Alumni Profiles

Professor Ray Taras Distinguished Chair

Born and educated in Montreal, Ray Taras completed postgraduate studies at European universities. Beginning in the 1980s he authored and edited books on such subjects as the collapse of the USSR; Russia’s identity in international relations; the making of liberal and illiberal nationalisms; internationalization of ethnic conflicts; fear, xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe; critiques of multiculturalism; the impact of fear on foreign policy; reworked understandings of nationhood in a globalized world; and early in his career, the language debate in Quebec. He held posts in North American and European universities including Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Vermont, the European University Institute, Aalborg, Malmö, Warsaw, and Sussex. In 2019 he is Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Australian National University in Canberra where his work focuses on measuring social cohesion – a process in which nativists, indigenous peoples and recent migrants work together to build prosperous, creative and robust societies. Ray’s home is in Salt Lake City and his passions include world literature, skiing, skating, running, and border collies.

Richard Eccleston Senior Scholars

“While tax policy can be both technical and dry, there is a clear need to enhance our understanding of the tax policy process…”

Richard Eccleston is a Professor in Political Science at the University of Tasmania, with a PhD from the University of Queensland. His research focuses on economic governance, specifically the politics of taxation and public finance. He will study at the Centres of the Public Service in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, Virginia.

He will study the changing nature of fiscal federalism in the U.S. and Australia in the aftermath of the financial crisis, specifically considering implications for state finances and the broader political economy of federalism.

“While tax policy can be both technical and dry, there is a clear need to enhance our understanding of the tax policy process amid the increasing financial and political threat being posed by growing public debt. There is a good deal of  scope to reflect on and learn from the U.S. experience but, owing to the complexity of U.S. federalism, this process can only occur with detailed collaboration.”

Peter Kell Senior Scholars

“Australia and the US are two of the most active participants in transnational and global education.”

Peter Kell is Professor and Head of the School of Education at Charles Darwin University. His work has a focus on global student mobility, the internationalisation of education and training in the Asia Pacific. He will study at the College of Education in the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) from January-June 2015.

His study is centred on internationalising the learning experience of postgraduate education in the Northern Territory through a collaborative Master of Education online program. The evaluation of the design, protocols and learning frameworks within this program will be used to initiate a global network in postgraduate learning in education involving the US and Australia.

“Australia and the US are two of the most active participants in transnational and global education. The next frontier is postgraduate education. This project will enable an active exploration that will assist students, academics and university administrators to understand how to use the new technologies of learning across the globe in new and innovative ways for mutual benefits.”

Associate Professor Kristen Radford Senior Scholars

Kristen is a Mater Foundation Principal Research Fellow and Leader of the Cancer Immunotherapies Group at Mater Research and the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane. Her research is focused on the development of new treatments known as immunotherapies that harness the body’s own immune system to recognize and fight cancer. Her team has developed a new vaccine that has potential to treat a variety of human cancers. As a Fulbright Scholar, Kristen will spend time in the laboratory of Professor Nina Bhardwaj, an internationally recognized pioneer and leader in the field of cancer vaccines. She will learn state-of-the art procedures for the evaluation of cancer vaccines and develop new partnerships to facilitate translation of this research for clinical trials to benefit cancer patients. 

Dr David Ireland Professional Scholars

David is an adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland Business School (UQBS) and the Chief Innovation Officer at ThinkPlace, a leading strategic design and innovation consultancy. David is also a board member of several not-for-profit and for-profit organizations and is a serial entrepreneur, having successful started and exited several businesses.

David will use his Fulbright Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership to spend four months at Stanford University. During this time, he will establish a formal relationship between UQBS and Stanford in researching, understanding, and addressing complex systems and challenges. As a particular focus, he will also develop practical methods, tools, and initiatives for people and organisations to use towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, arguably the world’s most complex challenges, which seek to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.

Dr Christopher Goatley Postdoctoral Scholars

Chris is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England. His research aims to improve our understanding of the functions of coral reef fishes and how they help maintain healthy coral reef ecosystems. Chris’ recent work focuses on tiny but incredibly abundant coral reef fishes called cryptobenthic fishes. These tiny fish may form the foundations of many coral reef food webs, but until recently they have been largely overlooked by researchers. 

Chris will use his Fulbright Scholarship to collaborate with experts in taxonomy and functional ecology of fishes. The aim of the scholarship is to build a greater understanding of the biodiversity of cryptobenthic fishes, and their roles in maintaining healthy and productive coral reefs in Australia and elsewhere. 

Natasha Wiggins Postdoctoral Scholars

“Sustainable wildlife management strategies in Tasmania need to be based on ecological and behavioural data regarding the interactive processes that involve priority species. This will help us to understand the likely responses of individuals and groups to management efforts.”

Dr Natasha Wiggins, a postdoctoral researcher with the University of Tasmania, is the winner of the 2011 Fulbright Tasmania Scholarship. This scholarship is sponsored by the Tasmanian government and the University of Tasmania and is awarded to an applicant to undertake research in the United States on a topic or issue of importance to the state.

Through her Fulbright, Natasha will investigate the relationship between the pygmy rabbit and its key food source, sagebrush. Her research aims to advance our understanding of how mammalian herbivores, such as the pygmy rabbit, select their food.

“The proposed research will offer crucial insights into the eucalypt herbivore systems in Australia and expand our knowledge of what factors drive herbivore feeding decisions,” Natasha said. “This information is of particular importance in areas where herbivores and humans are directly competing for the same resources.” “Diet availability is considered the overarching driver of herbivore foraging decisions, but recent advances in plant-herbivore ecology suggest that diet quality should also be factored into foraging decisions.”

Natasha will investigate the influence of diet quality, availability and temperature-dependent tolerance to plant chemistry between pygmy rabbits and sagebrush. Her research will provide important insights into how herbivores respond to seasonal differences in diet quality and availability, and the influence that temperature may play in altering herbivore responses to plant chemistry. Natasha’s research will provide a greater insight into eucalypt-herbivore systems in Australia.

Natasha has a BSc and a PhD (Biological Sciences) from the University of Tasmania. She has also received awards and funding including the Winifred Violet Scott Trust; Research funding for sustainable wildlife management from the TCFA: Alternatives to 1080 Program; and the Claudio Alcorso Foundation Environment Prize. In her spare time she enjoys bush walking and hiking, and community involvement in programs which promote wildlife education.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra. Natasha is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.

Kathryn Field Postgraduate Students

“To truly effectively understand cancer research necessitates a sound scientific background – how to marry the clinical rationale with scientific rigor.”

Dr Kathryn Field, a medical oncologist with the Royal Melbourne Hospital and a clinical research fellow at the Ludwig Institute Cancer Research in Melbourne is the 2012 winner of the Fulbright Postgraduate Alumni (WG Walker) Scholarship, which is funded through donations by Fulbright Alumni and awarded to the highest ranked Postgraduate Scholar.

Through her Fulbright, Kathryn will go to the U.S. for a year to enrol in a Masters of Science in Clinical Research or Masters of Public Health focusing on biostatistics, clinical epidemiology, health services research, research design and data analysis.

“These are the exact skills in which I need gain in order to further my expertise in this field. By studying in the U.S. I will be trained by world-renowned professionals in these areas and will obtain a global view of the issues facing clinical researchers around the world,” Kathryn said.

These skills will also significantly benefit the researchers, clinicians and cancer patients that Kathryn works with in Australia.

“Rigorous training in epidemiology and biostatistics will give me the tools to better formulate and apply research questions and to personally analyse data arising from research projects – not only my own but the many projects being generated through the team I work with,” Kathryn said.

Kathryn said that expertise in this area would result in significant gains for the young researchers who are currently completing research projects with the BioGrid data repository (an Australian-developed data repository for cancer research databases).

Kathryn is currently completing a Doctor of Medical Science through the University of Melbourne, and has a MBBS (with honours) from the University of Melbourne. She has won many awards and prizes including top medical student and Australian Medical Association Prize 1999; top student in medicine, orthopaedics, obstetrics/gynaecology, pathology, pharmacology, anatomy, biochemistry and biology in her undergraduate years. In more recent years she has been awarded three American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit Awards, the Cancer Trials Australia Award in 2010 for being the top student in the University of Melbourne’s Certificate in Clinical Research course, and the Cleveland Young Investigator Award in 2011 for the top abstract presented at Melbourne Health Research Week. In her spare time she is interested in travel, photography, long-distance running (half-marathon), cooking, music and languages.

Alison Gill Postgraduate Students

Alison is passionate about sustainable agriculture and climate change. Alison’s PhD research focuses on the drought tolerance and water-use efficiency of industrial hemp. Research is desperately needed to establish whether hemp has a place in low wateruse cropping systems, such as those in southern Australia and California. While the Australian hemp industry is only just developing, the U.S. industry is far more established.

Through her Fulbright Scholarship, Alison hopes to gain valuable knowledge on hemp agronomy that can be used to guide the industry in Australia, as well as establish lasting collaborations between the University of Adelaide and the University of California, Berkeley. The research will assist in understanding implications of water availability on hemp production and will investigate how agroecology approaches can address future challenges. As hemp is notoriously under-researched, this research has the potential to be a game-changer for the Australian agricultural industry.

Ariane Moore Postgraduate Students

Ariane Moore is a PhD candidate in philosophy of religion at the University of Tasmania. Ariane researches the intersection between belief and non-belief, investigating whether secular people can access experiences that are traditionally exclusive to faith. She graduated from Deakin University with first class Honours for her thesis on the coherence of ritual atheism. As a Fulbright Scholar, Ariane will study in the Philosophy Department of the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Professor Paul B. Woodruff. She aims to contrast a Kantian experience of the sublime with a secular mystical experience.

Hannah Orban Postgraduate Students

Hannah is committed to improving the lives of people with disability in Australia and the United States. In particular, she is focussed on shaping public policy to overcome disabling attitudes and achieve the socioeconomic equality that people with disability are promised in modern, liberal democracies. After majoring in Philosophy, Italian Studies and Art History and receiving first class Honours in Philosophy at the University of Sydney, Hannah joined the NSW Government Graduate Program and currently works on initiatives for students with disability at the NSW Department of Education.

As a Fulbright scholar, Hannah is studying public policy at the University of Michigan. She is excited to use this opportunity to deepen her understanding of effective policy and legislative options to improve the socioeconomic outcomes of people with disability, and to establish networks with international colleagues. Through policy, Hannah’s goal is to progress towards a more egalitarian society for people with disability in Australia and the United States.

Celia Winnett Postgraduate Students

“Despite heightened debate in recent years over the prospect of a national bill of rights for Australia, there seems to be insufficient community or political will to introduce such a reform in the near future. The reality for lawyers is a challenging one: to protect the legal interests of minorities and other disadvantaged people, they must instead creatively harness the legal system we have.”

Ms Celia Winnett, a lawyer and former Associate to the Hon Justice Susan Crennan AC, High Court of Australia, has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to go to the U.S. for a year to further her legal career. Celia will examine the protection of civil liberties under the American Constitution and the scope that exists for drawing on these protections in the Australian context.

Celia says that the approach taken in the U.S. is an essential reference point for Australian lawyers and judges seeking to understand the liberty-protective properties of our own Constitution.

“Our federal structure was directly inspired by the U.S. model, and beyond the broad philosophical similarities between the two systems for the separation and division of powers amongst institutions and between governments, many Australian constitutional provisions echo aspects of the American Constitution,” Celia said.

Celia believes that greater protection of the legal interests of minorities in Australia can and should be achieved by developing the jurisprudence on the “negative liberties” contained in the Australian Constitution. These include the freedom to practise a chosen religion, hold property and engage in political discussion without undue interference from the federal government, and the safeguards flowing from the role of courts in the federation – liberties that were shaped by the American Constitution.

“By studying an LLM in American constitutional law at a leading U.S. university, I hope to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute to Australian public life as a constitutional law barrister, advocating for an interpretation of the Australian Constitution that advances its negative liberties for the benefit of the vulnerable members of our community,” Celia said.

Celia has an LLB (Hons 1) and BA from ANU and a Grad Dip Legal Practice from the College of Law. She has won many awards and prizes including the University Medal in Law 2009, ACT Supreme Court Judges’ Prize 2009, India AUS Assoc ACT Prize 2009, ACT Bar Assoc Prize 2008, Thompson Prize 2007, George Knowles Prize 2005, ACT Baha’i Community Prize 2005 and Daphne Olive Prize 2005. She has also published a paper in a leading law journal on constitutional issues affecting Indigenous property, and was an intern at Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation, a native title representative body, in Geraldton (W.A.). In her spare time Celia enjoys netball, creative writing (poetry), French films, reading, singing and travelling.