Dr Rooney is the editor of Australian Humanities Review and has published widely on Australian film and literature, with a particular focus on melodrama and other popular genres. Her current project explores Australian melodrama by revealing and analysing the significance of melodrama as emanating from Enlightenment-era aesthetics and politics, illuminating the far-reaching effects of a form that has mutated and adapted as it migrated from Old to New worlds. This project will explore the significance and role of performance in melodrama as a form engaging elemental aspects of communication (including speaking, singing and moving) and that has long emphasised primal themes as well as elemental approaches to performance.

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