Rate My Professor Leila Honari

Dr. Leila Honari is a Senior Lecturer in Animation Art Direction at Griffith Film School, Griffith University, where she leads the Art Direction major within the Animation program. Originally from Persia, she began her career as a traditional carpet designer before transitioning to animation. Her academic qualifications include a Doctor of Philosophy in Animation from Griffith University, completed in 2019 after commencing in 2013, where her thesis explored the roots of animation in historical Persian artifacts and their connections to early optical devices like the zoetrope and phenakistoscope. She also earned a Master of Fine Arts with Class I Honours in Animation from Griffith University in 2012, a Bachelor of Handicrafts from Alzahra University in Tehran, Iran, between 1995 and 1999, and a Diploma in Graphic Design from 1990 to 1994. Prior to her current role, Honari worked as a carpet designer at Sajadi Carpet Designing Corporation in Tehran from 2000 to 2009 and served as a sessional lecturer on carpet design, aesthetics, and pattern history at universities in Iran, including Al-Zahra University, Sistan and Baluchistan University, and Karaj University from 1999 to 2005.

Honari's research centers on cultural and historical animation, encompassing the migration and evolution of carpet patterns, iconological analysis of historical sequential images, and mandala structures in Persian traditional arts and mystical stories. Her current work involves practice-based creative art research in women and gender studies and migrant arts in animation. Notable publications include 'Farsh-e-Parandeh: Animated mandalic carpet projection: Exploring the links between proto-animation techniques in Persian traditional arts and the foundation of animation and cinema' (2019), 'Reflecting on Proto-Animation Techniques in the Mandalic Forms of Persian Traditional Arts' (2018), and 'Seeking the animation artist in a multi-projection environment' (2015, co-authored with Andi Spark). She has received the Australian Postgraduate Award for PhD Research in 2014, the Artesian Code No.126-6953 from the Persian Cultural, Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization in 2004, and second place in the Aspiring Picture Book category at the Children’s and Young Adult Writers and Illustrators Conference in 2016. At Griffith Film School since 2012, she convenes courses such as Concept Design: Characters, Concept Design: Environments, Drawing for Moving Image, and has taught life drawing. She directs the Sufi Art Group and holds memberships in the Society for Animation Studies and the Australian Fairy Tales Society.