Lauren

Lauren Sadow chose ANU for her PhD because of her supervisory panel.

“I could not get a more perfect supervisory panel for what I’m researching – a cultural dictionary of Australian English, based in Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM),” the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics- PhD student says.

“My panel chair is Dr Zhengdao Ye, who specialises in translation and intercultural communication.

“My other supervisors are Professor Emerita Anna Wierzbicka and Associate Professor Amanda Laugesen

“Anna came up with NSM, while Amanda is the Head of the Australian National Dictionary Centre.

“I’m so lucky to have all three of them here.”

Lauren says highlights of her time at ANU included the opportunity to share her research project with other postgrads at a summer camp at Syracuse University in the United States as well as conferences in Singapore, Adelaide and Canberra.

“I’ve enjoyed almost everything about it, but particularly for me it’s been the ANU academic community,” she says.

“Being able to randomly run into someone in a corridor and have a discussion about something I’m passionate about is absolutely the best thing about being at ANU.”

She also relishes being able to listen to other people’s research through the various seminar series, and participate in different courses and units, such as those through CHELT (Centre for Higher Education, Learning and Teaching).

“CHELT run courses like the principles of tutoring and demonstrating, which because I hope to stay in academia as a career, being taught how to teach at a university-level is going to be so good for me in the future,” Lauren explains.

“I’m really glad that I’ve had those sorts of opportunities.

“I’ve found out about these opportunities through a variety of means – my School’s newsletter, the Research Digest, via Twitter, and the Thesis Whisperer blog.

“I started reading the blog when I was a Master’s student at a different university, and when I discovered that its creator (Dr Inger Mewburn) was actually at ANU and I could attend her courses, it was really exciting.

“My supervisor has provided me with a lot of information and recommendations, and the coursework I did at the beginning of my PhD let me know what other sorts of courses I could do, for example those that the library runs.

“I’m also involved in PARSA (the ANU Postgraduate And Research Students Association) as a representative for the College of Arts and Social Sciences.

“I literally could not hope for a better fit for me. ANU has been better than I imagined and I had high expectations.”

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