Rate My Professor Rae Cooper

Dr. Rae Cooper (she/her) is a senior design lecturer and early career researcher at the Queensland College of Art and Design (QCAD), part of Griffith University's Arts, Education and Law group. As Program Director for Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art, QCAD International Convenor, and Design Course Convenor, she leads initiatives in visual communication design within the Arts faculty. A proud member of the Worimi First People with ancestral ties to Worimi/Warrimay Country, alongside Irish, English, and Scottish heritage, Cooper's work integrates cultural identity, truth-telling, and the impacts of colonisation. Her academic background includes a Doctor of Visual Arts (2021, Griffith University), with a thesis titled 'Visualising Disillusionment with Politics: An Exploration of Remixed Media and Commercial Design Aesthetics in a Post-Truth Era'; Graduate Diploma in Education (Middle Years, The Arts, Science and Technology, 2012); Master of Design Futures (Class I Honours, 2010); and Bachelor of Product Design (double major in 3D Design and Visual Culture, 2005). Her research focuses on strategic visual communication design intersecting culture and politics, including redesigning research ethics and consent resources, Indigenous-led methodologies, cultural protocols in design education, trauma-integrated healing, and First Nations music as a health determinant.

Cooper's key publications include co-authorship of 'Trauma Aware and Anti-Oppressive Arts-Health and Community Arts Practice' (2023, International Journal of Qualitative Methods) and 'First Nations Music as a Determinant of Health in Australia and Vanuatu: Political and Economic Determinants' (2023, Health Promotion Journal of Australia). She has secured major funding as Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Indigenous Grant (2023) for 'Intergenerational Healing: A Creative First Nations Approach to Wellbeing,' Griffith University Research Accelerator Grant (2024) for 'Re-discovering the Indigenous Design Process in Mainstream Practices,' and Medical Research Future Fund - Preventive and Public Health Research (2024). Career highlights encompass designing undergraduate and postgraduate design and media courses, supervising honours and masters students, serving as QCA College Committee Academic Staff Representative (2017-2018), and co-curating the 'Women's Work' exhibition (2019). Awards include Arts, Education and Law Research Excellence Awards (2023, Remedy Project), Griffith Award for Excellence in Teaching, Highly Commended (2015, Work Integrated Learning), and multiple Awards for Academic Excellence (2010, 2009). She engages in professional development workshops, high school masterclasses, and commercial projects supported by Griffith University Enterprise.