Dr. Susanne Thurow is a theatre scholar with a focus on immersive media, interactive visualisation and the artistic examination of social challenges of the 21st century.

She completed her PhD in English Philology at Kiel University in 2017 with a thesis on identity negotiation and aesthetics in contemporary Indigenous theatre in Australia. Her research was based on close exchanges with theatre practitioners and Indigenous academics, with whom she collaborated on teaching and research projects at the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney and New South Wales (UNSW) from 2011 to 2018.

In 2014 she became a Research Associate at the UNSW iCinema Research Centre, where she has been developing immersive and interactive media projects ever since. As part of a UNSW SHARP Postdoctoral Fellowship (2017-20), she explored the aesthetic potential of interactive visualisation for the performing arts and museum sector. She was a co-initiator and member of several Australian Research Council (ARC) funded ‘Linkage’ projects with partners including the Sydney Theatre Company, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the Powerhouse Museum and Opera Australia. She also worked on a DAAD-funded project on augmented reality for the documentation of ephemeral art in public space in collaboration with the Skulptur Projekte Archiv and the Institute for Art History at the University of Münster (2020-23).

Since 2021, she has led the ‘Climate Aesthetics’ research programme at the iCinema Centre, which focuses on interactive immersive media for artistic reflection on climate change and human practices, and coordinates the strategic development of the Centre as Associate Director Research. Her work is supported by an ARC Laureate Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-25) and internal faculty funding.

For her innovative approaches, she has been awarded the 2021 ASAL Alvie Egan Award, the 2019 UNSW Art & Design Dean's Award for Research Excellence, High Commendations from the Australasian Drama Studies Association and the UNSW ECAN Award for Research Excellence.

A selection of her publications can be found at https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/dr-susanne-julia-thurow/publications.