Cushla Donaldson is a researcher and an award-winning artist from Aotearoa/ New Zealand who exhibits internationally. Cushla Donaldson has lectured on and taught Sociology, Critical Theory, Fine Art and Film Studies at the University of Auckland and Unitech, Auckland. She has been a guest lecturer and presented her own work at various institutions in New Zealand, Australia and Europe. She received the Anne Reid Scholarship from the University of Auckland to complete her Master's degree at the Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Cushla Donaldson presented the acclaimed participatory work 501s at the Melbourne Art Fair in 2018 and again in Christchurch in 2020 https://www.circuit.org.nz/writing-and-podcast/the-vision-of-participatory-parity . She co-developed a parallel collection of commissioned essays entitled Through That Which Separates Us, published in 2021 https://www.worldcat.org/title/1259452743 . The work speaks to her engagement with borders, colonial narratives and technology including AI.

Cushla Donaldson has started her PhD trajectory at the Van Vollenhoven Institute. Her research is focused on the production of European borderscapes through the travelling narratives of 17th-century demonological witchcraft, and their resonances in the contemporary moment. Her PhD supervisors are Prof. Maartje van der Woude and Dr. Amalia Campos Delgado.