Jennifer Deger works at the intersection of art and anthropology. She writes on photography, aesthetics, film, contemporary Aboriginal societies, digital culture, art and ethnographic film, and experimental museology.

As a founding member of Miyarrka Media, a collective based in the community of Gapuwiyak, NT, Jennifer's practice-led research claims creativity as a critical mode of social engagement and anaysis. In  collaboration with her Yolngu colleagues from Miyarrka Media, she has co-dircted several award winning films and co-curated experimental installations and exhibitions in Denmark, the US and Australia. In 2015 Jennifer established the Visual, Digital, Material: Experimental Screen and Museum Ethnography program at JCU together with Prof Ton Otto and Prof Rosita Henry.

From 2015 to 2018 Jennifer has been appointed as Smithsonian Research Associate with the National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC.

In 2017 and 2018 Jennifer will be a Visiting Research Fellow in with the transdisciplinary AURA project (Aarhus University Research on The Anthropocene).

 

Teaching

• AN2108: Image, Art and Design: Making Visual, Digital and Material Worlds (Level 2; CNS & TSV)
• NM2230: Photography Criticism (Level 2; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Research

• Visual Cultures
• Digital Anthropology
• Experimental Ethnography
• Contemporary Indigenous Societies
• Art and Anthropology
• New Media
• Indigenous Media
• Creative and Practice-led Research Methods
• Material Culture
• Film and Anthropology
• Photography
• Ecological Aesthetics
• Sensory Anthropology

Experience

• 2016 to present - Tropical Leader (Principal Research Fellow), James Cook University (Cairns)
• 2016 - Visiting Professor, The Eye and Mind Group, Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark)
• 2014 to 2016 - Australian Research Council Future Fellow, James Cook University (Cairns)
• 2012 to 2014 - Australian Research Council Future Fellow, The Australian National University (Canberra)
• 2010 to 2011 - Research Fellow, Centre for Religion and Media, New York University (New York)
• 2009 to 2011 - Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (Sydney)
• 2005 to 2008 - Research Fellow, Macquarie University (Sydney)

Research Disciplines

• Anthropology (1601)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Expanding Knowledge (9701)
• Communication (9502)

Awards

• 2012 - Special Commendation from Margaret Mead Film Festival for Manapanmirr, in Christmas Spirit
• 2009 - College of Fine Arts, UNSW Early Career Researcher Grant
• 2004 - Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for a Thesis of Exceptional Merit, Macquarie University
• 2015 - Honourable mention, CHASS Australia Prize, Distinguished Work
• 2015 - Commendation, Ringtone, Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, UK
• 2015 - Best Short Film, Ringtone, Society for Visual Anthropology

Fellowships

• 2017 to 2018 - Visiting Research Fellow AURA (Aarhus University Research on The Anthropocene)
• 2016 - Visiting Professor, Camera as Cultural Critique Research Group, Aarhus University
• 2012 to 2016 - Australian Research Council Future Fellowship
• 2015 - Flaherty Professional Development Fellow, Flaherty Seminar
• 2010 to 2011 - Research Fellow, Centre for Religion and Media, New York University
• 2008 to 2011 - Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
• 2005 to 2008 - Macquarie University Research Fellowship

Memberships

• 2008 - Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• 2005 - The American Anthropological Association
• 2005 - Society for Visual Anthropology
• 2004 - The Australian Anthropological Society
• 2015 to 2018 - Smithsonian Research Associate, National Museum of Natural History

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Deger J (2016) Thick photography. Journal of Material Culture, 21 (1). pp. 111-132
• Deger J (2013) The jolt of the new: making video art in Arnhem Land. Culture Theory & Critique, 54 (3). pp. 355-371
• Deger J (2011) Constellations of us: backstories to a bark TV. Journal of Australian Studies, 35 (2). pp. 219-234
• Deger J (2008) Imprinting on the heart: photography and contemporary Yolngu mournings. Visual Anthropology, 21 (4). pp. 292-309
• Deger J (2007) Seeing the invisible: Yolngu video as revelatory ritual. Visual Anthropology, 20 (2-3). pp. 103-121

Books

• Deger J (2006) Shimmering Screens: making media in an Aboriginal community. Visible Evidence, 19. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Book Chapters

• Deger J (2017) Curating digital resonance. In: The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. Routledge Companions. Routledge, New York, NY, USA, pp. 318-328
• Deger J (2016) BarkTV: portrait of an innovator. In: Imaging Identity: media, memory and portraiture in the digital age. ANU Press, Canberra, ACT, Australia, pp. 117-140
• Deger J (2016) Christmas with Wawa: a video experiment with Yolngu aesthetics. In: Beyond Text? Critical practices and sensory anthropology. Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK, pp. 163-169
• Deger J (2013) In-between. In: Anthropology and Art Practice. Bloomsbury, London, UK, pp. 105-113
• Deger J (2011) Participatory vision: watching movies with Yolngu. In: The Handbook of Media Audiences. Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research. Wiley-Blackwell, London, UK, pp. 459-471

Other research outputs

• Deger J (2017) Book review of "The Voice and Its Doubles: media and music in Northern Australia" by D. Fisher. Durham, NC, USA, Duke University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-8223-6120-6. Australian Journal of Anthropology, 28. pp. 375-376

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 48+ research outputs authored by A/Prof Jennifer Deger from 1996 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Dreaming Story Way: A practice-based exploration of the creative Voice as a mode of healing grounded in Wik and Wikway ontology (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Kuku Yalanji Artefacts and Traditional Knowledge in the Past and the Present (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Becoming 'Other': Reimagining Death, Denial and (Dis)enchantment in the Anthropocene Crisis (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Ecological Rights and Indigenous Sound Worlds (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Sounding the Reef: Comparative Acoustemologies of Underwater Noise Pollution (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Digital Networks and the Trans-Image: A Multi-Sited, Multi-Mediated Ethnography of Assemblage and Activism (PhD , Primary Advisor)

Completed

• Wayfaring: Place and Painting in the Tropical Far North (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.