Associate Professor Robyn Gibson completed her Masters at Ohio State University before undertaking her PhD in Australia. She has been a primary-school teacher, art/craft specialist and tertiary educator in Australia and the US.
Robyn's doctoral thesis explored the relationship between surrealism and fashion, specifically the creative collaborations between the surrealist, Salvador Dali and fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
After completing her PhD in 2001, Robyn lectured extensively in a range of tertiary environments: nationally in fashion and textile design at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Technology Sydney, and the Melbourne College of Fashion; and internationally in the Human Ecology College at Ohio State University, the College of Education at the University of Houston and the College of Education at the University of Memphis.
Robyn writes about primary school education in the visual and creative arts. Her past research focused on children's attitudes to art, art making and art education. Currently she is examining the role of arts education in academic motivation, engagement and achievement as part of a large ARC funded research project. Her other academic research, which utilises interdisciplinary methodologies such as arts informed inquiry and a/r/tography concerns art as research; research as art particularly the connection between clothes and memory.
Since joining the faculty, Robyn has assumed the roles of the Program Director of the Bachelor of Education (Primary) program, Professional Experiences Coordinator, Director of Retraining Programs, Associate Dean of Undergraduate and Preservice Programs, Director of Community Relations and Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching.
Robyn was nominated for the Faculty's Excellence in Teaching Award six times, including in 2007, when she won.
