Rebecca Nunes

Associate Professor Of Lens-Based Media

Digital, Tech, Innovation & Business

I am Associate Professor of Lens-Based Media at the University of Staffordshire. I am a practice-based researcher & educator, currently living and working in the Midlands of the U.K after many years immersed in the dynamic cultural and creative environment of the Global South. Collaboration, adaptability, resilience and empathy are the key skills I bring to these roles.

As a practitioner I work in lens-based media and moving image. My practice and pedagogy are situated in the ethics of lens-based representation. Central to this are postcolonial and other-than-human discourses. My audio-visual outputs aim to challenge mainstream cultural narratives of representation and land use. 

Professional memberships and activities

  • APHE (Association for Photography in Education)
  • AOP (Association for Photographers)
  • PLACE Collective

Academic qualifications

  • PhD
  • FHEA (2023)
  • MFA 1st Class Hons (2014) Whitecliffe College
  • BA Film/Literature (1986) Warwick University
  • MNZIPP (2010)

Expertise

  • Lens-based media, including all formats of digital and analog camera technologies.
  • Audio-visual competencies including capture and post-production
  • Research and writing

Research interests

  • Post-human feminism
  • New materialisms
  • Representation of multi-marginal landscapes
  • Creative practice in alliance with indigenous and other then human perspectives

Grants

  • AHRC Curiosity Fund November 2025
  • Creative New Zealand March 2017

Enterprise and commercial interests

  • Development of EDI-centred CPD training
  • Development of key competencies training for Staffordshire Police Force
  • Consultancy for the GLAM sector centred on participatory creative practice

Teaching

  • BA Photography
  • MAaNS and PhD supervisions

Publications

Ethical and collaborative entanglements in creative co-production. Chapter in How to Tackle Poverty with Co-Produced Activism. Ed. Katy Goldstraw. Policy Press. April 2026

Triangulated Agency and Co-authorship in a Photographic Practice. Chapter in Agency and Aesthetics. ArtMatter 02. 2018. Auckland Art Gallery. Chapter 9. P174-183

Mau Moko-The World of Maori Tattoo. Penguin NZ ltd Viking imprint ISBN: 978 0 67 004561 7

This Air is a Material 52’43” HD Video. Bloomsbury Artfilms. Watch on Vimeo.

2023 Clouded vision: strategies of occlusion in photographic representations of the other-than-human. Paper presented at (Un)Common Worlds III Navigating and Inhabiting Biodiverse Anthropocenes A human-animal studies conference at the University of Oulu (FIN), University of Derby (UK), and online. Oct 4-6th

AirPlace: Interdisciplinary approaches to regeneration & social sustainability. Paper presented at Applying Education in a Complex World, AMPS/Sheridan College, Toronto Apr 26-30

Resonance. Group exhibition with PLACE Collective at Timber Festival, June 7-9th

2022 DeComm C20 Group exhibition at X-Church, Gainsborough. Sept 16-30th

Hikoi Wairua. HD Video, 6” looped. Screened as part of a presentation at Creative Communities international festival and conference, Staffordshire University. May 19th 2022

2021 We Look to the Future With Progressive Ideals. Group show as part of 6-month residency, Thistle Hall Lightbox, Wellington, N.Z

2020 An Age of Iron. HD Video, 8' looped.

RM Gallery, Auckland March 4th - 21st

The Water Sustains Us Production of collaborative student exhibition produced online for Auckland Festival of Photography May 30-June 10th.

2019 Visual Citizenship. Visual politics and documentary practice. Paper presentation at AAANZ Conference, Auckland University Dec 5-10th

15 Minutes of Fame – Warhol, Facebook and the Work of Luke Willis Thompson Paper presentation at SPE National Conference, Cleveland, Ohio. Mar 6-10th.

Recipient of the 2019 SPE International Conference Grant for highest ranked peer-reviewed paper.

2018 Co-opting the Apparatus. The lens as feminist tool for social engaged art practice in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Paper presentation at Aesthetics, Politics and Histories, the Social Context of Art. AAANZ Conferences, RMIT Melbourne Dec 5-10th

This Air is a Material screening & artist talk: Christchurch City Art gallery. April 17th

Triangulated Agency and Co-authorship in a Photographic Practice. ArtMatters April 2018 published by Auckland City Art Gallery

2017 Pyrite. (B. Nunes. 2017 600x400 digital composite/Dibond) Finalist and Travelling exhibition: Wallace Art Awards

This Air is a Material screening & paper presentation: ARC Theatre, National Film and sound Archive of Australia. Women in the Creative arts Research Conference, Australia National University Canberra 10-12thAugust 2017.

Collaborative Processes and key thematics in the film This Air is a Material – The work of Ann Shelton. Women in the Creative arts Research Conference, Australia National University Canberra 10-12th August 2017.

This Air is a Material screening: DocEdge Festival Auckland and Wellington May/June 2017

PAPERWORK group exhibition at DEMO Space March 23-26th

NEWPHOTOMEDIA Curated by Tangent as part of Auckland Festival of Photography group exhibition at DEMO Space June 6-12

Triangulated Agency and Co-authorship in a Photographic Practice paper presented at symposium: Agency and Aesthetics: A symposium on the expanded field of photography. Auckland Art Gallery April 1 2017.

External profiles

for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2025

for Social Inclusion

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026

for First Generation Students

The Mail University Guide 2026

in the UK for Games Education

Rookies Games Design and Development 2023, 2025

TIGA Best Games Institution 2024, 2025

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021