Resident Interview Series

Graduate House marked 60 years as a Residential College in 2022. Part of our anniversary celebration to commemorate this significant milestone was to hear from our Residents and learn first hand what it’s like to live here and their aspirations while on their academic pathway.

In January 2022, Emeritus Professor Martin Comte, a member of The Graduate Union Council, initiated this interview series and very kindly devoted his time each month to sit with our Residents to learn about their experiences while in residency as well as offer mentoring advice.

By popular demand, these interviews are back and in this issue, Martin sits with Jo Palazuelos-Krukowski from USA and Jeevan Soundarajah from Singapore.

Jo, I am fascinated with your background and what brought you to be living in Graduate House and working with The University of Melbourne.

Thanks Martin, it’s lovely to get the chance to speak with you today. I am Argentine-American: I emigrated to the United States with my family when I was a child. I think growing up between the Argentine and American communities generated a fascination with cultures different from my own pretty early on. I also fell in love with storytelling, and the ability it has to create new worlds. I ended up studying anthropology at Grinnell College, and I worked a bit in television and media after I graduated. I realized I wanted a bit more international experience, so I spent a few pretty amazing years teaching English in South Korea and getting involved with the theatre companies in Daejeon and Seoul. There I discovered how much I loved teaching, and the power that theatre has to foster community and a unified sense of purpose.

With that I decided to pursue my doctorate in theatre in the United States. My research focus began with a basis in folklore and performance, and how community stories were adapted for the stage. I developed a particular interest in ghost stories. My Masters thesis was dedicated to Japanese ghosts on the nineteenth century kabuki stage, and how the figure of the ghost is used to interrogate outstanding sociocultural tensions regarding gender, identity, and class. As I carved out my dissertation project, I also found myself drawn to exploring multimodal forms of storytelling. I fell into studying radio as its own kind of theatre, and understanding how sound has a pretty magical ability to transform the spaces we inhabit. I have a couple of great Australian friends that I had met on my travels as well, and some fortuitous circumstances led me, in 2019 to the Australian horror radio scripts held in the collections at the Arts Centre Melbourne (ACM) and the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). I was told by the archivists at the NFSA that 2023 was the hundredthyear anniversary of Australian radio broadcasting. With that, I proposed a research initiative with the Fulbright Commission to spend a year developing podcasts, exhibitions, and live performances to honor Australia’s rich and under-explored horror radio legacy. The Fulbright said yes, and I’m very happy to be working in Melbourne for the next nine months.

And do you know that the new CEO of Fulbright Australia is Dr. Kerry Bennett, the former CEO of the Graduate Union?

Yes! She is why I’m at Graduate House, actually. The accommodation I had arranged for my stay in Melbourne fell through, and so I called the Fulbright Commission, and explained my situation. Twenty minutes later I received a call to say that there was a room for me at Graduate House, that I could check in straight away, and that I could stay as long as I liked. I’ve been in residence since mid-January. It was a pretty incredible surprise to arrive and have a built-in community of international scholars and people who are curious and dedicated to what they do. You get to learn so much about their diverse fields, and you get to experience this city with them. I’ve gotten to build friendships with people from all over the world, from all walks of life, and in different eras of their lives. It’s a bit like college – but for adults! [Laughs]. Everyone is so kind, so smart, and driven. It’s great.

When do you plan to finish your PhD?

Hopefully I’ll finish by the end of this year or early next year.

I’m delighted that you’ve come to Graduate House for your final year. You’ve already mentioned many things that you’ve liked in the short time you’ve been here. We’re always trying to improve on the experience we offer residents – have you any suggestions?

I think that having communal breakfast and dinners provided by Graduate House really lends itself to cultivating those friendships with the other residents. Every morning and every evening you see the same faces, with everyone asking each other how their day went, and sharing their experiences. You’re living that journey together. There are lots of social events to bring people together, like seeing free opera in Fed Square, or ballet at the Sidney Myer Myer Bowl. They host special dinners for holidays, or serve you fancy hot chocolate and designer coffee for breakfast. Simple things like hanging out in the library and playing cards, reading and studying together – it’s a nice home away from home.

Do you have any plans for the future?

I’ve had the fortune to live in a fair number of countries before this, and I just think that Melbourne is one of the most liveable cities. Melbourne has small-town friendliness with a big city’s social life. We’re in a cultural hub where you can see and experience one-of-a-kind art exhibitions, theatre and music. I feel lucky to be able to do this project based out of Melbourne, and maybe build some connections to spend more time here. My plan is to work as a university professor, either in the US or abroad, but I also love theatre, production and events – so if I were to go into the practical performance field I would be happy as well. While I’m in Australia I’ll be researching with the State Library of Victoria, the ACM and the NFSA to develop those radio centenary events. I’m looking forward to directing a staged reading of Spectral Frequencies, a play I adapted from a series of Australian horror radio scripts, here at the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts. The show first premiered at the University of California-Santa Barbara in February 2022. We had a wonderful and talented cast of fourteen American actors and soldout shows. Whilst I’m here I’m very much looking forward to working on this play with Australian actors, speaking these lines in the nation they were written in.

Jo, I love your story and am so pleased that you’ve chosen Graduate House – or perhaps one of its ghosts arranged for it to choose you! I wish you all the best with your dissertation and I can assure you that I will be one of the first to read it when it is published. I have been fascinated to learn about your journey in choosing a topic – and one centred in Australia! Thank you for such an informative and affirmative interview.