Rate My Professor Talhy Stotzer

Dr. Talhy Stotzer serves as Lecturer in Photography and Academic Chair of Photography in the School of Media and Communication at Murdoch University. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from Edith Cowan University in 2013, with a thesis titled 'Photography and the Medium: A Photographic Dialogue in Spirit-Mediumship,' which investigated spirit-mediumship in China, the ontology of photography, and its capacity to facilitate dialogue with participants. Prior to this, she completed a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours at Edith Cowan University in 2005, entitled 'Photography in Madagascar: Magical Realism as an Ambiguous Space.' Her academic career includes supervision of postgraduate research, such as the honours thesis 'Aleatoricism and the Anthropocene: Narrowing the Divide between Art and Science' in 2020, and PhD supervisions in arts, media, and creativity.

Stotzer's research focuses on the ethics of representation, photo-voice, identity and place, technology and magic, and mixed-media storytelling, critically examining themes of power, representation, and authorship. She explores photography's potential to empower vulnerable populations through participatory methods. Notable contributions include her involvement in the Australian Research Council-funded 'The Hand Up' project, where she developed Photovoice workshops for at-risk youth. As picture editor for the internationally recognized Q1 journal Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, she supports scholarly dissemination in media and cultural studies. Her practice-led outputs feature over 25 exhibitions and 16 curatorial projects, including 'Proxemics in China' (2013), 'Land of Milk and Honey,' 'Autoluminescent: A Western Australian Photography Survey,' 'Ephemeral,' and 'Emulsion.' Key publications encompass 'Having a Voice and Being Heard: Photography and Children's Communication through Photovoice' (2017, co-authored with Panizza Allmark and Kylie Stevenson) and contributions to 'And the Beat Goes On' (2017). Stotzer has curated exhibitions such as the 2023 city showcase of Murdoch photography students, fostering emerging talent.