Associate Professor Stephen Carleton, Chair of the Centre for Critical and Creative Writing, has won the prestigious Peta Tait Prize at this year's Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) conference. The prize is only awarded every four years, and recognises ADSA members who have made a significant contribution to pioneering, nurturing and shaping a specific area of praxis within the inter-related fields of theatre, drama, and performance studies.
“The Prize goes to Associate Professor Stephen Carleton,” the judges write, “for his significant and sustained contributions to the discipline. Stephen has produced a dynamic and important body of work developing Australia Gothic drama and climate fiction (cli-fi) through his plays. As well as his award winning plays (which include Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset and The Turquoise Elephant), he has produced a series of beautifully written and carefully argued essays that work in conversation with his creative outputs to model new ways of representing and negotiating some of the most difficult issues we face. His work has been recognised both nationally and internationally and in awarding him this prize we acknowledge and commend him for his highly impactful contribution to the discipline.”
Assoc. Prof. Carleton is delighted with the win, recognising as it does the important contribution artists make to the academy. “It’s a lovely endorsement of the emphasis UQ places on the arts, and the increasing regard the academy has more broadly with NTROs and creative praxis as valuable research,” he states.
