Dr Victoria Duckett

Dr. Duckett is an award winning scholar whose work has been published in Chinese, French and Italian. With 27 years in the higher education context, and well-developed internal and external relationship building skills, she has a proven track record of working with stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds to initiate and drive organisational development and pedagogic innovations.

Dr Duckett has previously taught in

• the University of Manchester (Department of Drama)
• Università Cattolica (Milan, Department of Media and Performing Arts)
• the University of Melbourne (VCA, Centre for Ideas).

Born in Hong Kong, she received her Ph D (1995-1999) and MA (1993-1995) on scholarship from the School of Film, Theatre and Television at UCLA. During this time, she was also the recipient of the Charles Boyer Award (Sorbonne, Paris III, 1997-1999). She completed her PhD with Carlo Ginzburg, Vivian Sobchack, Peter Wollen and Teshome Gabriel.

Career highlights since joining Deakin, 2014:

2018: International Visiting Researcher Stipend, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, University of Exeter.

           International scholar in residence, Cini foundation, Venice

           Visitng Professor, Universita Cattolica, Milan

2017: Visiting Professor, Dipartimento di Musicologia e di Beni Culturali, University of Pavia, Italy.

2017: Invited keynote, University of Otago, New Zealand.

2017: Harry Ransom Center Research Fellowship in the Humanities (supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellowship Endowment), University of Texas at Austin.

2017: Invited presentation, Columbia University Film and Media Studies Colloquium, Columbia University.

2016: Seeing Sarah Bernhardt: Performance and Silent Film named a 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Invited keynote lecture, Society for Theatre Research, Swedenborg Hall, London.

2015: Australian Academy of the Humanities Publication Subsidy.

2014: Visiting Fellowship, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra.

Try Walking in My Shoes: Empathy and Portrayals of Mental Illness on Screen. National conference co-convenor held at the University of Melbourne in partnership with the Dax Centre and the Australia Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe1100-1800).

Screen Studies, Performance, Feminism, Archives

Professional Memberships

AIRSC (Associazione Italiana per le Ricerche di Storia del Cinema) (since 2015),
American Society of Theatre Research (since 2016)EADH: European Association for the Digital Humanities), Melbourne Screen Studies (since 2017), Society for Cinema and Media Studies (since 1992), Women and Film History International (since 2007)

Cinema & screen studies, transmedia and performance studies, transnational cinemas, intervisual culture, innovative pedagogy.

Digital Humanities, Media & Cinema Studies, Archival Studies, Feminist Studies, Performance Studies, 

• Film
• Film/cinema

A selection of recent presentations includes:

"Screening the Stage: Actresses and acting in France fomr theatre to silent cinema." Department of Media, Film and Communication Research Seminar, University of Otago, NZ, Oct. 24, 2017.

“Performing in pairs: Sarah Bernhardt and Gabrielle Réjane, c. 1911.”Columbia University Film and Media Studies Colloquium, Columbia University, April 3, 2017.

“Guglielmo Giannini, un artigiano nel fabbrica del cinema”. La Fabbrica del giallo: Guglielmo Giannini, Università Statale di Milano, January 20, 2017.

“Screening Sarah Bernhardt: Reinterpreting Acting on Silent Film.”
Society for Theatre Research, Swedenborg Hall, London, January 19, 2016.

“A public precedent: Sarah Bernhardt, Gabrielle Réjane, and the early French double feature film”. Femmes Créa(c)tives: The Life and Work of Francophone Women in the Arts and Media, University of Exeter, June 13, 2016.

“Reinterpreting acting in Mothers of France (1917) online.” History, Cinema, Digital Archives Conference, Australian National University, 23 July, 2014

“Polyphony and performance: Integrating the theatre into cinema’s modernity.”
Humanities Research Seminar, Australian National University, 21 July, 2014.

“Medically Modern: Sarah Bernhardt, Queen Elizabeth, and the moving pictures.” Try Walking in My Shoes: Empathy and Portrayals of Mental Illness on Screen Conference, University of Melbourne and The Dax Center, 2014.

Feminisms, Medias, Histories Journal
University of California Press, Founding Editorial Board member, 2014–

Journal of Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film
University of Manchester press, Editorial Board, 2010–present

Women and Film History International Steering Committee, 2010 – 2015

External referee, Assessor of Creative Works and Other Non-Traditional Research Outputs for Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2012–2014.

International referee for the Italian National Agency ANVUR (National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes), 2011–present

Global Digital Humanities Program Committee Referee, 2014-2016

External Assessor, Research Foundation–Flanders (National Fund for Scientific Research: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek– Vlaanderen, FWO), 2016.

ARTICLE/BOOK MANUSCRIPT REFEREE
Cinegrafie
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
Feminist Media Histories
French Studies
Global Digital Humanities Conference Referee
Immagine (Journal of the Italian Association for Research in Film History)
Media Industries Journal
Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film
Palgrave MacMillan (Victorian Studies)
Popular Entertainment Studies
Routledge, Gender Studies series
Senses of Cinema
Screening the Past

For Seeing Sarah Bernhardt (book) 2016

Interview on “Film Buff’s Hour” with Paul Harris on national radio (3RRR, May 7, 2016), http://www.rrr.org.au/program/film-buff-s-forecast?an_page=2016-05-07.

For Women and Silent Screen VII, 2013

Interview. “On Screen”. 3CR with Melinda O’Connor. Sat. 21 September, 2013.

Interview. “Feminist Focus.” 3CR, Thursday 26 September, 2013.

For Setting the Table: A Dinner Party (201art exhibition, film program, seminars)

Interview. “Get Cereal.” Syn FM, 29 August, 2012.

Interview. “Spoke.” 3RRR, 5 September, 2012.

Megan Backhouse, “Festival of short and girlies to pique interest in feminism.” The Age, September 5, 2012.

Deakin University:

Member, School of Communication and Creative Arts Executive Research Committee, 2016-

Member, Global digital publics

Participant, Persona, Celebrity, Publics research group.

Professional affiliations:

Women and Film History International

Chief Investigator: Guglielmo Giannini: film, theatre and political activism in twentieth century Italy

Feminist Media Histories: An International Journal, University of California Press, Founding Editorial Board member, 2014–

Journal of Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film
SAGE, Editorial Board, 2010–present

From 2013 onwards:

2018: (Jan.) International Visiting Researcher Stipend, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, University of Exeter, UK.

2017:

(Dec.) Visiting Professor, Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage, Univeristy of Pavia, Italy.
Seeing Sarah Bernhardt: Performance and Silent Film named a 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

2016:  Harry Ransom Center Research Fellowship in the Humanities (supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellowship Endowment), University of Texas at Austin.
Central Research Grant Scheme Award, Deakin Research, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University.

2015: Australian Academy of the Humanities Publication Subsidy.

2014: Visiting Fellowship, “History, Cinema, Digital Archives.” Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra. 

2013: Ian Potter Foundation Grant, University of Melbourne.
University of Melbourne MacGeorge Fellowship (to facilitate international scholar residencies).

Current:

Women and Emerging Media Industries (monograph). This project explores a generation of celebrity actresses who overlapped with and performed in early twentieth century film but who have been ignored in histories of modernism and rarely, if ever, discussed in histories of media.

Guglielmo Giannini: film, theatre and political activism in twentieth century Italy (Chief Investigator). Guglielmo Giannini was an Italian journalist, playwright, scriptwriter, film director, and politician active in Italy between the 1920s and 1960. In additional to an international conference and publicaitons, this project develops an online Giannini (Omeka) archive.

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Try Walking in My Shoes: Empathy and Portrayals of Mental Illness on Screen. Conference co-convenor. University of Melbourne in partnership with the Dax Centre and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe1100-1800), 2014.

Women and Silent Screen Conference (VII). Conference co-convenor, University of Melbourne, 2013. Academic  & Film programmer. Films sponsored by the National Film  and Sound Archive, Australia, and the New Zealand Film Archive. 

Screening Italy: Cinema and Change in Post-War Italian Film. Series of public lectures organized in collaboration with Co.As.It and the Museo Italiano. Convenor, 2013.

A Dinner Party: Setting the Table (exhibition, seminars, screenings). Co-curator and Academic programmer. West Space art gallery, Melbourne, 2012. Organized free public film programmes. Sponsored by the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.

Paul Cox: Miracle Maker. Conference co-convenor and film programmer. Victoria College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, 2009. Included: Asher Bilu, Paul Cox, Paul Grabowsky, Rodney Hall, Chris Haywood, David Wenham, Wendy Hughes. Event sposored by Film Victoria. Film programme sponsored by the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.

Performing Passions: Sarah Bernhardt and the Silent Screen. Film programmer. Introduction to public screenings. Bologna: Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, 2006.

Digital Madness. Curator and participant. With Vivian Sobchack and Fabiam Wagmister, School of Film & TV, UCLA, 1996.