Belinda von Mengersen

Associate Professor
National School of Arts and Humanities

Areas of expertise: design innovation and technologies

Email: belinda.vonmengersen@acu.edu.au

Belinda von Mengersen is Associate Professor and Discipline Lead in Design, Innovation and Technologies in the National School of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Education and Arts at ACU. She is practice-led researcher with a specialisation in contemporary textiles, a textile artist, theorist, curator, and educator. She designs and develops initial teacher education state-based undergraduate and national post-graduate higher education programs and curricula. Specialising in traditional, current, and emerging textile technologies, her background in textiles, visual art, fashion, and theatre design inform her teaching and research. Her research interests include reflective, creative, and speculative writing in design practice, practice-led research in design, comparisons between signature pedagogies in visual arts, evolving design and technologies curricula, and the inherently interdisciplinary and dynamic nature of design related fields. She is curious to see how the rapid emergence of new textiles technologies will continue to influence all fields of design and influence material thinking and inform ethical sustainable design strategies. Belinda is an experienced HDR research supervisor and assessor in Textiles and Fashion theory and practice, specifically practice-led creative research projects. Belinda's research outputs are multifaceted often including combinations of traditional theoretical scholarship, alongside creative outputs, and curriculum development in Design, Technologies, and STEM education. She has recently published a series of book chapters in Design and Technologies Education and co-edited an international book and is a leading curriculum advisor in the Design and Technologies education discipline.

Select publications

Edited books

Williams, P. J., & von Mengersen, B. (2022). Applications of Research in Technology Education: Helping Teachers Develop Research-Informed Practice. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

Journal articles and book chapters

von Mengersen, B. (due late 2023) 'Textiles in STEM'. In Locating Technology Education in STEM Teaching and Learning. Edited by John. P. Williams and Wendy Fox-Turnbull. Book Series: Contemporary Issues in Technology Education.
von Mengersen, B. (2023). Thinking: Nurturing Independent Design Thinking and DecisionMaking. In D. Gill, D. Irving-Bell, M. McLain & D. Wooff (Editors), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Technology Education (pp. 101-121). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
von Mengersen. (2021). Stitching Alive by Marjorie Coleman. Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, 19(3), 292-296.
von Mengersen, B., & Wilkinson, T. (2020). Question-think-learn: A pedagogy for understanding the material world. In Pedagogy for Technology Education in Secondary Schools: Research Informed Perspectives for Classroom Teachers, 151-175.
von Mengersen, B. (2018). Textiles, a Dynamic Exchange: Challenges and Opportunities. In: de Vries, M. (eds) Handbook of Technology Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham.

Conference presentations

von Mengersen, B (2022). 'Preferred Futures' in Design and Technologies Education, DAATArc International Conference, Southern Cross University, December 2022.

Projects

ACU STEM centre development on Strathfield campus

Accolades and Awards

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts (Visual Arts) and Math's) and Maker Education in Australia'. Keynote speaker for International Conference on Creativity, STEAM and Maker Education (ICCSM2018), guest of Tainan National Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Appointments and Affiliations

Visiting lecturer at Tainan University of Technology, Fashion Department, Taiwan (2018)

Editorial roles

International Journal of Technology and Design Education
Journal of Fashion Technology & Textile Engineering
Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture

Public engagement activities

Curriculum consultant for VCE Product Design and Technology, VCAA (Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority)

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