Changing tertiary landscapes for the artist-academic: towards a framework for nurturing creative arts research beyond the PhD

Abstract

In changing research climates in Australia, as elsewhere, non-traditional research outputs are increasingly incorporated into the scope of recognised intellectual activities beyond the PhD. While practice-led research has a relatively recent history in Australian universities, increasing numbers of academics hold doctoral level degrees with a creative practice component. In addition, a new focus in ERA on impact, and connections with communities outside academia, represents both challenges and potential for creative writing research. In these changing tertiary landscapes, early career artist-academics navigate complex institutional hierarchies and imperatives. Following Josie Arnold (2012, 2015), this paper takes an autoethnographic, ‘mystory’ approach to addressing these possible tensions and practical imperatives in a changing academic climate, proposing an initial framework for nurturing practice-led research in Australian universities.