Rate My Professor Catherine Fargher

Dr. Catherine Fargher serves as Senior Lecturer (Teaching and Leadership) in the School of Communication, Society and Culture at Macquarie University in the Faculty of Arts. She holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong awarded in 2008 for her thesis 'Evolution, Hybridity and Mutation: Three Generations of Hybrid Performance Texts from Contemporary Bioethical Fables,' a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide, and a Graduate Diploma in Communications. Over two decades in the creative industries, Fargher is an AWGIE award-winning scriptwriter whose works have been produced across radio, puppetry, hybrid performance, theatre, and digital media by organizations including the Sydney Opera House, ABC Radio Airplay, Redmoon Theatre Chicago, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Vitalstatistix National Women's Theatre, Sidetrack Performance Group, and Urban Theatre Projects. Her acclaimed play Dr Egg and the Man with No Ear, blending puppetry and new media to explore bioethical themes, won the 2011 AWGIE Award for Children’s Theatre and toured the United States and Canada from 2008 to 2011.

Fargher developed the Dr Egg Adventures into a transmedia storyworld featuring interactive games, prose, storybooks, and an online laboratory, receiving an established writer New Work grant in 2013-2014 and incubator space at Macquarie University in 2016 for commercialization. Piloted in primary schools with approximately 300 students and 30 teachers, it supports STEM education through narrative-driven science investigations, forming research partnerships with computing and education colleagues that attracted NSW state funding. Since joining Macquarie University, she leads in work-integrated learning (PACE), student engagement, and inclusion, convening units such as Multimodal Storytelling (MMCC1050), Screenwriting (MMCC1025), and Media Internship (MMCC3150). Her research focuses on transmedia storytelling, convergent media production, interactive games for education, bioethics in performance, and ethical issues in society. Key publications include 'Delivering the dream: telling and selling transmedia stories' (2015), 'The Dr Egg Adventures: incorporating user-generated content and social learning in a convergent storyworld' (2019), 'When the camera stops rolling' (2021), and 'A queer performance new wave in Sydney: inside cLUB bENT (1995-1998)' (2022). Fargher has mentored over 50 interns through her Dr Egg Adventures venture at the MQ Incubator Hub.