Prof. Deb Verhoeven
 
 
Professor Verhoeven is Chair of Media and Communication at Deakin University. She has previously served in both academic and film industry positions. Until recently she wasinaugural Deputy Chair of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. A former CEO of the Australian Film Institute, Professor Verhoeven is a member of the Australian Film Critics Association, the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI), an Honorary Life Member of Women in Film and Television, an executive member of the International Cinema Audiences Research Group (ICARG), and a founding member of the Screen Economics Research Group(SERG). Professor Verhoeven is a leading proponent of the Digital Humanities in Australia. Her principal research interest lies in extending the limits of conventional film studies; exploring the intersection between cinema studies and other disciplines such as history, information management, geo-spatial science, statistics, urban studies and economics. This work is principally supported a several large national grants including; Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) a two-year project establishing a Virtual Laboratory for creative arts and humanities research funded by NeCTAR (National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources). She is also the lead on an Australian Research Council project: Only at themovies?: mapping the contemporary Australian cinema market, a project developed in collaboration with researchers at three universities. Only at the movies? is a three-year project that asks: What is the enduring appeal of cinemagoing and how is it changing? It will provide detailed analyses of formal film exhibition and distribution in Australia by combining economic, cultural and geospatial research with industry expertise. Verhoeven's other recent awards and fellowships include:
• Winner, Best Tertiary Education Resource for bonza, Australian Teachers of Media Awards (2010)
• Honorary Creative Fellowship, State Library of Victoria (2009/2010);
• Best Australian Cinema Book, Australian Film Critic's Association (2006)
Deb Verhoeven has an active role in film publishing. She is the outgoing Chair of the widely read film journal Senses of Cinema and was Editor for the journal Studies inAustralasian Cinema (Intellect) in 2009/10. As a film critic Verhoeven is a regular critical contributor to various programs on ABC Radio National and appeared fortnightly on the high rating Jon Faine program on ABC Local Radio for 7 years. She was film critic for The Melbourne Times for 6 years and ran film programs on various public radio stations around Melbourne for many years prior to this. Verhoeven's most recent book is New Cinema History: A Guide for Researchers (Wiley-Blackwell), describing the innovative methodologies now available for undertaking historical film research. Her previous book, Jane Campion (Routledge) is a detailed case study of the commercial and cultural role of the auteur in the contemporary film industry.