Rate My Professor Robert Payne

Dr. Robert Payne serves as a lecturer in Learning, Teaching and Technology and an Honorary Teaching Fellow at Murdoch University. He earned his PhD in Creative Media from Murdoch University in 2020, with his doctoral thesis titled 'Structures of Feeling: Exploring emergent social change in the reading and writing of narrative fiction.' This work investigates how narrative fiction contributes to emergent social change through reading and writing practices. Payne has been recognized as a Lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing at the university, signing on to national advocacy for English disciplines as a novelist. His academic career bridges creative arts, literature, and educational innovation, supporting learning and teaching enhancements across the institution.

An accomplished author, Robert Payne has published five novels and pursued screenwriting. His feature-length dramatic-comedy script 'Everything Breaks' received a Highly Commended distinction in the Australian Writers' Guild Monte Miller Awards for 2021, the premier award for unproduced Australian scripts. Selected from over 370 long-form projects after three rounds of blind judging by industry professionals, the script reached the final eight and qualified for the AWG Pathways Showcase. It portrays a Korean-Australian man in his 40s who becomes emotionally paralyzed while clearing his dying mother's home and caring for his nine-year-old niece, weaving a story of loss, renewal, and family bonds with influences from Judd Apatow-style comedy. The narrative draws partly from Payne's long friendship with award-winning Canadian actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, star of Netflix's Kim's Convenience, who offered feedback on early drafts. Payne has also developed two prior television projects in Canada. In teaching, he coordinates MSP100 Career Learning: Managing Your Career, guiding students in professional development fundamentals.