Literature hits the right notes with Writers’ Week and Children’s Book Council accolades, while the recent Universities Australia awards recognise stellar contributors from Flinders University.
Universities Australia awards Flinders’ contributions
Two Flinders University academics were recognised at the recent Universities Australia awards. Professor Kate Douglas – who leads the Life Narrative Research Group at Flinders University – received a citation for research-led teaching in literary studies. Her outstanding contribution to student learning involves sharing innovative methods and demonstrating leadership through high-quality international scholarship that influences research and enhances the student experience.
Professor Reg Nixon was recognised for his collaboration on a national initiative, Risk Aware. Coordinated by six universities across Australia, Risk Aware is an online education program that assists healthcare students better identify and manage the risks associated with clinical placement.
The award – honouring programs that enhance learning through educational partnerships and collaborations with other organisations – acknowledged the innovative and authentic learning experiences the program provides that build student workplace readiness and risk-related competence. It consists of seven modules addressing various areas of risk such as aggression, physical violence, psychological and emotional risk.
Risk Aware is the first program of its type in Australia to comprehensively address placement risks unique to healthcare students.
Universities Australia also acknowledged a feature article in Australian Geographic describing the innovative Healthy Urban Microbiome Initiative (HUMI) in South Australia. Freelance journalist and former Cosmos editor Wilson da Silva, who wrote ‘The Good Earth‘ article, was named the 2020 Higher Education Journalist of the Year at last week’s Higher Education Media Awards presentation at the National Press Club.
Professor Deborah Terry, Chair of Universities Australia, says the article explores the work of the HUMI based at the University of Adelaide and at Flinders University, where Dr Martin Breed is HUMI Environmental Microbiome Science Lead. Read more
Leading literary prizes at Writers’ Week
The 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature were announced at a special event during Adelaide Writers’ Week and featured two Flinders University staff members taking out major awards.
Dr Natalie Harkin, a research fellow within the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, won the John Bray Poetry Award for her book Archival-Poetics (Vagabond Press), an embodied reckoning with the State’s colonial archive and those traumatic, contested and buried episodes of history that inevitably return to haunt. The $15,000 prize for a published collection of poetry was named in honour of late South Australian poet Dr John Bray.
Dr Harkin is a Narungga woman and activist-poet with an interest in decolonising state archives, currently engaging archival-poetic methods to research and document Aboriginal women’s domestic services and labour histories in SA.
The Jill Blewett Playwright’s Award was won by writer and playwright Piri Eddy (pictured right), who recently completed his PhD in Creative Writing at Flinders University. His work Forgiveness took out the $12,500 prize, supported by State Theatre Company South Australia, for an unproduced play of any genre written by a professional South Australian playwright.
Based in a quiet town lost in a valley, the play addresses two men’s refusal to reconcile their past leads to the destruction of their families’ futures. Forgiveness is a one-act tragedy about love, revenge, and how one generations’ denial of trauma can inflict irreparable damage on the next. Mr Eddy’s work has been produced by Australian Theatre for Young People and Radio National. He has written for Westerly and Island magazines and the Australian Book Review.
Impossible music hits the right note
Flinders University Creative Writing Senior Lecturer Dr Sean Williams has been acknowledged by the Children’s Book Council of Australia for his novel Impossible Music, which came out last year. This work – which explores Deaf culture and Auslan (Australian sign language) – was announced as a CBCA Notable book for 2020 in the Book of the Year Category for Older Readers.
The success of this title also enabled Dr Williams to present Deaf Storytellers Live at Adelaide Writers’ Week 2020, for which Deaf writers were paired with four hearing authors (including Dr Williams and Flinders University alumna Hannah Kent) to work on their craft, and the results were read to an audience for this special session.