Creating Wellbeing: The Role of Making Practices in Academic Contexts (Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education)

Exploring how creative practices can revolutionise wellbeing and resilience in higher education, this groundbreaking collection brings together 25 academics who reveal how engaging with creative processes – from visual arts and crafts to performance and digital media – can serve as powerful tools for self-care and professional flourishing.

It acts as a guide for navigating the pressures of contemporary academia while maintaining one’s authentic self through proven strategies such as visual journaling, collaborative filmmaking, and embodied creative practices. Each chapter combines theoretical insights with practical applications, offering both autoethnographic narratives and actionable case studies that demonstrate how making practices counter neoliberal academic pressures. Whether you're seeking to integrate creativity into research, enhance teaching through artistic approaches, or build sustainable practices for personal wellbeing, this book provides a roadmap. From soil-based art projects that foster ecological connection to comic-making strategies for international educators, it offers diverse pathways for reimagining your academic journey.

This would appeal to academics across all disciplines, researchers in educational wellbeing, and practitioners in arts and health fields. With this, one can transform isolated academic work into collaborative, meaningful practice that nurtures both individual growth and institutional change.

Narelle Lemon is a Vice Chancellor Professorial Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University, Australia, Lead of the Wellbeing and Education Research Community, and is an interdisciplinary scholar across arts, education, and positive psychology. She is the Director of Explore & Create Co.

Sharon McDonough is an Associate Professor in Teacher Education in the Institute of Education, Arts and Community at Federation University, Australia. Sharon’s research focus draws on socio-cultural theories of wellbeing and resilience to explore professional development for educators, initial teacher education, and how to support and advance wellbeing across a range of contexts.

Mark Selkrig is currently based at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia. His research and scholarly work focus on the changing nature of educators’ work, their identities, lived experiences, and how educators navigate the ecologies of their respective learning environments. He engages with digital and arts-informed methods in these research domains to probe the uneasy tensions and intersections that influence change, capacity building, and agency of individuals and communities.