Iranian dramatist to hone his skills at Faculty of Creative Arts

ranian dramatist to hone his skills at Faculty of Creative Arts

http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW093527.html

Iranian dramatist and radio producer Ali Mohammad Hesamfar, 29, has been awarded an Endeavour Executive Award based at UOW’s Faculty of Creative Arts.

Endeavour Executive Awards, worth up to $20,000, are granted to high achievers in business, industry, education or government, to allow them to develop their professional skills and acquire new knowledge, during up to four months in Australia.

Mr Hesamfar will be supervised by Siobhan McHugh, a lecturer in journalism, who met Mr Hesamfar at the International Radio Forum in Iran in May 2010, where she was keynote speaker. He will be based at the Faculty of Creative Arts from 1 March to 30 June.

Mr Hesamfar studied law at Azad University, Shiraz, where he founded a theatre group, which is still active. He has won awards in Iran for acting and writing, and is also a radio presenter in Shiraz.

He will attend classes at the Faculty of Creative Arts in radio production, journalism, writing for sound and performance. He will also observe the latest radio production techniques at ABC Radio National in Sydney, under the auspices of Prix Italia-winning producer Jane Ulman.

During his stay, Mr Hesamfar hopes to develop his knowledge of technique, form, practice and content in the fields of radio and drama.

“My access to international developments in theatre and radio is very limited in Iran and I am thirsty to see how other artists and media producers approach their creative work”, he said.

While at UOW, Mr Hesamfar will offer performances and seminars in the Persian arts.

FOOTNOTE: In Round 1 of the 2011 Endeavour Award Scholarships Mrs Hua Zhao (Faculty of Engineering whose supervisor is Associate Professor Muhammad Hadi) has been awarded a Prime Minister’s postgraduate Australia Asia Endeavour Award. She will travel to Hong Kong Polytechnic University where she will research engineering and related technologies. Madelaine Dickie (Creative Arts) has been awarded a Prime Minister’s undergraduate Australia Asia Endeavour Award and will be travelling to Indonesia.

Professor Buddhima Indraratna (Engineering) will be supervising two incoming PhD recipients of Endeavour Awards; Associate Professor Mohan Chinnappan (Education) will supervise one student and Dr Michael Flood (Arts) will supervise one student.

Research Fellowships have also been awarded to UOW with Professor Indraratna having three Research Fellows coming from India, Iran and the People’s Republic of China researching in the area of geotechnical engineering.

Recipients of the Endeavour Research Fellowship from UOW were: Associate Professor Weihua Li (Engineering) with host institution the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Ms Cassandra Smith (Science) with host institution the Institute National de la Recherche Scientific.