The Australian Academy of the Humanities
Dr Christina Parolin (Executive Director)
Christina has worked at the Academy since May 2008, and held the position of Deputy Director until March 2010. She gained her PhD in history from the Australian National University. Before undertaking her doctorate, Christina was employed across various administrative and policy roles in the higher education sector including positions at the ANU, IDP Education Australia and as National Manager Education at the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA). Her publications include various articles and book chapters on the prison experiences of English radicals and a co-edited anthology of radical prison literature, Newgate in Revolution, with Iain McCalman and Michael Davis. Her forthcoming book, Radical Spaces: Venues of Popular Politics in London 1790-c.1845, is due to be published in 2010.
Jorge Salavert (Programme Manager)
Jorge Salavert was born in Valencia, Spain, where he completed a BA in English Philology. He has a Diploma of Education (UNE) and a Master of Translation Studies from the ANU. As well as collaborations with the Shakespeare Institute at the Universitat de València, in Spain he worked as an EFL/ESL teacher and as a court interpreter and translator. After engaging in a famous-last-words conversation with an Australian backpacker on a Chilean bus on the way to the driest inhabited place on earth, the Atacama Desert, eventually he migrated here in 1996. He was the Senior Spanish Translator at the Sydney Olympics, of which he actually saw little. He is an accredited translator both in Spain and Australia, and his research interests comprise Australian poetry and fiction, Jacobean drama, translation studies and the sampling of fine Asian cuisine. He is responsible for administering the awards and exchange programmes.
Christine Barnicoat (Office Manager and Fellowship Officer)
Christine Barnicoat Bsc (Hons) At the Academy, Christine is the Fellowship Officer, administering the election process and helping to organise the Symposium and AGM. She works part time, Monday to Friday, 9.30-2.30.
Gabriela Cabral (Project Officer)
Gabriela Cabral has a background in events management, music, theatre and arts administration. After working for years as a performer in theatre-in-education and as a facilitator in community cultural development, Gabriela decided to live dangerously and switched to the administration side of the performing arts. She worked for touring theatre companies in Sydney until being lured by the sedentary life of the International Theatre Institute and then, of the Sydney Opera House Trust. In 2001 Gabriela fled to Malaysia where she lived for five years totally oblivious to climate change and water restrictions. Back in Canberra and suffering reverse culture shock, she has been taken under the wing of the Academy where she looks after the administration and the Academy’s annual symposium. Gabi also works Monday to Friday, 9am to 2:30pm.
Dr Kylie Brass (Policy and Projects Manager)
Dr Kylie Brass is Policy and Projects Manager at the Academy. She joined the Academy in January 2009 to work on the ARC Learned Academies Special Projects-funded study, The Humanities in Australia Today. Prior to that she worked at the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney, where she researched and published in the areas of media, cultural policy and higher education. Her PhD thesis, from the School of English, Art History, Film and Media at the University of Sydney, looked at feminist pedagogical projects beyond the academy.
Miss Sonja Steffen (Administrative Officer)
Sonja Kiara Steffen recently graduated from The University of Canberra, with a Bachelor of Arts (BA), majoring in Communication and Politics. Sonja will complete her Honours year in 2010, writing her thesis on the ethical ideology behind our food choices and attitudes toward the treatment of farmed animals.
After four months of backpacking around Europe and America, Sonja joins the Academy full-time as the Administrative Officer. She handles the day-to-day administration, reception duties and basically keeps the Academy ticking over day after day.
Sonja's ultimate ambitions lie beyond the office, and range from climate change awareness to animal welfare campaigning (she is an avid vegan and animal rights activist), and she has hopes to one day become an equine veterinarian.
