Rate My Professor Layli Rakhsha

Dr. Layli Rakhsha is a Perth-based visual artist and sessional lecturer born in Iran. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from Curtin University’s School of Design and Art in 2019. Her PhD thesis, "Diaspora and home: contextualizing the idea of home in Australian contemporary art as visualised by selected Iranian artists," examines how migration and displacement shape perceptions of home through personal experiences, emotions, social and cultural relationships, and attachments to place. Rakhsha’s artistic practice centers on printmaking, particularly screen-printing, combined with photography to explore themes of nostalgia, repetition in daily routines, and the quest for belonging. Her works invite viewers to empathize with these universal emotions tied to home and identity.

Currently serving as a sessional lecturer at Curtin College and previously as a casual lecturer at Curtin University in the Department of Art, Rakhsha has enriched academic discourse through her research and presentations. She has delivered papers at national and international conferences, with selected publications appearing in academic journals. Notable publications include "My Voice from Perth" in the IMPACT Printmaking Journal (2023), "Visualising Home in Australia" in the same journal (2020), "Nostalgia: memories of the past, longing for the future," and "A journey toward home." Her ongoing project, "Indian Ocean Ceremony," visualizes the ocean as a symbolic path to home, reflecting boundaries and human dignity. Rakhsha has undertaken residencies at institutions such as the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Fremantle Arts Centre, Vancouver Arts Centre, and Perth Centre for Photography. Exhibitions include "A long letter to home," "Indian Ocean Ceremony," "The landscape of memory and melancholy," "Traveller, wayfarer, home," "On my way to Murray Street," and "Seven moments of the olive tree." Her contributions advance fields of printmaking, diaspora studies, and contemporary visual arts in Australia.