Samantha is undertaking a Doctorate of Creative Industries at QUT, a professional doctorate which draws on her 15 years of experience working as a co-creative media practitioner in Australia and the Solomon Islands across print, radio, digital storytelling, film and multimedia. Her research combines practice-led research and participatory action research. Her research, entitled Water futures, cultural futures: exploring the potential for storytelling as a community engagement tool in water resource management in the Solomon Islands, is working in partnership with the Solomon Islands National University. Through gathering the perspectives of those working in government and NGOs, staff and students at SINU as well as those in communities who are facing water issues, she hopes that her work can gain new understandings into water management and climate change adaptation that can be fed back into research, teaching and practice. She is looking at using storytelling as a way of understanding the connections between culture, water and place. She is particularly interested in the perspectives of women and youth.
Samantha has a Bachelor of Arts (Communication, Media and Culture) from the University of South Australia and a Master of Communication (Communication and Social Change) from the University of Queensland. Samantha’s research interests are practice-led research, participatory action research, community development in Australia and the Pacific, communication for development, co-creative and participatory media, sustainable water futures and climate change adaptation.
Samantha is Director of Earth Water People, a profit-for-purpose company working in sustainable water management and climate change adaptation in the Pacific.