Dr Maryrose Casey
PhD (La Trobe University), GradCertHigherEd (University of Queensland), BA (La Trobe University), LTCL
Maryrose Casey curriculum vitae 
Biography
I undertook my PhD with the Theatre and Drama program at La Trobe University graduating in 2002. My thesis was published as Creating Frames; contemporary Indigenous theatre 1967-97 by University of Queensland Press in 2004. The book was awarded the Australasian Drama, Theatre and Performance Association Rob Jordan Prize, 2006, and co-winner of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature Walter McRae Russell Award 2005. Prior to joining the Centre for Theatre and performance I was an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian Studies Centre, University of Queensland 2005-2007. My research focuses primarily on racialised performances as a site of cross cultural communication and negotiation between communities. Within this focus, my interest is in the initiation and presentation of public performances framed as cultural representations and the ways in which those representations are read and understood and translated into the historical record and social memory through narratives of culture and race. My interests include both practices within formal performance frames such as theatrical contexts and informal frames such as on the street.
Research interests
Aboriginal Australian commercial performances 1800-1949
This project is the first comprehensive study of Indigenous Australian initiated and controlled commercial performance events 1800-1949. As the first extended account of nineteenth century Indigenous controlled cross-cultural exchange and public entertainment, the research challenges current perceptions of Indigenous theatre.
Ghost Dances, Pow Wows and Corroborees
This project is a comparative study of the act and political and social roles of Indigenous and First nation performances in cross cultural contexts in the USA and Australia.
Disturbing Performances
This project examines self-representations of Aboriginality by Indigenous Australians through public political protests across the twentieth century as a form of public performance. Protests are re-conceived as intended staged political/theatrical events in which Indigenous activists actively and consciously present representations of Aboriginality that are then interpreted by the broader community.
Selected publications
- Casey, M. (2009) 'Theatre or Corroboree, what's in a name? Framing Indigenous Australian nineteenth century commercial performance practices' in Carey, J. and McLisky, C. edited Creating White Australia, Sydney, Sydney University Press. Pages 117-132.
- Casey, M. (2009) 'Ngapartji Ngapartji: Telling Aboriginal Australian Stories', in Megson, C., and Forsyth, A., edited Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present, Hampshire, Palgrave macMillian. Pages 122-139.
- Casey, M. ,Moreton-Robinson, A. & Nicoll, F. (2008) Transnational Whiteness Matters, Lanham, Lexington Books.
- Casey, M. (2007) 'Carnivalising Sovereignty: Containing Indigenous Protest within the 'white' Australian nation', About Performance Vol. 7 2007. pages 69-86.
- Casey, M. (2004) Creating Frames: Contemporary Indigenous Theatre 1967-97, St Lucia, University of Queensland press.
Competitive grants
- Performing Indigenous Sovereignty: Aboriginal Australian commercial performances 1800-1949 (2010-2012), Australian Research Council.
- AusStage Phase 4: Harnessing collective intelligence and pioneering new visual methodologies for innovative research into Australian live performance (2010), Austalian Research Council.
- AusStage: Gateway to Australian live performance, phase 3 - enhancing collaborative research methodologies through digital networking technologies (200), Austalian Research Council.
- Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship, Confronting Representations: Performing Indigenous Protests'. Australian Studies Centre, UQ (2005-2007), Australian Research Council.