Dr Catherine Curtis is a recent winner of a UQ Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women.
An opportunity that she considers to be a lifeline for her interrupted career as a scholar of early modern political thought.
Dr Curtis is a graduate of Cambridge University, where Regius Professor of History, Quentin Skinner, who was widely regarded as the world’s leading authority on early modern political thought, supervised her PhD.
She is delighted to have been awarded the Fellowship.
“Without this opportunity, provided by UQ, I would have considered abandoning my academic career,” Dr Curtis said.
“My academic career was interrupted by the birth of my two daughters and my return to Australia to help care for my elderly relatives. I faced limited opportunities for historians of political thought in Australia, and these events conspired to nearly end my career.”
One of Dr Curtis’ referees, Professor David Armitage of Harvard University, acknowledged her difficult circumstances.
“Here is a case where outstanding merit and compelling need coincide exactly with an imaginative opportunity and with institutional generosity,” Professor Armitage said.
UQ will provide Dr Curtis with an opportunity to re-launch and contribute to her research career in a field heavily dominated by men; this is the opportunity of a lifetime.
In the ten years since leaving the UK, Dr Curtis has continued publishing in her field and has maintained linkages with an impressive network of distinguished scholars around the globe with little institutional funding or support, relying largely on her own motivation and funds.
Dr Curtis commences her Fellowship in early 2012 and will be based in the School of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) and affiliated with the Centre for the History of European Discourse (CHED).
Her research project is entitled ‘Thomas More, Public Offices and the Ideal Commonwealth’. Dr Curtis intends to bring together More’s experiences and activities in the many offices and roles he held under Henry VIII (such as lawyer, member and speaker of the house of Commons, diplomat, lord chancellor, counsellor to the king and defender of Catholicism against Protestant reform) with some of his vast literary, philosophical and theological writings.
“I am particularly concerned with More’s conceptions of human nature, reason and the emotions, the most desirable form of the commonwealth, classical and early modern monarchy and tyranny, and the achievement of peace and unity in Christendom."
Associate Professor Richard Devetak (POLSIS) nominated Dr Curtis for the award.
“Cathy’s project on Thomas More promises to clarify the evolving historical relationship between the state and its citizens, sharpen our understanding of political rights, duties and offices, and deepen our understanding of the historically fractious relations between Christianity and Islam,” Associate Professor Devetak said.
Media: Gillian Ievers 3365 3308 or g.ievers@uq.edu.au
