Dr Donna McDonald - Griffith University

Site Degrees

Senior Lecturer, Disability Studies

BA BSW MA PhD

Professional biography

Donna McDonald PhD is Senior Lecturer and Convenor of the Disability Studies Program in the School of Human Services and Social Work at Griffith University (Australia). She also convenes and teaches in social policy and legislation courses. As the Chair of the School of Human Services and Social Work’s Teaching and Learning Committee, Dr McDonald is the School’s representative on the Health Group Teaching and Learning Committee. She is also a member of the Narrative Research Network at the Griffith Institute for Educational Research.

Dr McDonald’s expertise in narrative work with deaf people has been recognized internationally. She was invited to be a Visiting Scholar at the Rochester National Institute of Technology for the Deaf and is a guest reviewer for the American Annals of the Deaf.

Dr McDonald’s main professional concerns are to improve the educational and employment opportunities of people with a disability through her teaching and research roles, and by working collaboratively with training organisations, disability organisations and people with a disability across all spheres of enterprises. She serves as a social inclusion advisor on a number of government sector (Department of Education and Training) and education industry (ACPET) panels. Dr McDonald is also an appointed member of the Australian Red Cross (Qld Division).

Dr McDonald has extensive policy networks, developed throughout her thirty-year career in public policy working at Federal, State and Local Government levels in Australia as a:

social worker and national rehabilitation services team leader (during a time of significant national disability legislative and policy reform during the 1980s);
ministerial advisor in the Queensland Government (again, during a time of significant disability policy and services reform in the early to mid 1990s in Queensland);
executive strategic policy and research director in the Queensland public sector; and
strategic policy advisor in the United Kingdom (Kent County Council, 2003-2004).

Dr McDonald also ran a consultancy business for several years during which time she prepared several successful public policy submissions on behalf of her clients in a range of portfolios including health, disability, education, ageing and local government.

Contact details for Dr Donna McDonald

Honours and awards

2011: Invited to serve as a Visiting Scholar at the Rochester National Institute of Technology for the Deaf in New York, USA, during their 2011 fall semester. (This invitation has been deferred to a more suitable time).
2011: Invited to speak on the topic of trauma and catharsis in narrative as a guest panellist at the Brisbane Writers Festival.
2011: Selected to participate in Griffith University’s 2011 Future Leaders Program
2010: Voted First place in the Arts Faculty (The University of Queensland) 3MT competition, and represented the Arts Faculty as a finalist in the national 3MT competition
2007-2010: Australian Government APA Scholarship to undertake PhD studies.

Education

PhD (Creative Writing). The University of Queensland. 2011. Dr McDonald’s doctorate project comprised her memoir of deafness, 'The Art of Being Deaf', and a critical essay, 'Hearsay: how stories of deafness and deaf people are told.'
Master of Arts (Creative Writing). QUT 1998
Graduate Diploma Communication Practice. QUT 1992
Bachelor of Social Work. The University of Queensland 1981
Bachelor of Arts. The University of Queensland 1975

Professional memberships

Australian Association of Social Workers
Narrative Research Network (GIER)
Society for Disability Studies
HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia)
Australian Society of Authors

Current teaching areas

Disability Studies
Policy and Legislation

Research expertise

In 2012, Dr McDonald was invited to be a co-Chief Investigator with Emeritus Professor Merv Hyde and Dr Renee Punch on an ARC Discovery Grant (2013) application: Young people who are deaf or hard of hearing: Transitions to work, education and psychological wellbeing in emerging adulthood.
Disability history: Dr McDonald is currently working on a history of disability in Australia.
Disability and social policy
The role of narrative in effecting change

Reports and Grants

2011: Awarded a Griffith Teaching and Learning Grant ($17.7K) to design and implement an ‘Ethical Professional Writing Program’ in the School of Human Services and Social Work.
2011: Awarded $1000 research grant from the School of Human Services and Social Work, Griffith, to complete an article for publication. This article will be published as a book chapter in Complicated Grief, edited by Eric D Miller and to be published by the National Association of Social Workers, USA, in 2012.

Publications

Recent Publications

McDonald, D. (2012). Stories as Mirrors: Deaf Heroes and Heroines. Book chapter in 'Deaf Epistemologies: Multiple perspectives on the acquisition of knowledge'. Peter V. Paul and Donald F. Moores, Editors. Gallaudet University Press. Dr McDonald was invited to submit this chapter in which she argues the benefits of including narratives with deaf characters in educational curricula as a tool for aiding identity development and promoting social diversity.

McDonald, D. (in press: 2012) When Time Stops: The Courage for Joy. Book chapter; Complicated Grief, edited by Eric D Miller and to be published by the National Association of Social Workers, USA. Dr McDonald was invited to write this personal account of bereavement which contests emerging perspectives in the psychiatry profession that “complicated grief” is a mental illness.

Scholarly book chapters

McDonald, D. (2009). The Silence of Sounds. Book chapter in Literature and Sensation. Eds. Uhlmann, Anthony, Helen Groth, Paul Sheehan, Stephen McLaren, 173-183. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In this chapter—published alongside a chapter by Nobel Prize winning author, J.M.Coetzee—Dr McDonald uses examples from literary fiction to show how deafness can be understood as an alternative sensory experience, not merely a lack of hearing.

Refereed Journal articles

McDonald, D. (2010). Not Silent, Invisible: Literature’s Chance Encounters with Deaf Heroes and Heroines. American Annals of the Deaf, 154.5 (Winter 2010): 463-470. Dr McDonald argues for the inclusion of deaf narratives—memoirs and fiction—in educational curricula as a tool for aiding identity development. She was invited to write an extended book chapter based on this essay.

McDonald, Donna and Elizabeth Ferrier Eds. (2010). M/C Journal-deaf 13.3 http://journal.media-culture.org.au/ Dr McDonald was invited to guest-edit this innovative edition of essays and articles by deaf people who explore and report upon their competing experiences of deafness.

McDonald, D. and E. Ferrier. (2010). A deaf knowingness. M/C Journal of Media and Culture, 13 3: Online. In their editorial, Drs McDonald and Ferrier raise questions about deaf epistemologies.

McDonald, D. (2008). Shattering the Hearing Wall. M/C Journal-able. 11. 3 http://journal.media-culture.org.au/ Following this personal account of her attempt to understand the impact of her deafness upon her life, Dr McDonald was invited to guest-edit an innovative edition of essays and articles by deaf people (M/C Journal-deaf 13.3 (2010))

Original Creative Works (Textual work)

McDonald, D. (2011). The Reluctant Memoirist. Griffith Review. 34. On-line. Dr McDonald was invited to discuss the themes of her essay as a guest panellist in a session “Catharsis: the narrative of trauma” at the Brisbane Writers Festival, September 2011.

McDonald, D. (2007). I Hear With My Eyes in A Revealed Life. Australian Writers and Their Journeys in Memoir. Ed. Julianne Schulz. Sydney: ABC Books and Griffith Review. This essay about Dr McDonald’s deaf girlhood is one of forty stories selected for this anthology of Australian writing (alongside award winning writers such as David Malouf) from the hundreds published in Griffith Review between its inception in 2003 and 2006.

McDonald, D. (2006). I Hear With My Eyes. Griffith Review.11 (Autumn 2006) This essay about Dr McDonald’s deaf girlhood was subsequently selected for inclusion in an anthology of memoirs, A Revealed Life. Australian Writers and Their Hourneys in Memoir (2007).

McDonald, D. (1997). I am a Mother. MotherLove 2. Ed. Debra Adelaide. Sydney: Random House Australia. 173-180. This anthology was in the top ten Random House titles for 1997.

Books: Memoir

McDonald, D. The Art of Being Deaf: a memoir. Under review by Gallaudet University Press. This extended memoir of Dr McDonald’s deaf life—submitted for her PhD and a rare Australian ‘voice’ in deaf narratives—was commended by American disability & deaf studies scholar, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, as ground-breaking as it is one of the few narratives about the life of an ‘oral-deaf’ person. Dr McDonald was a guest on ABC Radio’s The Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler (August 2007) while researching and writing her memoir.

McDonald, D. (1991) Jack’s Story. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin, An extract from this memoir of a mother’s loss, grief and survival was published in The Australian Women’s Weekly (September 1991).

Fiction

McDonald, D. 1998. The Dangerous Duty of Love. Southerly Journal. 58.2: (Winter), 211-216.
McDonald, D. (1998). Look, She Can Read Lips! Imago. 10.2: (Spring). 57-61

Think-pieces and newspaper articles

McDonald, D. (2006) A series of five essays for The Brisbane Institute’s on-line journal The Brisbane Line. Topics included ageing, work, hope, and disability.
McDonald, D. (2005). Girl-in-the-woman-heart: a poem. Mending Matters: an anthology of reflections and flights of fantasy prompted by one hundred years of women’s suffrage. Frontispiece. Ed. Katherine Lyall-Watson. South Brisbane: State Library of Queensland.
McDonald, D. (2002). This Writing Life: Safe in my nest of green. Australian Weekend Review. The Australian. 2002.
McDonald, D. (1997). A series of articles for The Courier Mail (Brisbane) including Grace in Love, Outside Looking In, and Love and Solitude.

Commissioned consultancy reports and publications

2011: Protecting the health and wellbeing of vulnerable Australians: A submission to Health Ministers on the national regulation of the Social Work profession. Commissioned by the Australian Association of Social Workers. Co-author: Katy O'Callaghan (Outpost Consulting).
2011. ACPET: Delivering on Access and Equity Across Australia. Commissioned and published by ACPET (Australian Council for Private Education and Training). Co-author: Katy O’Callaghan (Outpost Consulting).
2010. ACPET: Statement on Social Inclusion and Diversity. Commissioned and published by ACPET (Australian Council for Private Education and Training).
2009. The Creativity of Success: disability in the classroom and workplace. A guide for private training organizations. Commissioned and published by ACPET (Australian Council for Private Education and Training). Co-authors: Katy O’Callaghan (Outpost Consulting) and Fiona Place.
2008. The Speech Pathology Profession: a national approach for working in the public interest. A submission to the Practitioner Regulation Sub-Committee for inclusion in the national registration and accreditation scheme. Commissioned by Speech Pathology Australia and the Speech Pathologists Board of Queensland. September 2008. Co-authors: Gretchen Young (Young Futures).
2008. Towards a National Safe System for Occupational Therapy Practice. A submission to the Australian Health Workforce Principles Committee for inclusion in the national registration and accreditation scheme. Commissioned by the Council of Occupational Therapists Registration Boards and OT Australia.
2008. Towards a Safe Medical Radiation Workforce. A submission to the Australian Health Workforce Principles Committee for inclusion in the national registration and accreditation scheme. Commissioned by the National Steering Committee for Medical Radiation Practitioners. http://www.mrtboard.wa.gov.au/NationalregistrationsubmissionMRT1.pdf
2008. In Sickness and in Health: addressing the health care needs of adults with a decision-making disability. Commissioned and published by the Office of the Public Advocate, Queensland. Co-author: Katy O’Callaghan (Outpost Consulting).
2007. Public Justice, Private Lives: A Companion to the Confidentiality Report. (MP No 42 August 2007). Commissioned and published by the Queensland Law Reform Commission. Co-author: Katy O’Callaghan (Outpost Consulting)
2006. Safe and healthy medical practitioner work practices for quality patient care. Commissioned and published by the Medical Board of Queensland.
2006.Public Justice, Private Lives: A Companion Paper. (WP No 61 July 2006). Commissioned and published by the Queensland Law Reform Commission.
2006. Our Shared Vision: Living in Brisbane 2026. Commissioned and published by the Brisbane City Council. Co-partner: Jennifer Bartlett.
2005. Dimensions: a research framework for productive ageing. Commissioned and published by National Seniors, Productive Ageing Centre.
2005. Smart Queensland: Smart State Strategy 2005-2015. Commissioned and published by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Queensland Government. Co-authored with the Smart State Strategy Team. (Nominated for an award in the category of Leadership and Collaboration in the 2005 Department of Premier and Cabinet Achievements Award program).

Conference papers & Seminar presentations

Social inclusion

In her capacity as a consultant to ACPET (Australian Council for Private Education and Training), Donna regularly speaks at their conferences, forums and workshops on the theme of social inclusion in education and training. (Brisbane, Ipswich, Gold Coast 2009; Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin 2010; Adelaide 2011). She has also presented conference papers at VET conferences in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Representations of disability

‘Hearsay: How Stories of Deafness and Deaf People are Told.’ University of the Third Age. Griffith University (Gold Coast). 1 April 2011.
‘Hearsay: How Stories of Deafness and Deaf People are Told.’ Rhizomes VI: Other words, other worlds Conference. The University of Queensland. 11 February 2011.
‘Deaf Heroes and Heroines: Not toeing the hearing line.’ NeMLA 40th Anniversary Convention, Boston. 27 February 2009.
‘With Deaf Heroes and Heroines.’ Brown Bag Research Seminar Series at Rochester National Institute for the Deaf (RNITD), Rochester, USA. 23 February 2009. Following this presentation, Dr McDonald was invited to serve as a Visiting Scholar to the Rochester National Institute for the Deaf: she hopes to take up this invitation at a suitable time.
‘Crossing the Hearing Line.’ 12th Annual WIP (Work-in-Progress) Conference: Border States-mental, political and textual landscapes. The University of Queensland. 9 August 2008.
‘Hearsay: How Stories of Deafness and Deaf People are Told.’ EMSAH Research Seminar Series, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of Queensland. 4 April 2008.
‘The Art of Being Deaf.’ Victorian Council of the Deaf 3rd State Conference: The Changing Face of the Deaf Community. 18 November 2007.
'The Art of Stories to Create Change.’ 11th Annual WIP (Work-in-Progress) Interdisciplinary Conference: Climate Change. 27 September 2007.
‘The Art of Being Deaf: representations of silence in fiction.’ Literature and Sensation Conference. The first annual conference of the Australasian Association for Literature (AAL). University of Western Sydney. July 12-13, 2007. Dr McDonald’s paper was published as ‘The Silence of Sounds’, a book chapter in Literature and Sensation. (2009). Eds. Uhlmann, Anthony, Helen Groth, Paul Sheehan, Stephen McLaren, 173-183. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.