Associate Dr Debbie Symons is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia and joins the School as an Associate to the AEGIS Research Network. She completed her PhD Anthropocentrism, Endangered Species and the Environmental Dilemma at Monash University in 2014 with the support of an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship. Symons’ work addresses a range of themes, including humanity's complicated relationship with the natural environment, the dynamics of the global political economy and the effects of consumer culture.

Symons is an artist in residence at Billilla Historic artist studios, Brighton. Her works have shown internationally and nationally; International Urban Screens Association, Galerie Prodromus — Paris, The Streaming Museum — New York, Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art, RMIT Gallery, [MARS] Gallery, Linden New Art, South Australian Museum, Albury Digital Outdoor Gallery, Craft Victoria, Trocadero Art Space, Shifted Gallery, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Carlton Connect Studio, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Incinerator Gallery, RMIT Project Space, and The Substation.

In 2019, Symons’ was awarded the Copyright Agency’s CREATE grant to create Sing. In 2015, she travelled to Paris as part of the Australian representation in ARTCOP21 with financial support from CLIMARTE and Creative Victoria. In 2014, she was awarded the [MARS] Gallery Exhibition Prize in the inaugural Linden Art Prize. In 2015, Symons’ was awarded the inaugural grant and residency at Creative Spaces: Carlton Connect Studio, LAB-14, Carlton. Funded by the City of Melbourne for CLIMARTE’s Festival: Art + Climate = Change 2015 (Feb–June). Symons’ was awarded the Emerging Artist New Work grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2009.