Two ANU students hitting the Rhode to Oxford
What do gender history and global surgery have in common? They are the passions and academic interests of our two successful 2021 Rhodes Scholars.
Following an extremely competitive process, two outstanding ANU students have been selected as 2021 Rhodes Scholars. They will be off to Oxford next year to begin the next chapters of their careers.
The Rhodes Scholarship is one of the oldest and most prestigious international scholarships available to young Australians. Established in 1902, the aim of the Scholarship is to select outstanding young leaders who will make a positive and resounding impact in the world.
We caught up with each of the Scholars to discuss their time at ANU and their aspirations for the future.
Freya Willis
Freya Willis is set to re-write the history books and improve public policy responses to gender and socio-economic inequality in Australia.
Freya Willis be studying the rise of caring capitalism in the 20th century world
Freya will graduate this year with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours), majoring in History and minoring in Gender Studies. In 2019, she attained First Class Honours and received the Mick Williams Prize in History for her Honours thesis on female unionists’ campaigns for equal pay and social welfare, and their challenge to sexual division of labour in 1970s Australia.
At Oxford, Freya will study a Masters in History examining the growth of ‘caring capitalism’ and low-paid, feminized and racialized industries – such as childcare and aged care – in the 20th century world.
Passionate about social justice and gender equality, Freya has been a dedicated and strong advocate during her studies. Freya worked with women’s organisations across Australia to lead a national response to sexual assault and sexual harassment on university campuses.
“My proudest memory of my time at ANU was gathering together students on the lawns of ANU Chancelry to voice our pain, concerns and desire for change to the Vice-Chancellor in the wake of the release of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Changing the Course report into sexual assault and sexual harassment on university campuses,” she said.
“It was an empowering demonstration of strength and solidarity.”
Freya is excited by the opportunity to debate and share ideas with her Rhodes and Oxford peers, particularly the big challenges emerging from COVID-19.
“COVID-19 has forced me to reckon with the overrepresentation of women in precarious, low-paid caring work; the unmet needs in our care and welfare systems; and the unequal division of domestic and reproductive labour,” she said.
“The Rhodes Scholarship provides me with the opportunity to interrogate how we arrived at this present moment. I hope not only to learn from my peers, but to collaborate with them to think through and tackle these big challenges.”
Lachlan Arthur
Lachlan Arthur will focus his studies at Oxford on global surgery
Lachlan Arthur is an aspiring surgeon hoping to promote equity in surgery across Australia and our region.
Currently completing a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery at the ANU Medical School, Lachlan graduated from a Bachelor of Philosophy – Science with First Class Honours in 2018. Lachlan’s Honours thesis focused on lab-based cancer research.
Since starting his Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, Lachlan has thrown himself into surgery-related causes. He works as a laboratory assistant and sessional academic at the ANU Anatomy Department, as well as being the Vice President of the ANU Surgical Society and the Secretary of the Australasian Students’ Surgical Association.
Lachlan has also been an active member of the University and Canberra community during his studies. With a penchant for long-distance running, Lachlan is a coach for the Refugee Marathon Project, assisting refugees, asylum seekers and recent immigrants to achieve their running goals. He also has a passion for education, having been a UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador for 2018/19, spent two summers volunteers as a teacher at the Vanuatu Little Stars Summer School in remote Vanuatu and worked as an Academic Advisor in medical sciences at Johns XXIII College.
Lachlan will dedicate his Rhodes Scholarship to an emerging field called global surgery. Global surgery is a multidisciplinary field aiming to provide equitable surgical care across international health systems. Lachlan will study a Master of International Health and Tropical Medicine and is particularly interested in collaborating with the Oxford University Global Surgery Group. He will follow this degree with a Master of Public Policy at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
Lachlan’s interest in global surgery is grounded in a strong sense of equity.
“I grew up outside Adelaide on the edge of the Barossa Valley. Although I didn’t live a long way from Adelaide, there were still barriers to accessing certain types of surgical care.” he explained.
“Barriers to surgery exist across the world. I spent a lot of time in my undergraduate studies volunteering in Vanuatu, where access to surgery was incredibly limited. It makes you frustrated.
“In the long term, I want to see better surgical care systems in Australia, particularly outside of cities. I also want to develop surgical systems across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.”