Susan Chapman

Susan Chapman is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education within the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She joined QUT in June 2019 after a diverse career that included teaching as a primary school performing arts teacher, secondary school music teacher, conductor of children's choirs, and professional work as an actor and musician in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Austria.

Dr. Chapman holds a Doctor of Philosophy (MEd Arts Education) from Griffith University. Her educational background began at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where she later expanded her studies to include multiple arts disciplines. She has received several prestigious awards and scholarships throughout her academic journey, including the Robert S. Alva Prize for top third year student and the Conservatorium Friends and Alumni Award for top graduating student in Music Education.

Chapman is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work focuses on the capacity of the Arts to develop critical and creative thinking and to foster wellbeing and inclusive education. Her signature research approach, Arts Immersion, deploys the Arts as a set of languages encompassing distinctive semiotic systems to enrich understanding and wellbeing across the primary school curriculum. She has developed innovative programs including the Arts Boot Camp and AMP It Up! modules to build teacher capacity in becoming Arts Mentor Practitioners.

Her research spans Arts Immersion, STEAM education, embodied learning, student engagement, critical and creative thinking, and the intersection of Arts and neuroscience. Chapman's work has been featured on EDTV produced by the Queensland Department of Education, and she regularly presents at international conferences across Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and beyond.

• QUT Early Career Research Grant (2021)
• Griffith University Three Minute Thesis Competition Winner (2016)
• Asia-Pacific Three Minute Thesis Finalist (2016)
• STEAM Research Fellowship at Griffith University (2017)
• BCE Scholarship for Masters in Education (2010)

As an educator and mentor, Chapman supervises doctoral students working on topics related to arts education, drama pedagogy, and teacher professional development. She has developed the innovative Professional Learning Mentoring Chain model that focuses on school-university partnerships and on-the-job co-mentoring. Chapman also presents workshops on developing engaging academic communication through innovative strategies, using comedy and satire to translate research and provide provocations for arts advocacy.