Rate My Professor Ari Chand

Dr Ari Chand serves as Honorary Lecturer in Design and Natural History Illustration within the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, College of Human and Social Futures, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Design, Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary)/Bachelor of Fine Art, and Bachelor of Natural History Illustration (Honours), all obtained from the University of Newcastle. Chand's professional journey at the University of Newcastle commenced in 2015 as a casual academic in the School of Design, Communication and IT, followed by roles in the Faculty of Education and Arts, School of Education, and School of Creative Industries. He advanced to Research Assistant in the School of Education in 2017 and held Lecturer positions in Visual Communication Design and Creative Industries from 2018 to 2023.

As a designer, illustrator, and practice-based researcher, Dr Chand specializes in illustration theory and practice, natural history illustration, drawing theory and practice, character design and concept art, design history and theory, visual communication design, and creative industries education. His research integrates habitus (Pierre Bourdieu) and tacit knowledge (Michael Polanyi) to analyze style and design processes, with future interests in creativity research, visuospatial cognition, and decolonising design. Key publications encompass the book The Art of Illusio (2017), journal articles such as Breathing life into a character: conceptual tools for understanding the relationship between illustrator and character design (2016, The International Journal of Arts Theory and History), Illustrated and Written by…, curated by Ari Chand, Andrew Howells and Luke O’Donnell (2025, International Journal of Education Through Art), and Building Cultural Capital in Design Education (2022, The International Journal of Design Education). Creative works include exhibitions Ordinary Intricacies (2021), Seeking Vision (2022), and Dobell Drawing Prize finalist Juxstarepository 3/ catch a fallen star and put it in your pocket (2019). Awards include Dobell Drawing Prize Finalist (2019), Emerging Scholar Award from the Sixteenth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices (2021), and University of Newcastle Research Scholarship Central Budget (2013). He co-founded the International Illustration Research Network (2021) and is an inaugural member of the Creativity in Higher Education Network, with contributions to international conferences on design and illustration research.