SoCA Staff

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Assoc Prof. Kyle Jenkins

Dr. Kyle Jenkins is the Head of School, Dean of Creative Arts, University of Southern Queensland. He holds a PhD from the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Jenkins’ research and practice are concerned with aspects of conceptual-based painting, incorporating hard-edge and organic abstraction, and the monochrome. He also records and performs music both solo and with the band Mt. Morning. He has exhibited and performed regularly both nationally and internationally and his works have been collected throughout Europe, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. He is represented by Block Projects-Melbourne, MINUS SPACE-New York, ALG-Toowoomba and Near Enough Records.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR – CREATIVE ARTS

Rebecca Scollen

Rebecca has worked in the tertiary sector for almost 30 years, starting off as a Lecturer in Theatre, then moving into a fulltime research posting, then shifting into management roles including Head of School and Dean of Creative Arts at UniSQ (Feb 2019-Feb 2023). Rebecca’s research interests include: animals in performance; wildlife tourism and animal studies with particular focus on visitor experience and implications for nature conservation; arts and community wellbeing; and audience research and development.  She supervises postgraduate students across a range of creative arts disciplines. Rebecca was a member of the Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts (2019-2022), and an elected member of the board of Wildlife Tourism Australia (2016–2018) and Flying Arts Alliance Inc (2016-2018). She enjoys bushwalking, gardening, live music, and hanging out with friends.

Senior Lecturer - Theatre

Darryl Chalk

Darryl Chalk is Programs Director and a Senior Lecturer in Theatre in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Southern Queensland. Since 2004, he has served as Treasurer on the Executive Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association. He has been teaching theatre making, history, theory, and practice for over 20 years and in 2009 was a co-recipient (with Janet McDonald) of a national citation from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Darryl’s primary research expertise is on the theatre and culture of early modern Europe with a particular focus on the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. He has produced two books on this subject with international publishers: Contagion and the Shakespearean Stage (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) with Mary Floyd-Wilson (UNC) and Rapt in Secret Studies: Emerging Shakespeares (Cambridge Scholars, 2010) with Laurie Johnson (USQ). His work has also featured in numerous international volumes and leading journals and he has regularly led seminars and presented papers at meetings of the Shakespeare Association of America and the World Shakespeare Congress.

Senior Lecturer - Film and Screen Production

Daryl Sparkes

Dr Daryl Sparkes is a Senior Lecturer on the Springfield Campus. He has been teaching at USQ for the past 15 years. Before that Daryl worked in News for Channel 10, as a Documentary film maker on the Channel 7 series “The World Around Us’ for 6 years, as a Children’s Television Producer for Network 7 in Sydney and has made numerous documentaries for Networks 9, 7, ABC, Foxtel and SBS. A number of his films have won international and national awards and have been screened at the Toronto Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. His research interests include: documentary making, scriptwriting, drama film production, medieval archaeology and Australian convict archaeology.

Associate Professor - Theatre

Janet McDonald

Associate Professor Janet McDonald received her PhD from Arizona State University in 1999. She was Head of School, Creative Arts (2008-2013) USQ, and the Associate Head of Learning, Teaching and Student Success for the School (2020-2023). She is co-winner of a USQ Research Excellence Award for quality publication success, and Team Leader on the inaugural Excellence Award for Leadership of Learning and Teaching at USQ (2021).  She is co-recipient of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2009) and a current member of the King’s College Council and Board of Fellows at King’s College, St Lucia, Brisbane. She’s a mad-keen AFL Brisbane Lions fan.

Associate Professor - Visual Art

Beata Batorowicz

Associate Professor Beata Batorowicz is the Associate Head (Research and Research Training) in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Southern Queensland. She is a contemporary artist specialising in sculpture and installation, exhibiting nationally and internationally. She has substantial cross-university research experience and industry partnership development in the arts. Engaging in both creative and traditional forms of research, Batorowicz explores visual storytelling (mythology, fairy tales and folklore) as a creative catalyst for cultural resiliency and wellbeing in light of a traumatic past. Her key exhibition projects include: Dark Rituals (2018-19) partnered with University of Sunshine Coast Gallery and University of Tasmania Gallery, Launceston, Antipods (2015), University of Saskatchewan Gallery, Canada, Tales within Historical Spaces (2012), QUT Art Museum. Batorowicz’s projects’ have secured key funding including Australia Council for the Arts (2018-19), Social Sciences and Humanities Research (2015) and Arts Queensland (2011). Batorowicz is also a recipient of two USQ Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2016, 2018). Batorowicz is part of the executive leadership team for the Centre for Culture and Heritage at UniSQ.

Associate Professor - Music

Melissa Forbes

Melissa is Associate Professor in Contemporary Singing at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. As a music educator and through her PhD research, Melissa helped establish collaborative learning in music at UniSQ which values the learning and teaching contributions of both teachers and peers. She supervises PhD, DCA and Honours students on a broad range of topics related to singing and music pedagogy and practice. Melissa researches our lived experiences of singing, with a focus on promoting singing as an everyday wellbeing activity. She has published research in international scholarly journals on elite jazz vocalists, community singers and singing group facilitators. She is proud to have been involved in the formation of Toowoomba’s first singing group for Parkinson’s disease, “Park ‘n Songs”. As a singer, Melissa began her career as a lead singer in numerous hard-working show bands, gaining extensive experience within the corporate entertainment industry. She has performed nationally and internationally in Japan, Singapore, and the USA. She has recorded two albums—No More Mondays, and The Intimacy of Distance (a collaboration with Brazilian singer and guitarist Bianca Obino). Her Spotify royalties from these releases fuel her much-cherished coffee habit. Melissa is a Churchill Fellow and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

Senior Lecturer - Television and Radio Broadcast

Ashley Jones

With several decades of experience working in the media industry, Dr Ashley Jones is the Discipline Head and Senior Lecturer in Television and Radio. Ashley has worked extensively in the television industry for both commercial television and pay television.  He has been and remains a radio presenter, currently presenting a weekly show across inland and Western Queensland.  He is a producer, director in television and a producer presenter for radio.  He has worked as a highly sought after MC from the stage of the performing arts in Brisbane to a range of smaller events.

Ashley is passionate and enthusiastic about all things media, especially around the value of local media and the community it serves. This is his research focus that has taken him from presentations at major national conferences to a presenter at the BBC radio 50^th anniversary in London.  He has won several awards in the media industry, for his authentic teaching approach taking out the 2019 USQ Teaching Award and university medal.

He continues to build strong relationships with industry both in Australia and elsewhere in the world. This is all to give his students the best possible education and start in the industry that he loves.

Lecturer - Visual Art

David Akenson

David Akenson is a visual artist and researcher with an interest in aesthetics theory, cultural theory, visual culture and art practice.   In particular, I’m engaged in both traditional and non-traditional research outcomes, focusing on the debates and art practices that negotiate the dialectics of modernist and contemporary art – aesthetics verses anti-aesthetic; art and life; form and concept; high and low or fine art and the art of the everyday.  I have exhibited in numerous local, state, national and international exhibitions and published in the fields of art history, art criticism and theory.

Lecturer - Music

Bruce Woodward

Bruce Woodward is a guitarist based in Brisbane, Australia. A graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Bruce has worked as a jazz and contemporary guitarist, arranger and musical director in Australia and internationally. In addition to a maintaining a busy performance schedule, Bruce is a Lecturer in Music at The University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

Lecturer - Music

Helen Russell

Helen is a bassist, vocalist, arranger, musical director and educator based in Brisbane. Her career has encompassed many styles of music performance – music theatre, country gospel, pop, classical – whilst always having jazz at its core. Before joining USQ in 2015 as contemporary music lecturer she taught sessionally for many years in the jazz programs at the Queensland Conservatorium, QUT and the Jazz Music Institute. Her Masters of Music Research centred on her method for teaching aural and theory skills via a cappella singing, reflecting her pedagogical interest in the interweaving of aural and literacy skills.

Lecturer - Music

Mark Scholtes

Mark is an ARIA nominee and APRA award winning songwriter and recording artist. He was the first Australian artist to record for the legendary Verve record label, and his career to date has included collaborations with multiple Grammy winning producer Tommy LiPuma (Barbra Streisand, George Benson, Miles Davis), Grammy Life Time Achievement recipient and noted veteran engineer Al Schmitt (Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson), and multiple Grammy winning producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchel, Herbie Hancock, Tracy Chapman). Currently signed to EMI Music Publishing Australia, Mark’s music has appeared in numerous international film and television productions including Private Practice, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Grim, and Packed to the Rafters

Associate Lecturer - Visual Art

Stephen Spurrier

MA (Fine Art) RMIT

Stephen has held 31 solo exhibitions. Notable group exhibitions include –  Une historie du livre d’artiste – International exhibition of  Artists’ books,   Université  Rennes 2. France (2016), Between the Sheets. Artists’ books from Australia, UK, Germany, Italy, USA, Central Gallery, Perth. W.A. (2017), Sydney Contemporary. International Art Fair, Sydney (2019), Mini Print Internacional De Cadaques, Barcelona, Spain (2014), We are Australian -UNITED NATIONS 3^rd World Conference Against Racism, Durban, South Africa, 2001, the Twelfth Annual Miniature Book Exhibition, Koblenz, Germany, & University of Vermont, USA 2000,

Stephen’s work is in State Galleries and in many public collections including Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Stephen was awarded an Australia Council Development Grant of a Studio Residency in Barcelona for 2002.His most recent exhibition Journeys of a Curious Mind – the art and lives of Stephen Spurrier covers his practice over the last 50 years and was accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue.

Two of his artist’s books, Art Procedures IIV and Brain Damage were recently acquired by the Tate Modern in London.

Stephen currently lectures in Visual Arts with an emphasis on Printmaking.

Lecturer - Visual Art

David Usher

My complete focus, as the ceramics lecturer, is upon providing our visual arts students with the most comprehensive studio experience possible in their three years of undergraduate studies. In this time, they will engage with the materials and techniques within the studio environment, and in turn, make critical decisions about what career paths and employment options will emerge at the end of their respective degrees.

In the Ceramics Studio, our attention to the program is currently two-fold. Initially we work toward building a specific skill-set that will enable the students to create/establish their own career as a ceramicist. This initial pathway has a fine-arts focus, which is primarily concerned with developing the individual’s ability to develop a ‘brand’ or distinct style of finely crafted artefact. The priority here is to forge the necessary skills and industry-knowledge for making a living from functional/fine art ceramics.

The second concentration, and equally important focus, is upon the students’ academic development. This will provide them with the necessary skill-set for a career in a number of fields requiring academic qualifications, and encompassing the capacity for research and critical thinking. Some examples of these types of positions include opportunities in Mental Health Care, Industrial Ceramics Development, through to developing a career as a Practice-Led Researcher in the Contemporary Arts.

Senior Lecturer - Visual Art

Rhiannan Johnson

Dr Rhi Johnson is a Lecturer in Visual Arts (Printmaking), and is the First Year Experience and Employability Lead for the School of Creative Arts at USQ.  She teaches a range of practical techniques including linoprinting, screenprinting, etching, monoprinting and bookbinding.  She has supervised students across a range of subject matter including contemporary printmaking, visual narratives, artist books, mixed media practice and art and design. 

Rhi has studied at RMIT, and also has a PhD from the University of Southern Queensland.  Her primary research interests relate to artist books, narrative theory, and contemporary printmaking.  Her art practice is grounded in the investigation of everyday narratives, and how these can be disrupted or subverted visually.  She examines visual cues that can punctuate an environment, object or space of perceived meaning, and in doing so, may allude to subconscious methods of processing information.

Rhi has been a practicing artist since 2007, and has exhibited nationally and internationally with works held in a range of public and private art collections.  She is currently represented by Alexandra Lawson Gallery, Toowoomba.

Senior Technical Officer

Paul Holt

Mr Paul Holt is the Senior Technical Officer in film at the University of Southern Queensland’s Toowoomba campus. Paul has a broad and diverse skill set in technical knowledge related to the production and post-production industry. Paul also manages the Audio Visual center where students regularly engage in workshops to improve their technical knowledge. 

School Support Officer

Rieka Hine

Rieka Hine is the Senior School Support Officer for the School of Creative Arts.  Rieka has worked with the School since 2019.  She is inspired by the student’s work in each discipline as they work their way through their degrees.  Rieka is also a member of the UniSQ Ally Network.  The UniSQ Ally Network aims to provide a safe-zone and visible support network for students and employees who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer or questioning (LGBTIQ+).

Technical Officer

Peta Berghofer

Peta primarily assists in maintaining the Visual Art studios, while sharing specialities in ceramic slip casting, hand building and kiln operations. With a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual Art) (Honours), Peta’s own practice focuses on the making and merging of installation based, sculptural and functional ceramics. Peta is passionate about collaborating and working alongside students to realise their creative goals, helping to overcome technical and conceptual roadblocks

Senior Lecturer – Editing and Publishing

Kate Cantrell

Kate Cantrell is an award-winning writer, editor, and teacher working at the intersection of creative writing, mobility studies, and social justice.

Kate’s research specialisation is contemporary accounts of wandering and narrative representations of illness, immobility, and displacement. She has published over 40 journal articles, conference papers, and essays, as well as industry articles in high-profile outlets such as The Conversation, The Sunday Mail, and Times Higher Education where she is a regular contributor. Her short stories, creative non-fiction, and poetry appear in highly-esteemed magazines and journals such as Overland, Meanjin, and Westerly, among others.

The first Arts researcher in Queensland to be awarded a Smart Futures Fellowship ($23,000), Kate’s research on wandering has attracted external funding and often attracts media interest. She has produced commissioned output for community organisations such as Surf Life Saving Australia; government bodies such as Tourism Queensland; and NGOs such as UNANIMA International. She has also consulted on global campaigns at the United Nations, where she continues to build globally significant partnerships through her arts advocacy.

In 2019 and 2020, Kate was awarded consecutive teaching and learning citations for building reading resilience through trauma-informed pedagogy (2020) and supporting professional learning through student partnership (2019).

Senior Technician

Graham James

Graham is the Senior Technician in the studio and workshop spaces for the School of Creative Arts.  Armed with 25 years trade experience, Graham brings expertise in construction and workplace safety to support the learning experience for students.

LECTURER - FILM AND SCREEN PRODUCTION

Simon Van Der Spoel

USQ’s Film and TV studies appealed to me due to the practical nature of the courses, for while there was a good grounding on theory, there was regular opportunity to put theory into practice. This honed my skills under the expert tutelage of my course lecturers, which in turn gave me the opportunity to enter industry immediately upon graduation. USQ was instrumental in preparing me for the realities of the media landscape and gave me the foundation to have a successful career over the next 18 years with two of Australia’s leading broadcast networks. Career highlight was self producing and directing a documentary on WWII Spitfires with Bud Tingwell, broadcast on The History Channel.

Last count I was personally making over 300 promos, billboards, and TV Commercials per year, and had the opportunity to Produce and Direct 6 half hour TV shows, broadcast statewide and nationally. 

Simon Van Der Spoel

Graduated 2003

Former Commercial Producer Channel 7 Network

Lecturer – Theatre

Travis Dowling

Travis Dowling is a Theatre Director, Teaching Artist and, Facilitator and is currently a Lecturer in Theatre at UniSQ. He his past positions include Associate Director Queensland Theatre, Associate Director Hothouse Theatre and Associate Director Grin and Tonic Theatre. Travis has directed and facilitated for companies including Queensland Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Griffith Uni, QUT, QPCA, and Grin and Tonic. Travis has facilitated, developed, and produced programs for young people in the arts, and community and wellbeing across Australia for the past 15 years. He is currently studying his DCA at USQ.

FILM AND SCREEN PRODUCTION LECTURER

Ben Hackworth

Ben Hackworth completed a Master of Film at VCA (University of Melbourne). 

His short film MARTIN FOUR was the first VCA film in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to screen at over 20 major international film festivals.

 His next short film HALF SISTER screened in selection at Edinburgh and Rome and his AFC Funded short film VIOLET LIVES UPSTAIRS premiered in Montreal followed by screenings at Palm Springs, Mill Valley, Sao Paulo, and Melbourne as well as winning the Australian Film Critics Circle Award for Best Short Film.  He was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Residence in Paris where he developed the feature script for CORROBOREE which has its international premiere in official selection at Toronto, followed by a selection at Berlinale Forum. Ben’s next feature film project was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Atelier to finance his film CURE FOR SERPENTS (later renamed CELESTE). The film was made in north Queensland in 2018 and went on to have its world premiere at Melbourne Film Festival followed by an international premiere at BFI London and screenings at major festivals in Europe and USA.  Jake Wilson of Sydney Morning Herald wrote: “Writer-director Ben Hackworth is one of the most distinctive talents in Australian cinema.”  

Ben is passionate about helping students discover their own storytelling voice. 

THEATRE LECTURER

David Fenton

Ph.D. Performance Innovation (Practice-led) QUT, M.F.A (Dramaturgy) QUT, B.A. (Directing) QUT, Grad. Dip (Directing) NIDA, Dip. Teach, (Drama and History), Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education.  

Significant positions David has held have been artistic, academic, executive and managerial. During his thirty-six year career David has directed over sixty-five professional theatre productions. He previous position was as Associate Head of Learning and Teaching (Graduate Studies) at the Australian Institute of Music where he is also leading the teach-out for the Bachelor of Performance in Dramatic Arts. Other roles at the Australian Institute of Music David has assumed are Program Leader for Graduate Studies and Program Leader for the Scholarship Portfolio.  Before this David was Acting CEO of Metro Arts 2014-15 and before that Head of Performance Practices (NIDA) National Institute of Dramatic Art 2012-14. 

David’s scholarly and teaching work is extensive. He completed a practice-led Ph.D. in Performance Innovation at Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries entitled Unstable Acts; a practitioner’s case study of the Poetics of Postdramatic Theatre and Intermediality in 2007, for which he won the Philip Parsons Prize for ‘Performance as Research’ from The Australian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies. Also, David worked as General Manager of Quality and Product Development and as a senior facilitator for Message Train Communication 2010-12 in Adult Learning and Development sector. 

Internationally, David was Artistic Director/CEO 2009-10 of Northern Ireland’s longest running educational theatre company – Replay Theatre. From 2002-04 David was Manager of Events and Entertainment at Sydney Olympic Park Authority. While from 2000-02 he was Festival Director for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, then the largest professionally curated multi-disciplinary gay and lesbian arts festival in the world. Lastly, David was Artistic Director for Riverina Theatre Company from 1996-99. 

LECTURER - DESIGN AND INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Steven Mohr

Steven is an animator, motion capture director and academic in the fields of digital media, design, animation, games, and visual effects. His PhD was in motion capture animation, and he has extensive history in higher education teaching and research across multimedia disciplines of games, animation, film, and visual effects, both in theoretical concepts and practical pipelines. He works with the latest tools in VR, gaming, and animation, including virtual production techniques using real-time. He uses contemporary software used in the film and games industry, including Autodesk, Adobe and Unreal and enjoys researching the ever-expanding spectrum of creative digital media. Steven is a Lecturer in the Design and Interactive Technologies for UniSQ.

FILM TECHNICAL OFFICER

Lachlan Ker

Lachlan Ker is a Film Technical Officer at UniSQ Springfield campus, Having worked in the Film and TV industry in many different capacities for over 20 years and working in many Feature films including First Strike, Chopper, Head On, Paradise Road, The Phantom, Ghost Rider and TV drama Seachange & Something in the Air and Noah’s Ark Production Runner, Unit Assistant, Cast Driver, Editing Assistant, Short Film Maker & Videographer he a passion for filmmaking and cinema. Believes the students should get as much hands-on experience with film equipment as possible. Regularly conducts outside of class tutorial with film equipment for 1st, 2nd & 3rd year Students. Something that is unique to our UniSQ.

ASSOCIATE LECTURER - TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Shyam Kottegoda

Shyam Kottegoda is an accomplished Associate Lecturer in Television Production, equipped with an extensive background in television production, cinematography, video choreography, and editing. With over 15 years of combined academic and hands-on industry experience across several countries, Shyam boasts a robust educational background, holding a Bachelor’s degree with honours in Creative Digital Media from the UK and a Master’s degree in Digital Film and TV from Malaysia, which underpins his practical skills in the field.

His professional journey includes significant contributions to the television industry in the UK, including work for BBC London, as well as engagements in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, with experience in both studio settings and outside broadcasts.

Driven by a passion for teaching, Shyam is committed to fostering a vibrant and interactive educational setting for his students. His role as an educator is complemented by his active involvement in the creative arts as a filmmaker, choreographer, dancer, and percussionist in Australia.

Currently, Shyam is advancing his academic pursuits by working towards a PhD at UniSQ, where his research centres on talent-based reality television production.

LECTURER (DESIGN AND INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES)

Alistair Ward

Alistair’s high-level visual communication skills have been developed from 30 years’ experience in the creative industries. He has international, national, and local experience, working in London, the Bahamas, Sydney, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.  Alistair has been awarded internationally and nationally for his designs. The experience gained from working with clients has given him valuable knowledge that he can transfer to his students, and this has contributed to his teaching success and research group collaborations. Alistair is recognised internationally for his teaching, as a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He has received several advance awards for learning, for his blended learning approaches and advanced quality teaching. Alistair has collaborated with academics on several journal articles, on the use of design technology for an immersive learning experience. He has also presented these findings internationally. Alistair’s PhD research explores emotional design as a way of reducing waste.

Lecturer (Film and Screen Production)

Katherine Putnam

Dr. Katherine Chediak Putnam is a Brazilian film lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland and a film practitioner based in Queensland, Australia. Her research and teaching focus on screenwriting for genre cinema, cinematic language, and gender studies. Katherine is an established filmmaker, having co-written two horror short films—Stray (2018) and Inferno (2020)—and directed the latter. Both films were showcased at prestigious international film festivals such as the Seattle International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, Dances with Films, and BiFan. Notably, Stray was nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Best Short Screenplay. In 2023, Katherine’s Brazilian feature film debut, Perdida, was released in Brazilian theatres and on Disney+. The film, co-produced and distributed by Disney Brazil, marked a significant milestone in her career.