Fiona Burrows

Fiona has a BA(Hons) in English Literature and an interdisciplinary PhD (Literature: poetics and neuroscience/psychology) and she has been teaching and working at UWA since 2009. Her PhD thesis looked at synaesthesia and syanesthetic metaphor in twentieth century poetry and poetics, and her research interests lie in the intersection of literature and science, with a focus on poetry, metaphor, embodied cognition and the application of neuroscientific concepts in art and literature, especially poetry. She is also interested in the health/medical humanities and the use of embodied and synaesthetic metaphors in literature and art of chronic pain, creative arts interventions in health-care and education, and narratives of motherhood.

She is a published and practicing author-illustrator and poet, with four picturebooks published with Australian trade publishers in 2019 and 2020, three of which were shortlisted for national literary prizes, including her debut author-illustrator picturebook "Violet and Nothing' with Fremantle Press which was shortlisted for WA Premier's Prize for Writing for Children in the 2019 WA Premier's Book Awards. She has also published poetry in journals such as Westerly and APJ, and regularly works with children and adults in schools and libraries across Western Australia, teaching writing, literacy, creative thinking and visual arts. She is interested in the study of children's literature and creative writing, particularly in relation to sensory studies, synaesthetic and embodied metaphor, creativity in education, and creative interventions in child healthcare.

She currently works as a learning skills adviser and coordinator of an alternative entry pathway at UWA, and has taught, lectured in and coordinated units in academic writing and research, communications, creative writing, poetry, and literature. She is also interested in the pedagogy of teaching and learning in higher education and has done research on blended and online learning, creative, embodied and multisensory teaching and learning, transition and equity student support, and digital content development for academic skills support.