Queensland Newspapers editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell will address Arts and Social and Behavioural Sciences graduates at a University of Queensland graduation ceremony in Mayne Hall on Wednesday, May 20 at 8pm.
Some 130 graduates will receive their degrees at the ceremony.
- A bachelor of arts graduate from the University (1980), Mr Mitchell began his career as a journalist with Brisbane's former afternoon tabloid, The Telegraph in 1973, before moving to The Townsville Bulletin in 1979 and to The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) in 1981. After three years as day business editor at The Australian Financial Review, he joined the national broadsheet, The Australian, in 1984, working first in the business section, then becoming chief sub-editor, night editor and deputy editor. He was appointed editor of The Australian in 1992. Mr Mitchell was appointed editor-in-chief of Queensland Newspapers' two metropolitan newspapers The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail in April 1995.
- Head of the School of Nursing at Australian Catholic University Dr Elizabeth Davies, who is receiving a PhD for her study on aspects of nurse education, will deliver the valedictory address. Dr Davies, whose PhD was supervised by Dr Jim Butler of the University of Queensland's Graduate School of Education, examined nursing practice and attempted to determine the essential elements of practice which need to be transmitted through education, to students. Dr Davies is the chair of the Queensland Nursing Council, the statutory body which regulates nursing in Queensland. There are currently 45,000 nurses in the State. Dr Davies practised nursing at a number of hospitals, including Mater Hospital, and was a nurse educator at Holy Spirit and Mater Hospitals before taking up her current position. She graduated bachelor of science from Griffith University in 1977 and was awarded a research masters degree from the University of Queensland in 1992. Contact telephone 3855 1368.
- Dr Les Killion will receive his PhD from the University's Anthropology and Sociology Department. For his thesis, Dr Killion conducted in-depth interviews with 20 long-term unemployed people aged between 35 and 64 living in central Queensland. He said middle-aged unemployed people were a forgotten group in society who felt 'thrown on the scrap-heap'. He said many respondents reported feeling neglected by government employment programs and were resigned to the fact that they would probably never secure paid work again. Dr Killion can be contacted on telephone 0749 309 616 (work) or 0749 278 157 (home).
- Dr Sandra Simpson-Smith will receive her PhD from the History Department. Her thesis found the British monarchy was at its most popular when it presented as a happy, harmonious family. Dr Simpson-Smith examined the often-difficult relationship between sovereign and heir in the British royal family and found periods of public dissatisfaction with the monarchy co-incided with disharmony between the king or queen and his or her heir. Dr Simpson-Smith focused on the relationship between sovereigns and their heirs between 1840 and 1917 including Queen Victoria and Edward VII, Edward VII and George V and George V and Edward VIII. Of the three relationships, only that between Edward VII and George V was loving and harmonious despite the pair being exact opposites in temperament. Dr Simpson-Smith can be contacted on telephone 07 5573 6145 (home).
- Dr Helen de Zubicaray will receive her PhD from the Romance Languages Department. For her thesis entitled 'Circumscribing Space: Exploring the Structure and Function of the Cell in Twelfth Century Architecture and Music', she examined the music, architecture and philosophy of the Medieval period, including the music of German Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, now popular in the 20th century (Germany is hosting many conferences in 1998 to commemorate the ninth centenary of her birth). Dr de Zubicaray can be contacted on telephone 07 3355 6344 (home).
For further information, contact Donna Gauld, University Graduations officer, telephone 07 336 52898.
