Rate My Professor Jane Shadbolt

Dr. Jane Shadbolt is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences within the College of Human and Social Futures at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where she joined the Design department in 2008. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney in 2018, with a thesis titled 'The Impossible Qualities of Illusionary Spaces: Stop Motion Animation, Visual Effects and Metalepsis.' Her academic background also includes a Master of Animation and a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communications from the University of Technology Sydney, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Shadbolt has freelanced as a designer and animator on feature and short films and serves as the organizer of the annual Newcastle International Animation Festival, which she brought to Newcastle in 2015. Her professional experience encompasses directing the short stop-motion animation 'The Cartographer' in 2011, which won two awards at the Australian Production Designers Guild Awards, including the Encore/APDG Award for Design on a Short Film in 2012, and screened at numerous international festivals.

Shadbolt's research specializations focus on the relationship between stop-motion animation and special effects in live-action cinema, exploring illusionary spaces, the visual representation of the impossible, metalepsis, animation, experimental design, graphic design, image making, and motion graphics. Key publications include the book chapter 'Coraline’s ‘Other World’: The Animated Camera in Stop-Motion Feature Films' (2021), the journal article 'Creative industries careers: shifting aspirations and pathways from high school to university—a NSW case study' (2023, co-authored with S. Kerrigan, K. Grushka, A. Chand, K. Street, and M. Lawry), and 'Parallel Synchronized Randomness: Stop-motion Animation in Live Action Feature Films' (2013). She has contributed creative works such as 'Neural Noise' (2022, with N. Foulcher), 'Lighting Activation James Street Plaza' (2021, with N. Foulcher and J. McGrath), and 'Lightscape: Brake Block Park' (2019, with N. Foulcher). Shadbolt has secured twelve research grants totaling $671,521, including $135,797 for Honeysuckle Placemaking (2018) and $57,364 for Lighting Animation for James Street Plaza (2021). In teaching, she delivers courses in animation design, image making, graphic design, and motion graphics, encouraging students to employ diverse techniques from cut-out paper to puppets while integrating modern technology.