Winning speaker Patrick Mazzocco with MC Susan Craig, from the Graduate Research School.
Otago’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) finals in August are going to be a tough competition judging by the high standard of the five Doctoral students who presented in Te Kete Aronui - Humanities’ Heats.
At a 3MT event, each competitor displays a single static slide to their audience and has three minutes to share the story of their research.
The 3MT competition concept was started by the University of Queensland 16 years ago – the then Dean of the Graduate Research School was inspired when residents were encouraged to limit their showers to three minutes during a drought.
The competition is now held annually in more than 900 universities in 85 countries. Otago’s winning Doctoral speaker will go on to the online Asia-Pacific final later this year.
The Humanities Divisional winner is Patrick Mazzocco, from the Higher Education Development Centre. He spoke on “Career Breaks and Identity”.
In his research, Patrick looks at how identity shapes careers. He is interviewing people who have taken career breaks, asking why they are choosing this and exploring emerging themes such as an initial loss of identity, and then transformation. His slide is an image of an astronaut in space, with a second image of the astronaut untethered from his lines.
In closing, Patrick asks, “What might you find if you had the courage to drift?”
The Humanities 3MT speakers, from left Patrick Mazzocco, Geoffrey Miller, Shannon McNatty, Emre Ekici and Kulani Wijayabahu.
There are two runners-up; one is Shannon McNatty with the College of Education, who asks “Why do outdoor experiences matter for young women?”
The focus of her research is an all-girls, inner-city school that provides students with a one-month long, remote outdoor learning experience. She studies the impact on participants, and whether it is meaningful and long lasting.
The other runner-up, Kulani Wijayabahu, Politics, spoke on “Tiny but Mighty: The Strategic Power of Small Nations”. She compares how Sri Lanka and Malaysia have navigated international relationships, particularly in regard to balancing a relationship with China against others. A focus is how Sri Lanka, so well placed geographically and abundant in natural resources, has experienced an economic downturn, while Malaysia has not.
Emre Ekici, from the School of Performing Arts spoke on, “Notes did not quite speak – classical music production and communications.” In his research he seeks to break down barriers in classical music production, and develop a two-way understanding between producers and performers.
Geoffrey Miller, Politics, spoke on “New Zealand and the Gulf”. His research delves into New Zealand’s relationship with some of the richest countries in the world, including trade relationships and anticipating the changes that may be coming such as climate change and AI. He also spoke on “the camel in the room” – the equation of trade interests against human rights.
The Humanities’ heats were judged by Professor Ruth Fitzgerald and Associate Professor Frances Steel. They agreed it was a close competition with an impressive line-up of speakers.
In her feedback, Ruth said, “you are convincing us that Otago is thriving in postgraduate research, through your topical and thoughtful presentations.”
The Otago 3MT finals are on Thursday, 15 August.