Dr Ann Elias

Research

Dr Elias' research focuses on Australian art and visual culture and her publications place Australian material in the contexts of British and American histories. Dr Elias' historical research concentrates on camouflage, (especially the shared interests of artists, zoologists, military strategists and social theorists before 1945) and the visual language of flowers, especially the flower as an object of camouflage. Recent publications on contemporary art include a comparison of Australian artist Matthys Gerber and New Zealand artist Theo Schoon, and the work of New Zealand photographer Peter Peryer. Dr Elias' pedagogical interests include the tension between freedom of expression and moral conflict.

In 2006 Dr Elias was awarded a $12,000 Writing Fellowship by the Research Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences for The Beautiful, Mutable Flower; a series of four interrelated articles.

In 2009 Dr Elias was awarded the inaugural Sydney College of the Arts Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching (Design and Practice).

Books

The Secret History of Camouflage: Australia 1939-1945, Sydney University Press, Sydney 2010

Book Chapters

'Military Magic: Camouflage and Goodenough Island' in Coast to Coast and the Islands In-Between: The Impact of American and Australian crossings on Pacific Island Cultures, 1880 to 1945, Prudence Ahern (Ed), Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Pacific Focus Series), Cambridge, 2008 (forthcoming, July 2009)

'Moral Conflict, Cultural Pluralism, and Contemporary Visual Arts Education' in Transforming a University: the scholarship of teaching and learning in practice, Angela Brew and Judyth Sachs (Eds), Sydney University Press, Sydney, 2007, pp.39-47, ISBN: 9781920898281

'Peter Peryer', in Contemporary New Zealand Photographers, Hannah Holm & Lara Strongman (Eds), Mountain View and Craig Potton Publishing, Auckland, 2005, pp.80-88, ISBN: 9780473102807

'Peter Peryer: Wide-Ranging Images' in The Listener Bedside Book: Creative Wave, Terry Snow (Ed), W&H Publications, Auckland, 2000, pp.276-277, ISBN: 1877214108

Journal Publications

'Camouflage and The Half-hidden History of Max Dupain in War', History of Photography, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2009

'Fantin-Latour in Australia: A Focus on Flower-Painting', Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, (forthcoming, Fall 2009)

'"Art Has No Country": Hans Heysen and the Consequences of the First World War', History Australia: Journal of the Australian Historical Association, Vol.6, No.1, 2009, pp.04.1-1.16,

'Camouflage Campaigners: Abbott H. Thayer and William J. Dakin, Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, Vol. 42, No.1, 2009, pp.36-41

'War and the Visual Language of Flowers: An Antipodean Perspective', War, Literature and the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, Twentieth Anniversary Edition, Vol. 20, Nos.1&2, 2008, pp.234-250

'Flower Men: The Australian Canon and Flower Painting 1910-1935', E-Melbourne Art Journal, Issue 3, 2008, pp.1-17, http://www.melbourneartjournal.unimelb.edu.au/E-MAJ/pdf/issue3/elias.pdf,

‘Flowers and Manliness: The Social Image of Men Who Paint Flowers’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2008, pp.14-28.

‘William Dakin on Camouflage in Nature and War’, Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2008, pp.251-263.

‘Exquisite Corpse: flowers and the First World War’, The International Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2007 pp.31-35

‘War, Flowers and Visual Culture: the First World War Collection of the Australian War Memorial’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Issue 40, 2007 http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j40/elias.htm

‘Moral Conflict, Cultural Pluralism, and Contemporary Visual Arts Education’, Transforming a University: the scholarship of teaching and learning in practice, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 2007, pp.39-47

‘Intimate Relations: On the Fascination of Matthys Gerber for Theo Schoon’, Eyeline, No.60, 2006, pp.32-37

‘Floral Imagery during the First World War’, Wartime: The Official Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Issue 35, 2006, pp.58-59

‘Most Secret: Australian camouflage artists in the Second World War’, Art and Australia, Fine Arts Press, Spring, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2003, pp.102-108

‘The Organisation of Camouflage in Australia in World War Two’ Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Issue 38, 2003, pp.1-10, http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j38/camouflage.htm

Conference Publications

'Contemporary Visual Arts Education, the Moral Minority, and Freedom of Expression', Artists, Art Education and Communities, Annual Conference of Australasian Council of University Art and Design Schools, Edith Cowan University, September 2005, http://www.acuads.com.au/

'Camouflage and Deception', Current Art and Design Research and Practice, Annual Conference Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools, University of Tasmania, 2003, http://www.acuads.com.au/

'Tutors, groups and access: the partnership of online problem- based learning', with P.Kandlbinder in Research and Development in Higher Education, 24th International Conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Newcastle, 2001

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