical information sources, resilience and pragmatism have never been more important qualities for researchers. A PhD can’t simply stop in the face of adversity, but may need to be reformed to work within the ‘new normal’. This talk proposes practical methods for contemporary transnational historical research in the current context.