Fiona Burrows

Fiona has a BA(Hons) in English Literature and an interdisciplinary PhD (Literature: poetics and cognitive neuropsychology) 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 sensory metaphor, embodied cognition, and the application of neuroscientific concepts in art and literature, especially poetry. She is also interested in the health/medical humanities (particularly the neurohumanities) and is currently researching and writing on embodied and synaesthetic metaphors in literature and art, feminist phenomenology, sensory studies and cognitive poetics. She has recently returned to academic research after a break and has some future publications in progress.

She is also a published and practicing author-illustrator and poet, with four picturebooks published with Australian trade publishers. Three 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 including Westerly and APJ, and worked 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, creativity in education, and medical/health humanities.

She currently works as a learning skills adviser teaching foundational academic skills with a focus on equity and transition support, and is unit coordinator of BUSN1104. She has previously 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 the science of learning, embodied and multisensory learning and cognition, transition and equity student support, and blended and online learning. She has recently been interested in exploring the significance of embodied metaphors of cognition and incorporating insights from the Science of Learning to teach critical AI literacy (CAIL).