Sarah McDonald

As the Deputy Dean (Education) for the Faculty of Arts, I utilise my expertise in transdisciplinary learning and cultural literacy to lead the development and delivery of innovative learning and teaching experiences that support students to become truly global, mobile and flexible graduates able to operate efficiently across diverse cultural and professional contexts. My discipline area is Latin American Studies with a special focus on the development and representation of popular culture within contemporary Latin American Cinema, specifically as it relates to representations of women and marginal social groups. I was previously the Director of the Bachelor of Global Studies, and have coordinated work integrated learning for the Faculty, as well as serving as Deputy Head of School (Education) for the School of Lanugages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. My ability to teach across and between disciplines, while drawing on expert input from a range of areas has become increasingly crystallised in my own pedegogic stance. My research interests include the development of cultural literacy practice in Higher Education curriculum, representation and construction of gender in popular culture, and teaching innovation. Since 2012, I have been working in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Warwick on a suite of undergraduate modules co-taught between Monash and Warwick Universities via the International Portal, an innovative space that allows students to come together as one cohort in a transnational, transdicsiplinary space. 

• Cultural literacy practice in Higher Education 
• Representation and construction of gender in popular culture
• Innovation in curriculum development
• Cross-cultural communication
• Transnational transdisciplinary practices in Higher Education