BSc, GDAppF&TV, MLitSt, GDTeach, PhD, GCHigherEd
Lecturer, School of Education and Professional Studies
First Year Advisor BEd (Sec) Program
Contact details for Dr Sorrel Penn-Edwards
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Biography
Born to a itinerant professional designer and his wife in a small township on the edge of the rift valley in Tanganyika (Tanzania), Sorrel Penn-Edwards formative years were international in character attending primary schools in Accra (Ghana), Poole (UK), Cootamundra and Newcastle (NSW), Zaria (Nigeria), and Perth (WA). She began secondary education in the latter and completed it at two schools in Brisbane (QLD) before entering Griffith University as a foundation student and completing a BSc (Physics).
Her first appointment was as a seismologist in the oil industry and on termination became involved with theatre, her passion, working in a gamut of roles, acting, directing and production principally at La Boite and Twelfth Night theatres. These activities were interspersed by professional engagements in television advertising, soaps, movies and stunt double work (Coolangatta Gold). Her acting credits include leading roles in productions at the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne (Lorcas La Casa de Bernarda Alba) and two theatre world premiers (Steve J. Spears King Richard and Jill Shearers Stephen). During this time she was awarded a Graduate Diploma in Applied Film and Television by the Swinburne Institute of Technology (VIC).
Seeking an intellectual background to her drama interests she completed a Master of Literary Studies (University of Queensland) majoring in the genre of literature intended for performance whilst employed as an AV officer at the Kedron Park campus of the North Brisbane College of Advanced Education (QLD). Contact with film and video led to Sorrel essaying into freelance production in these media producing, directing, scripting, equipment operating and editing for a number of government departments and educational authorities.
Then followed her first appointment as an academic at the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University (NSW) where she taught courses in scriptwriting and film studies. Finding academic life congenial she took a Graduate Diploma in Teaching at the Carseldine campus of the BCAE (QLD) in the Faculty of Education, joined the academic staff (Mount Gravatt campus - later to become Griffith University) and completed a PhD in the innovative subject of phenomenography, Conceptions of information video in university research and teaching, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and the Certificate in PostGraduate Supervision (Non-award).