Camila Egusquiza

Narrow Naming: What UWA’s Buildings Tell Us About Academia

CamiLa egusquiza

While trying to figure out what to write for this edition, I decided to look at building names on campus, and I came across a certain pattern that was hard to ignore. Most buildings and facilities are named after relevant people who contributed financially to the university: benefactors and philanthropists who are grateful to see their name on a building. Others are named after distinctive alumni: people who have contributed to the perceived prestigiousness of UWA. But if you take a closer look at a campus map, you will find it hard to see a building or room not named after a white man. In this article, I will attempt to shine light on the few buildings that recognise the achievements of women or people of colour (POC) and briefly touch on how academia continues to fall short in diversity.

Fay Gale

The Fay Gale Studio is located on the ground floor of Hackett Hall. The studio is an educational enhancement unit named after Fay Gale, an Australian cultural geographer and emeritus professor. She was also an advocate for Indigenous and women’s rights. In 1978, she became the first woman to be appointed a professor at the University of Adelaide. And, in 1990, she became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia, where she contributed to significant advances in gender equity.

Mary Raine

Mary Carter was born in London and decided to migrate to Australia when she was 23, where she became a successful businesswoman managing hotels. After marrying Joe Raine and becoming Mary Raine, she made several contributions to create a medical school. In 1957, Joe suffered a fatal cerebral haemorrhage. Mary continued to donate funds to medical research. At the time of her death, her estate was worth about £1,000,000, making it one of the largest private donations ever made to an Australian university. As a thank you for her contribution to medical research, her name was immortalised in the Raine Study (1416 Parkway) just a few buildings away from Barry J. Marshall library.

Jean Bradley

The Bradley Studio at the Octagon has become a well-known place around campus. Located just next to Riley Oval, this studio at the Octagon is named after university lecturer and theatre producer Jeana Isabel Dorrington Bradley. Jean studied English and Philosophy at UWA and, shortly after

graduating, she became the president of St Hilda’s Dramatic Society, where she produced three plays: Macbeth, Five Birds in a Cage, and The Rehearsal. In the years to follow, she became a prominent figure in local theatre, producing over forty-five plays for the UWA’s dramatic societies and the oncampus Bankside and Octagon companies. She also contributed significantly to the development of the arts in Western Australia, especially through encouraging the teaching of theatre and drama in secondary schools.

Mary Lockett

In Block P of the QEII campus stands the Mary Lockett Lecture Theatre. The facility is named after Mary Fauriel Lockett, a pharmacologist who became the first woman to ever hold a chair in UWA. As the first woman in a male-dominated field, she was given little support but soon managed to attract funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the National Heart Foundation of Australia. Lockett also made several contributions to medicine. While working on the heart-lung-kidney perfusion model she identified a previously unknown steroid in cholesterol associated with heart disease. She also investigated the origin and treatment of oedema and contributed 185 papers to international scientific journals.

Findings

Before writing this article, I made a list of 101 buildings on campus. A few were not named after people, but most of them were. Out of that long list, I could only find fourteen named after women/POC. The problem with this lack of diversity is not that there aren’t any renowned alumni that are not white men. There are many. From Shirley Strickland in 1952 to, more recently, Elfie Shiosaki, there are several incredible people to recognise and be proud of. The problem is that academia continues to disproportionately celebrate the achievements of a narrow section of its alumni. It does not grant POC/women the same recognition that white men have had all throughout history.

Naming a building after someone is an immortalisation of that person, an act of gratitude that is meant to be a reminder for the generations to come. If UWA is committed to improving representation on campus, then that should be reflected everywhere, including the facilities in which we study.