In July 2021 Dr Charu Mani was appointed as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the School of Music.
Dr Mani is an artist-researcher originally from Chennai, India, and recently migrated to Australia. Her Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship is part of a broader Creative Arts and Human Flourishing (CAHF) project undertaken for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS).
Dr Mani’s background involves leading, designing, and creating arts-led research projects for community health and wellbeing initiatives, such as Sing to Connect. Dr Mani’s PhD, undertaken at Griffith University, focused on Early Opera and Karnatik singing.
In 2021 Dr Mani published her first monograph with Cambridge University Press and has been accepted into the FHEA program to enhance her teaching capacities. She has engaged with BEMAC (Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre) and the Logan City Council for her recent project ‘Together we rise: Exploring culture, creativity, and collaboration for global musicianship in a digital age’.
Dr Mani in 2021 worked alongside colleagues at the UQ School of Music while designing research for another CAHF project ‘Songify your day’ and has set in motion partnerships with Moreton Bay City Council, UQ Summer in Queensland Program, and UQ International Students Association.
Reflecting on the importance of Post-Doctoral Fellowships, Professor Liam Viney remarked, "Post-Doctoral appointments are key to creating innovation and breakthroughs in new knowledge. Our fellows are playing a crucial role to that end; exploring topics that intersect a broad range of disciplines, including community music-making, arts policy and engagement, health and wellbeing, performance, and composition."
In 2022 Dr Mani will continue to produce research through a collaborative process while teaching courses on Music, Health and Wellbeing, and Research Methods. She has written 4 journal articles that she anticipates will be published in 2022.
