Achievements

Abdul Abdullah is hitting the canvas

Looking at Fine Arts graduate Abdul Abdullah’s CV is a daunting thing – chock-full of awards, residencies, grants and exhibitions dating back to when he was in his early twenties.

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“I chose to study Internet Communications at Curtin because I wanted to ‘future proof’ my career. The lecturers and tutors were inspiring and knowledgeable. I wouldn’t have been able to complete my degree without them.

I was the first ‘digital creative’ [Newcastle Live] had employed. The theory and references I had learnt and collected during my degree were invaluable when justifying the direction I was advising the company to take. My favourite part of my current role is building community around the media Newcastle Live creates.”

International relations students face reality in Timor-Leste

Fourteen international relations students landed in Timor-Leste for a whirlwind, two week study tour last November, taking their classroom learning to poverty-stricken villages, charities and international embassies, and learning the art of diplomacy along the way.

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Journalism students launch news service for Noongar FM

Noongar FM is a much-loved community-based radio station that has been entertaining and informing listeners of Perth and the wider metro region since it first hit the airwaves in 2008.

The station is now extending its influence even further with the introduction of a dedicated news service started by Curtin journalism club, Newsspeak.

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“Choosing Literary and Cultural Studies as a major was a result of my indecision about which field to enter. At the time, I was interested in philosophy, literature, media and psychology: Literary and Cultural Studies provided me with a place in which I not only read from each area, but where I could actively combine the disciplines to explore aspects of popular culture that intrigued me.

The analytical skills taught in the Literary and Cultural Studies units fit seamlessly with other Humanities courses, and have equipped me with the ability to research in multiple areas with relative ease. Lastly but importantly, a Literary and Cultural Studies major is fun and exciting. Not only did I get to use cookbooks, watch Buffy and read fantasy novels in the name of research, but my experience with these texts led to meaningful critique of the function of popular culture.”

Amiable business a top-end success

While working in Darwin for contemporary music body MusicNT, Curtin alumna Amy Hetherington met many artists with incredible skills and talents, but noticed a gap in their experience in promoting their work. Equipped with a mass communications degree and a positive attitude, Hetherington made it her goal to fill that gap.

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“I think the best part of my degree is the versatility and the open nature of the course. By versatility I mean that through the Lunchtime Theatre program students can immerse themselves in the multiple facets of theatre, and build skills in an extremely practical and safe environment that allow them to enter the industry as rounded theatre makers. By open I mean that under Leah Mercer’s coordination I felt as though I was never prescribed to approach Theatre, or Art in general, in a specific style or form.

All the tutors are professionally practising artists who have distinct styles and approaches to theatre, and so students are influenced by many theories and can find their own artistic ethos, rather than being placed inside a conservatorium where a particular and/or specific approach is the prescription, included with all this is the contact with the multitude of outside professionally practising artists currently working within the Perth industry. The ABSOLUTE best would have been the excursion to Bali, to take part in a week intensive of Balinese Mask Work and Balinese dance, accompanied by a Balinese Performance art piece every night. The experience was monumentally impactful, and has permanently affected my artistic practice.” Watch a video about the Performance and Mask workshop in Bali.

“I was keen to put my interests and skills in communications to use but was a catch 22. Lack of experience was preventing me from moving to the next phase of my career but no one was willing to offer me a chance.

I had seen that knowledge of social media and online communications had become pretty hot in demand and Internet Studies offered an opportunity to diversify my skills and explore emerging trends.

What’s the best thing about this degree?
It’s relevant, timely, practical and fun. We got to study things as they were happening, like the Kony 2012 campaign, so the skills we were learning were immediately and directly applicable to the real world.

Choosing to study fully online maximised my experience of Internet Studies and I really enjoyed how engaging the course was, making full use of the tools and channels available on the web. Working together online was often the most rewarding part of the degree, and was directly relevant to the way we work in the modern workplace.

My proudest study achievement was my final Web 507 project, where I created a range of online content to explain the concept of transmedia in a creative and engaging way. It was a huge amount of fun to create and gave me the highest mark I’d received for any project at university.

I’d love to go back to my early career and convince myself to start postgraduate studies earlier on, but I think everything happened at the right time and it took my cumulative experiences to bring me here.

How has this degree benefited your current role?
My knowledge of communication principles, of new and emerging platforms, my skills in writing for different audiences and platforms, and methods for engaging with communities are important in carrying out my role, where I help to create and develop concepts and content and run communications campaigns across multiple platforms.

What is your greatest career achievement to date?
I helped design and oversee the ‘Humans of Curtin’ equity campaign, which is all about celebrating people from all walks of life and demonstrating that people from all backgrounds can succeed in higher education. The campaign is centred on storytelling. We collect stories from students and staff within the Curtin community and publish these online, similar to Humans of New York. The stories are shared across a variety of digital and print platforms and have organically performed incredibly well.

The second component to this campaign was to design marketing collateral targeted towards equity target groups within the community. We developed visual and audio advertisements that promote positive messaging around racial, sexual and geographical diversity and published these in selected metro and regional places all around the state. This allowed the University to connect with niche and wide-ranging community groups beyond the bounds of who we usually communicate with and advertise to.

Humans of Curtin has attracted attention from around the University, including staff at senior levels. It’s also demonstrated the value of organic content for the use in Curtin marketing campaigns. I’m immensely proud of this project and it’s allowed me to utilise the perfect combination of my creative interests and learned skills.

What’s next?
I’ve just begun my PhD in Internet Studies. I want to build up a profile as an academic and pop culture commentator, and hopefully an expert in transmedia. I’m interested to see where my studies might take me around the world.

Beyond that I think I’d like to eventually engage in teaching and lecturing. One day I’d like to produce a great creative work. I feel like my study is leading me to do something creative.”

Bringing 13 years of experience working for the Australian Department of Defence, Social Sciences and Security Studies PhD candidate Victor Abramowicz, has recently had two opinion-pieces published in The Interpreter by the Lowy Institute for International Policy:

• North Korea’s strangely disorganised missile program
• Trump’s confused mercantilism
• Trump wants to work with Assad. Can Australia follow?
• Future Frigates and the wisdom of large surface ships
• Don’t panic: The Trump presidency and Australia’s defence needs

Read Victor’s articles

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The home of Curtin’s established and emerging novelists, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, memoirists and writers of creative non-fiction. The Network includes some of Australia’s best known names whose work is recognised both in Australia and overseas.

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