FEEL - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Postdoctoral Fellow
• Researcher and Artist

Dr Gail Kenning is a researcher and artist working with socially engaged practices, participatory engagement and co-design approaches to understand and support psychosocial wellbeing. With a focus on older people, intergenerational practice and mental health she works with the Art Gallery of New South Wales co-developing the Art and Dementia program and PAUSE a program for carers in Palliative Care. Kenning is currently using EmbodiMap - a VR psychosocial engagement tool - working with War Memorial Hospital and developing VR nature and wellbeing experiences for communities in the Woollahra Municipal Council area. Kenning has developed co-design and psychosocial practices for people with dementia including for advanced stages (as acknowledged by Alzheimer's Society UK) that involve participatory workshops, storytelling, and creative making. arts-based discussion and use of Visual Matrix (Kenning, 2022, Froggett, Manley, & Roy, 2015). She engages in a range of qualitative and psychosocial methods and phenomenological/deep listening analysis approaches and has advised on how qualitative data can inform the development of clinical trials involving social and creative engagements (Kenning, G., Ee, N., Xu, Y., Luu, B. L., Ward, S. A., Goldwater, M. B., . . . Peters, R. (2021). Intergenerational Practice in the Community-What Does the Community Think? Social Sciences, 10(10). doi:10.3390/socsci10100374). Gail was part of the development team on the award winning The Visit-a immersive exploration of the lived experience of dementia- and published in Dementia and The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Times of Crisis on its use of verbatim approaches to understand lived experience and it how it cultivates empathy (Kenning, Bennett, & Kuchelmeister, 2022; Papadopoulos et al., 2021). She is secretary of the Arts Health Network NSW and ACT (AHNNA) and has affiliations with NeuRA UNSW, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Eindhoven University and University of Technology Sydney.

Job Titles:

• Postdoctoral Fellow
• Postdoctoral Fellow - Psychosocial Practice

Dr Lydia Gitau is a Postdoctoral Fellow (Psychosocial Practice) at the fEEL (felt Experience and Empathy Lab), Big Anxiety Research Centre. Her research is focused on examining and engaging in post-conflict interventions that have potential to support healing and long-lasting peace for survivors of conflict, mass violence and trauma.

Job Titles:

• Nurse
• Research Associate

Marianne is the 2021 recipient of the Australia Council Ros Bower Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development. She is currently a PhD Candidate with Griffith University's School of Health Sciences & Social work and QCA - conducting arts/health based research.

Job Titles:

• Experience Engagement Fellow

Job Titles:

• Project Manager
• Research Associate

Steph Vajda is a filmmaker, project manager, event producer, community engagement specialist, social planner and community cultural development (CCD) practitioner who has been involved in work with communities in Australia for the past 20 years and in Sri Lanka for 5 years. As a film maker he draws on his extensive experience working with people from diverse backgrounds and facilitating advocacy, engagement and social planning outcomes. With award winning skills in creative engagement design, cross-cultural facilitation, workshop and event facilitation and community planning, Steph specialises in supporting people and communities to collaborate, articulate and participate, using creative approaches to activating public space, cross cultural engagement and designing platforms to share stories. He has co-authored two planning publications through London based publisher Earthscan (Kitchen Table Sustainability - 2008 and SpeakOut - 2009), another through Murdoch University (New Directions - 2003) and received over fifteen professional awards. Steph's work is informed by the intersection of arts practice, cultural expression and decision making, as a space available to planners, cultural facilitators and community workers to understand and instigate change. He feels that creating and working within these spaces allows professionals and community members alike to better understand practical and meaningful ways of building communities that people can connect with, express themselves through and celebrate. He specialises in engaging with people in public space as a means of encouraging understanding and personal and collective sharing. Steph has worked in community, government, private sector and advocacy contexts in Australia and Sri Lanka. He has co-authored two award-winning publications with Dr Wendy Sarkissian, through London based publisher Earthscan (Kitchen Table Sustainability - 2008 and SpeakOut - 2009) and has received over fifteen professional awards for his work. Born in Australia, Steph's family is of Sri Lankan and Hungarian heritage.

Job Titles:

• Lead Immersive Designer and Senior Research Fellow
• Senior Research Fellow Immersive Visualisation