Deborah Lawler-Dormer

Deborah Lawler-Dormer is research manager at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and an Adjunct Researcher at Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her work is transdisciplinary and often engages art, science and technology in collaboration with industry, tertiary and community partners. She is the lead curator for the exhibition Invisible Revealed (2022) developed in partnership with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Recent publications include ‘Critical posthumanist practices from within the Museum’ for The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism (2022).

Qualifications

• BA(Anthropology), 2000, Reed College
• PhD University of Auckland and University of New South Wales
• MA (Art History, First Class Honors) University of Auckland
• BA University of Auckland
• Graduate Certificate in Adult Teaching and Learning, Auckland University of Technology

Research Focus

• Posthumanist theoretical frameworks and museum practices
• Science technology and art interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices
• Curatorial and creative practice research
• Industry, tertiary and community collaborative practices
• Cognition and perception of digital and physical artefacts
• Nuclear heritage, methods and imaging of museum collection objects

Selected Publications

Lawler-Dormer, D. (2022). Critical posthumanist practices from within the museum. In S. Herbrechter, I. Callus, M. Rossini, M. Grech, M. de Bruin-Molé, & C. J. Müller (Eds.), Palgrave handbook of critical posthumanism. Springer.

Lawler-Dormer, D., & Müller, C. J. (2022). Posthumanist interfaces: Developing new conceptual frameworks for museum practices in the context of a major museum technology collection. In C. Daigle & M. Hayler (Eds.), Posthumanism in practice. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Lawler-Dormer, D. (Ed.). (2020). Success and failure. Ultimo, NSW: MAAS Media.

Lawler-Dormer, D. (2018). Self-styling an emotionally intelligent avatar. Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, 16(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1386/tear.16.1.33_1

Lawler-Dormer, D. (2017). In the trouble: Tactics for technoscientific art practice and curation [Doctoral thesis, University of Auckland]. University of Auckland Research Repository. https://hdl.handle.net/2292/36994