Craig Batty

Conversing with knowledge in screenwriting practice research: How do PhD theses speak about the screenplay as a contribution to knowledge?

University of South Australia

As the number of screenwriting doctorates thrives internationally, it becomes important to map the work being undertaken and, from the stance of research education, better understand these candidates’ development as creative researchers. While some research of this type has been conducted in the fields of filmmaking and screen production, very little has been done in screenwriting. In this paper I analyse a selection of completed screenwriting doctoral theses to address the question: how do candidates articulate the screenplay as a contribution to knowledge? Underpinning this is a desire to better understand how and with what conceptual clarity candidates have presented the screenplay (major creative artefact) as an outcome of research; an artefact that might very well be aimed at industry uptake, but which for the doctorate has a very particular function: to contribute to knowledge. The paper will bring together empirical data in the form of text analysis of a sample of theses awarded in Australia between 2009 and 2023, with contextual literature on screenwriting practice research and doctoral learning – specifically, on contribution – to determine the state of play regarding thesis expectations and standards in this new creative research discipline. Text in the twelve sample theses was mined for references or allusions to knowledge contribution, to determine the extent to which the theses provided evidence of candidate awareness of and fluency in articulating the role of the screenplay in knowledge production. Analysis of the text corpus was then used to create an evaluation framework for what emerged were varying levels of cognisance of how the screenplay as creative research artefact produces, embodies and/or communicates knowledge. Composite descriptors of thesis type and learner type were then devised to help show how notions of contribution and how it was arrived at differ across theses, providing insights into the current state of the field of screenwriting research. It is hoped that the study’s findings will help doctoral candidates and supervisors gain a better sense of how examiners might assess knowledge contribution in the screenwriting doctorate.

Professor Craig Batty is Executive Dean of UniSA Creative at the University of South Australia. He is the author, co-author and editor of 15 books, including Script Development: Critical Approaches, Creative Practices, International Perspectives (2021), The Doctoral Experience: Student Stories from the Creative Arts and Humanities (2019), Writing for the Screen: Creative and Critical Approaches (2nd ed.) (2019) and Screen Production Research: Creative Practice as a Mode of Enquiry (2018). He has also published over 80 book chapters and journals articles on the topics of screenwriting practice, screenwriting theory, creative practice research and doctoral supervision. Craig is editor of the Journal of Screenwriting, and also continues some practice as a script editor, consultant and coach.