24 November - 8 December 2019

Professor Alastair Phillips and Dr Helen Wheatley (Film and Television Studies), visited Monash University from 24 November to 8 December 2019, hosted by Associate Professor Constantine Verevis, Head of Film and Screen Studies in the School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University.

There were an array of successful outcomes for Professor Phillips and Dr Wheatley on the trip. They successfully developed innovative assessment methods with a focus on methods which emphasise the ‘real world’ application of discipline-specific skills. This was achieved by sharing module materials with Monash prior to the visit and following this up with discussion, with particular focus on assessment methods which have an element of curation in their assessment methods, such as video essay. Collaboration on the topic of how each form of assessment was introduced and integrated into the leaning on each module led to the conclusion that curative forms of assessment only worked in a dedicated module, due to the significant amount of training and critical contextualisation required. The collaborative element of this outcome appears hopeful moving forward, given preliminary discussions of a joint Monash-Warwick platform to share work created within the modules at hand.

Furthermore, the development of a new shared module was discussed extensively, both prior to and during the trip. The widespread support for such a module led to a proposed module launch date of October 2021 as an optional third-year module. Film and Screen Studies academics from both Monash and Warwick took this proposal forward by producing a ‘treatment’ for at least four versions of the module, which will be circulated for discussion among the two departments. The treatments may reflect on the topic of ‘Global’ or ‘World’ film and television, or the inter-/transnational circulation of media texts, or they may reflect more focused teaching interests in the departments (e.g. environmental media, indigenous screen media, the international film festival, etc.).

Both Professor Phillips and Dr Wheatley delivered presentations on the synergies between our teaching and research. For Dr Wheatley, this focused on the Ghost Town project and the work of UG, PGT and PGR students on our shared television history field work in Coventry. For Professor Phillips, this related to a summary of his teaching and research interests in relation to questions of space and location, both in terms of screen culture and pedagogical practice. Moreover, both explored the possibility of some shared taught postgraduate teaching in the areas of World Cinema and Global Television and the development of a three-way postgraduate research student digital seminar series held between Warwick University, Monash University and Nagoya University in Japan.

All in all, this was a hugely successful visit with an impressive range of outcomes and there are great hopes for further collaboration going forward.