Rate My Professor Miranda Lawry

Dr Miranda Lawry serves as Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences (Fine Art) within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD in Fine Art from the University of Newcastle, along with a Graduate Diploma in Visual Art and a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts. Throughout her extensive career at the University of Newcastle spanning over three decades, she progressed from Lecturer in the School of Drama, Fine Art and Music (1990-1999) to Senior Lecturer (2000-2010). She held significant administrative roles, including Deputy Head of School (1999-2001), Acting Head of School (2001-2002), Head of School (2003-2004), Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Art and Design (1998-2000), Assistant Dean International in the Faculty of Education and Arts (2006 onwards), and Program Coordinator for the Bachelor of Visual Arts (1994-1998). Lawry has supervised over 40 Honours students, many receiving Class 1 awards, University Medals, and APA scholarships, as well as 10 postgraduate students to completion between 2000 and 2009.

Lawry's research centers on collaborative engagement in the arts, developing a multi-level framework for creative arts with value beyond galleries, arts/health intersections, practice as research, alternative photo practices, landscape and mythology, artist books, and photomedia practice, primarily using photo and digital media, installation, and new media constructs. A founding member of the Arts/Health and Practice Research Centre, she served as an executive member of the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (2002-2004). Her publications include journal articles such as 'Changes in emotions and perceived stress following time spent in an artistically designed multisensory environment' (2021, with B. Cavanagh et al.), 'A virtual choir ecology and the zoom-machinic' (2021, with K. Grushka et al.), 'Receptive Arts Engagement for Health' (2020, with B. Cavanagh et al.), and 'Consumer perspectives on arts-in-recovery' (2026, with A.W. Johnson et al.); chapters like 'Materialising Memories as Visual Narrative' (2019, with K. Grushka) and 'Visual Culture: at the crossroads of art, science and spatial learning' (2016, with K.M. Grushka et al.); and creative works including exhibitions 'The Wombat Show' (2019), 'Patterns of Time' (2019), and 'The Auguratorium series' (2018). She has contributed to committees such as the Artist in Residence Committee at The Lockup Cultural Centre (2005-present), Royal Newcastle Hospital Commemorative Committee (2003-2006), and ArtsHealth International Conference Committee (2007-2010), fostering art in health contexts through hospital collaborations.