Associate Professor Melissa Laird
Academic Program Director, Creative Industries and Design
Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education [MSPACE], University of Melbourne
e: m.laird@unimelb.edu.au
Qualifications
2009 Doctor of Philosophy (University of Technology Sydney, Sydney)
Key Academic Leadership Roles
2019 – Current I Academic Program Director Creative Industries and Design / Acting Head of School (November 2020 + April 2021) MSPACE, University of Melbourne
2015 – 2019 I Executive Director Learning and Teaching, National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
2000 – 2015 I Academic Director / Head of Studies, Whitehouse Institute of Design Australia (WIDA)
Academic Governance and Leadership
Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education [MSPACE]
2021 – current I Member Steering Committee - Unilever Business Academy
2020 – current I Member Reconciliation Network Committee
2019 – current I Chair Learning Teaching and Governance Group
2019 – current I Member Academic Programs Committee
2018 – current I Member Curriculum Review Committee - National Institute of Circus Arts
2018 – current I Member Academic Board - Australian Institute of Music Sydney (2nd term)
2016 – current I Member Academic Board - National Art School Sydney (2nd term)
National Institute of Dramatic Art [NIDA]
2015 – 2019 I Executive Officer Academic Board
2015 – 2018 I Member Executive Leadership Team
2015 – 2019 I Member Audit and Risk Committee
2015 – 2018 I Chair Learning and Teaching Directorate
2015 – 2017 I Member Equity and Diversity Committee
2015 – 2018 I Chair Examination Committee
2015 – 2019 I Chair Industry Course Advisory Group
2018 I Founding-Member Sydney Culture Network
Whitehouse Institute of Design Australia [WIDA]
2009 – 2015 I Executive Officer Academic Board
2010 – 2015 I Chair Learning Teaching and Assessment Committee
2010 – 2015 I Chair Examinations Committee
2012 – 2015 I Member Quality Committee
Published Writing
‘Liminality: Thinking Through Creative Practice, Unpredictability and Pedagogy of Collaboration. Arts-Based Knowledge Translation Frameworks’ in EAI International Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education edited by Ping Zhen, Vic Callaghan, David Crawford, Tiina Kymäläinen and Angelica Reyes-Munoz. USA: Innovations in Communication and Computing, Springer International Publishing. 2019.
Publication: Ramburuth, Prem and Laird, Melissa, “Approaches to enhancing student learning: A quality-assured, creative and performing-arts model”. In Arts- based Methods and Organisational Learning: Higher Education Around the World, edited by Tatiana Chemi and Xiangyun Du. USA: Palgrave Studies in Business, Arts and Humanities, Springer International Publishing. 2017.
‘Fragments Cloth and Memory Material Culture Research’, Critical Issues Fashion. Interdisciplanary.net, E- book Publication. 2015.
E-book Publication: Fragments Cloth and Memory Material Culture Research, interdisciplanary.net. 2015.
‘Remnant and reliquary: Fragmentary traces reconciled as object and knowledge’ in Doctoral Writing in the Creative and Performing Arts, edited by Louise Ravelli, Brian Paltridge and Sue Starfield. UK: Libri Publishing. 2014.
'Kraft': Making, Austerity and Sleight of Hand, ‘What is the impact of austerity on craft making and fashion design?’, Duck Journal for Research in Textiles and Textile Design, Volume 2, August 2011.
Dust the ghostly twin: A study of latency in the writing of Celeste Olalquiaga, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Berg (Online Journal), October 2010.
Representation of creative and performing arts education - National and International conferences
2019 Curriculum Design and Productive Collaboration for an Enhanced Student Learning Experience: NIDA, Higher Education Private Providers Quality Network Annual Conference,
Mascot (3 - 5 June)
2018 Liminality: Thinking Through Creative Practice, Unpredictability and Pedagogy of Collaboration. Arts-Based Knowledge Translation Frameworks, 2nd EAI International
Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education, Ravensbourne University, London UK (4-5 Sept)
2018 Creative and Performing Arts Industries, 42nd Annual Conference, Careers Advisors Association of NSW, Sydney (2 Nov)
2017 Upcoming Conference Presentation: Innovations in Student Learning in the Creative and Performing Arts, Tertiary Education and Standards Agency Conference (TEQSA), Park
Hyatt Melbourne (29 November – 1 December)
2017 Conference Presentation: Clothed Space: A Costumed Narrative, Inaugural Costume Research in Australasia Seminar, NIDA (14 November – 15 November)
2017 Conference Presentation: Thinking through Practice: Enhancing ‘maker-cultures’ through material culture research and arts-based pedagogies, Making Futures
2017 Crafting a Sustainable Modernity, Plymouth College of Art, UK (18 September – 20 September)
2017 Presentation: NIDA Students’ Inspirational Stories, Sol at Moran Care, Vaucluse, Sydney (2 August)
2017 Opening Address: Enhancing Teaching in the Creative and Performing Arts, Cultural Ambassadors Program, NIDA (10 - 14 July)
2017 Seminar Presentation: Performing Arts Pedagogy 2020: Toward a ‘Perfect’ Vision, Speech and Drama NSW, Masonic Conference Center, Sydney (10 June)
2016 Conference Presentation: Thinly veiled: Performativity and the Staged Curtain, POPCAANZ, Sydney University (29 June – 1 July
2016 Conference Workshop: Sensate Studio, POPCAANZ, Sydney University (29 June – 1 July)
2015 Design Narratives for Fashion, Fashion Tales 2015: Feeding the Imaginary, Universita Cattolica de Sacro Cuore (June 18 - 20)
2014 Fragments: ‘Embodied Practise’ and material culture research at the heart of fashion, 6th Global Conference
Critical Issues Fashion, Mansfield College, Oxford University, UK (September 15 - 18)
2013 Devotion: Material culture research and the convict love token, The Radicalism of Romantic Love: Critical Perspectives, Australian
National University, Canberra (November 5 -6)
2013 Frailty and Passion: Threadwork for the Musée de Mort, Embellished Textiles: Interpretation and Care of Fine Needlework in Museums
and Historic Houses, University of Wolverhampton (June 12)
2013 Threads: Fragmentary traces of a PhD, Postgraduate Design, History, Material Culture Research Seminar, UTS (February 12)
2012 Fragments, Memory and Cloth. ‘Embodied Practise’ and material culture research at the heart of fashion, Arts of Fashion Education Series,
San Francisco, USA (October 27 – 29)
2012 Remnant and Reliquary, The Art and Fabric of Memory, NSW History Week The Mint, Macquarie Street, Sydney (9 September )
2012 Corporeal Cloth: An ‘Embodied Practice’, Textiles as a Teaching Tool for Building Capacities - International Federation of Home Economics
Congress 2012, Melbourne (19 August)
2012 Educational leadership: Whitehouse Institute of Design, International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes, Jaipur (17 March)
2011 Remnant and Reliquary: Fragmentary traces reconciled as object and knowledge. Reading and writing the artefact through material
culture research and the lives of women [Australia 1788-1901], at ‘Doctoral writing in the visual and performing arts: Challenges and diversities’,
Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney (17 and 18 November)
2011 Exit Seminar for Post-graduate students, University of Technology, Sydney. Remnant and Reliquary: Fragmentary Traces reconciled as a PhD (April 19)
2011 Graduate address, Whitehouse Institute of Design: Melbourne (Feb 11) and Whitehouse Institute of Design: Sydney (Feb 18)
2010 Remnant and Reliquary: Fragmentary traces as visual fictions. Mourning-fashion and Australian women’s memory framed as historical narrative
1788-1901, 'Fashion in Fiction: The Dark Side', Drexel University, Philadelphia (October 7-10)
2010 Fragments of a colonial woman's life traced from death to mourning, 'A Tale of Two Cities: Production and Consumption in the Sydney Clothing
Trades', c1900 – 1990, The Surry Hills Project, University of Technology, Sydney (August 20 )
2009 Remnant and Reliquary, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney (March 8 )
Selected Exhibitions
2017 Proposal The Sacred Stitch: Longing, Belonging and Desire, Craft Biennale Scotland (2018)
2016 Lux…for every dark night there is a brighter day, installation, ‘Keeping the Body in Mind’, Black Dog Institute UNSW, NIDA (24 September)
2015 Hidden, sculpture walk, Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney (18 September - 18 October)
2013 Small is beautiful, Pyrmont Art Prize group show, Tap Gallery, Darlinghusrt, NSW (17 - 18 May)
2012 Home, Cessnock Regional Art Gallery, Cessnock, NSW (23 November – 21 December)
2012 Sculpture in the Vineyards, Wollumbi, Hunter Valley, NSW (October - February)
2012 Hidden, sculpture walk, Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney (1 September - 14 October)
2011 Sculpture in the Vineyards, The Gate Gallery, Wollumbi, Hunter Valley, NSW (October - February)
2011 Hidden, sculpture walk, Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney (7 March - 8 May)
2009 Remnant and Reliquary, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney (8 - 9 March)
Awards and Achievements
2014 Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUAD) Distinguished Teaching Award
2012 Artist in Residence Award, Breath, Sculpture in the Vineyards, Hunter Valley, NSW
2011 Cessnock Regional Art Gallery Award, Woman, Sculpture in the Vineyards, Hunter Valley, NSW
2011 GroundSwell Project People's Choice Award Winner for Threads for the Sacred Space installation, Hidden: Rookwood Sculpture Walk, NSW
2009 Faculty nomination for The Chancellor's Award and The Chancellor's List for Doctor of Philosophy, University of Technology Sydney, NSW
Interviews
2012 Todd Fuller: Home, ‘What were you thinking’, 89.7 Eastside Radio, Sydney (December 24)
2010 Joan Veldkamp, China correspondent: 18th Hempel Student Fashion Award, Radio Netherlands (NOS), (February 11)
2009 Mick Paddon: Remnant and Reliquary, 89.7 Eastside Radio, Sydney (March 6).