Cushla Donaldson

Cushla Donaldson is currently working as a Promovendus at the Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University. Her research is part of the NWO funded project ‘Emotional Labour in the Borderlands: A Deeper Understanding of Ethno-Racial Profiling through Academic and Artistic Research’. She received the Anne Reid Memorial Scholarship to attend Goldsmiths College and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Sociology from The University of Auckland.

Donaldson has conducted artistic and qualitative research into the socio-legal implications of the Australian deportations under section 501 of the Australian Migration Act. After presenting the participatory artwork 501s (2018–ongoing) with The Physics Room Gallery at the Melbourne Art Fair, Donaldson collaboratively developed a parallel collection of commissioned essays and artworks, Through That Which Separates Us, published in 2021. Her interests include sociology, artistic research methods, law, critical theory, ethics, border control and the extended border.