Congratulations to Prateek, who was awarded the 2014 Dr John McCulloch Memorial Prize as part of the annual Work-in-Progress (WiP) Conference, “The Life of Things”, for his paper, “Hubble-bubble of transcultural encounters: a study of the social life of hookah.”
The judging panel also highly commended Sushma Griffin, Chari Larsson, Elliot Logan, and Nick Lord for their papers.
The annual prize is named in honour of Dr John McCulloch OAM (1938-2010), who died of pancreatic cancer just after submitting his doctoral thesis on Queensland suffragist Elizabeth Brentnall. The prize is made possible by the generosity of Dr McCulloch’s partner, Mr Gary Portley.
This year, the Conference featured the inaugural Creative Writing Showcase, a celebration of the creative outputs of writing postgraduates from EMSAH and other universities. The event, held at the UQ Art Museum, included eight readings across a wide range of forms from short fiction and creative non-fiction through to prose poetry and a play script.
The Showcase Prize was jointly awarded to Félix Calviño for “The Valley of the Butterflies” and David Thornby for “The Pitch Drop”. Both Félix and David are EMSAH postgraduates in Creative Writing. The Prize was supported by the generous donation of research funding by Professor Gillian Whitlock.
Conference organisers Jami-Leigh Acworth, Gabriella Blasi, Belinda Burns, Wilson Koh, and Emily Yu Zong, along with guidance from Associate Professor Jane Stadler and Dr Nathan Garvey, presented a diverse program of more than 70 papers, including a keynote address by Professor Richard Read from the University of Western Australia and a Plenary Panel including Professor Gay Hawkins and Professor Gillian Whitlock.
Many thanks to all staff and students who attended, and all who contributed to making this event such a success, particularly: Mr Gary Portley, Professor Gillian Whitlock, Professor Gay Hawkins, Professor Peter Holbrook, and Professor Richard Read.