Iconic author and accomplished teacher Professor Janette Turner Hospital will be awarded an Honorary doctorate at UQ’s Faculties of Arts and Social and Behavioural Sciences (SBS) graduation ceremony.
The ceremony will take place tomorrow (Thursday, May 29) at the UQ Centre located at The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus.
Professor Turner Hospital, whose short stories and novels have won numerous international awards, will also be guest speaker at the 8pm ceremony.
She will be presented with a Doctor of Letters honoris causa in recognition of her distinguished career and outstanding contribution to literature.
Professor Hospital will deposit her literary papers with the University Library as part of an agreement reached in 1995. The library has purchased the manuscripts of Charades, The Last Magician and The Ivory Swing under the arrangement. Her new book North of Nowhere South of Loss was published in May by University of Queensland Press.
Executive Director of the Australian Community Safety and Research Organisation (ACRO) Dr Clive Begg will be awarded a PhD at the ceremony for his thesis based on "third way" politics.
Dr Begg graduated from UQ in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts. He said he returned to study in July 2000 because of a concern about the future of the non-governmental sector in the context of the politics of the "third way".
“The recent emergence of the 'third way' or new social democracy as it is now termed was formalised by Anthony Giddens and charts the middle ground between social democracy and neo-liberalism,” he said.
He said his research drew on the perceptions of 35 elite informants within government and non-governmental organisations and for-profit union and community sectors across four inferred "third way" sites: the UK, Canada, the US and Australia.
“The findings indicate the primary intent of the third way is the maintenance of government at all costs,” Dr Begg said.
“In short, the non-governmental sector is under threat of redundancy or worse, disestablishment should it become overly critical of government policy or practice. As an historical voice of reason and a check on the possible excess of government the potential for this to happen presents a real threat to democracy.” He can be contacted on telephone 07 3221 0088.
Phoebe Ling, who will receive her Bachelor of Arts with first class honours, will deliver the student valedictorian address.
Ms Ling was awarded the Mabel Pingel Scholarship in 2002 for an honours student studying French.
“In 2001 I studied at the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain with the UQ Study Abroad Program and I am currently studying at UQ for a Graduate Diploma in international relations as well as teaching first-year French,” she said.
Other graduands of interest at the ceremony include the following:
Betrayed by the media
Dr Jacqui Murray will graduate with a PhD in the area of Asian studies. Dr Murray undertook her studies as an interdisciplinary-based student in the areas of history, journalism and Asian studies. Her thesis considered the Australian media representation of Japan from 1931 to the fall of Singapore in February 1942. She examined whether the media served the public interest. Dr Murray said she had come to the conclusion that the media had betrayed the Australian people and the national interest. She can be contacted on telephone 07 3371 3509.
A creative talent
Linda Neil, who will graduate with a Master of Philosophy in creative writing, has had a multi-faceted career as a writer and musician. Her plays have been performed Australia-wide as well as broadcast on ABC Radio National and she has written scripts for stage, radio and screen. She said her acclaimed radio documentary The Asylum Seekers that was broadcast in April 2003 would be seen internationally later in the year. As a violinist Ms Neil has toured Australia and Europe with orchestras and rock bands and has recorded with independent artists such as Ed Kuepper and The Church. Her experimental CD, The New Passion Club, was released in 2001. She said her collection of short stories, also called The New Passion Club, re-created the world of the New Passion Club through words and images and was a literary companion to the sonic world created by the album. Ms Neil’s prose and poetry have also been published internationally in journals and magazines. She can be contacted on telephone 07 3700 9379.
Music to his ears
Harley Mead, who will graduate with a Master of Music Studies, has combined various strands of music and interests in his studies. He was an experienced classroom teacher and said his graduate studies had served as a stimulus for him to take a study tour to Hungary. Drawing on his early experiences in northern Queensland his thesis investigated applications of aural methodology in select indigenous education groups. He can be contacted on telephone 07 3824 2947.
For information contact Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email: c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
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