Testimonials

It was a great pleasure to join the world-class group of scholars in the School of Art History through the Global Fellowship program. During my time as Global Fellow at St Andrews, I collaborated on a lively series of scholarly events, including: a public lecture, a conversation with the School of Art History’s inspiring PhD students, and a workshop on Victorian mediascapes that concluded with a special collections session about rare books in the Runicman Collection and other unique treasures. These were extremely vibrant scholarly exchanges with colleagues from the School of Art History, as well as from a range of disciplines across campus. As well as these formal events, I had the great pleasure of individual meetings with many inspiring scholars in the St. Andrews community. The extended time of this Global Fellowship facilitated these important international exchanges, and I look forward to continuing to foster the connections between St Andrews and the University of Sydney.

The University of St Andrews is a marvellous institution. It combines the depth of history (and beauty) of Oxbridge with the stimulation of the liveliest liberal arts colleges in the United States. The Global Fellows scheme is unusually generous, making it easy for visiting scholars to slip into daily life in a modern medieval town. The program is also very flexible, allowing fellows to tailor their visit to their needs and interests.

Following more than two years of semi-isolation due to the pandemic, it was truly a joy to visit the world-class School of International Relations. During my four-week stay at St Andrews, I had the opportunity to interact with colleagues, PhD students, MLitt students and undergraduate students, benefiting from their insights. I presented and received feedback on two chapter drafts that I am currently working on. I also developed new relationships and nurtured existing ones. 

The Global Fellowship program was fulfilling and energizing in ways that I never anticipated. Yes, there was a discrete project in collaboration with my faculty co-hosts, but our planned work, successful as it was, was practically incidental to the fertile conversations that sprang up during lab meetings or in coffee shops or at the pub. It was these informal moments and the revelations they produced––of common ground across disciplines or epistemologies; or the novel application of a familiar analytical approach––that will have the greatest impact on me and my work. My Global Fellowship ended with many more collaborations than at the start, and I expect scholarly dividends for decades to come. 

The Global Fellowship experience gave me critical time to work with my research partner on an ongoing co-authored book project. The time to write with each other and to discuss our project with colleagues at the University was invaluable, and the
peaceful, scenic setting of St Andrews was highly conducive to our collaborative work. Having time to research, write, and get to know the intellectual community in St Andrews was a privilege and a gift. It was an experience that I will carry with me for the rest of my career.

I have had the pleasure of enjoying a good number of academic fellowships in my
career. No fellowship program compares with the value of the St Andrews Global
Fellowship. Not only were new ideas and projects born during my stay in St
Andrews; a growing collaborative relationship between St Andrews Philosophy and
Notre Dame Philosophy (my home institution) is unfolding. While I departed St
Andrews months ago, the Global Fellowship experience is very far from over.
Projects and collaborative relations continue to grow. To my knowledge, there no
other fellowship program compares to the value of the St Andrews Global
Fellowship.

My Global Fellowship provided an invaluable opportunity to take advantage of the dynamic research culture and lively intellectual life of the School of Classics. I was able to get extremely valuable feedback on my current research. I was also able to explore the potential for exciting future collaborations. I particularly valued the experience of sharing my work with undergraduate and postgraduate students whose keen observations and willingness to engage with my work helped to shape my ideas on a number of topics.