For the fifth year in a row, a student from Griffith University’s Doctor of Philosophy program has won the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Dissertation Award.
The Alliance is the leading American professional organisation for theatre educators, theatre artists and educators who use drama and theatre in the classroom.
Dr Kate Donelan (pictured) from the University of Melbourne, won this year’s award for her 2005 Griffith University PhD thesis entitled The Gods Project: Drama as multicultural education. She was supervised by Associate Professor Penny Bundy and Professor John O’Toole (now Chair of Arts Education at University of Melbourne).
Five finalists were selected from a field of global applicants with two from Griffith. The other Griffith finalist was Dr Kennedy Chinyowa from Zimbabwe (2006 graduate). All finalists travelled to Vancouver to publicly defend their dissertations.
Previous winners include two current Griffith University staff – Associate Professor Penny Bundy in 2003 (co-winner with another Australian) and Dr Julie Dunn in 2005. Two New Zealand-based Griffith University students were also successful in 2004 and 2006.