Writing your way to success: The University has recently profiled two of the many graduates from the Writing, Editing and Publishing postgraduate program who have gone on to launch successful careers using their writing skills. Jodi Simpson now works as a production editor with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Fiona Tucker is the Head of Books Publishing with Express Newspapers in London.
Each year, nine Rhodes Scholarships are available for outstanding Australians to study at the University of Oxford. EMSAH is proud to announce its second winner in two years.
Next year Arts/Law graduate and University of Queensland medallist Mr Robert Mullins will leave for Oxford as an Australia-at-large Rhodes Scholar to undertake a Master of Studies in English Literature, with a view to writing an MPhil disssertation. Because he intends to write a PhD in Australian Literature, he says we may not have seen the last of him: “I may be back at UQ in a year or two!”
He says of his honours year: “I owe a lot to my teachers and colleagues in EMSAH, especially my supervisor, Dr Peta Mitchell, who offered me a fantastic opportunity to broaden my intellectual horizons. My understanding of English as a discipline was enhanced, and I learned how pleasurable—and difficult—it is to shape ideas into a coherent thesis-length work. Honours offered me the first opportunity I had had to really think independently, and to engage both creatively and ethically with literature.”
The qualities the committee looks for include academic and intellectual excellence, integrity of character, respect for others, and a capacity for leadership. Robert possesses all of these in abundance, and EMSAH wishes him every success.
He will join EMSAH graduate Mr Nicholas Luke, who went to Oxford as the 2006 Queensland Rhodes scholar, and is now writing a PhD there in the area of Shakespeare studies.