Background

Martha is a Commonwealth Scholar and doctoral student in the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford. She has an MSt in World Literatures in English from Oxford and a BA(Hons) in English and History from the University of Melbourne, where she won the 2017 Percival Serle Prize for the best Honour thesis in Literature and the 2019 Rae and Edith Bennett Travelling Scholarship for masters study.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND APPROACH

Martha has worked with students from late primary to undergraduate level, including ESL students, and has facilitated literacy and creative writing programs with organisations in Australia, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. Cumulatively, she has over four years of experience as a tutor and educator, the equivalent of approximately 700 hours.

At Oxford, she tutors undergraduates in World Literature, postcolonial literature, autofiction and ecocriticism, as well as related topics within modern and contemporary literature. She is also an alumni mentor for the University of Melbourne, supporting undergraduates to make important course and career decisions. Most recently, she was a guest lecturer and led a writing workshop for young architects at the UK’s Architectural Association School of Architecture as part of a 2021 summer module on global care and connectivity after Covid-19.

Martha likes lessons to be very equal spaces between herself and her students, believing it is important to set goals and expectations and work together to achieve them. She brings experience and knowledge, but wants to support students to take charge of their own learning and academic ambitions. If a difficult concept suddenly aligns or, conversely, something is not working, Martha trust students to communicate this so that they can design the best way of working together. By working collaboratively through the structures and methods of learning, the unique approach that each student needs can be found to improve their grades, feel more confidence, find connection with the material, or even make that last jump between 99 and 100.

WHY TUTORING?

A series of excellent teachers and tutors in high school helped me to imagine literature first as a field of university study and, later, as a career. I’d like to do the same for my students, supporting them to envision whatever we study together not just as course content, but as part of an interconnected understanding of the world they are growing in – whether they want to study more literature later, or not.

My (current) favourite book is Passion by Annie Ernaux, but I tend to update frequently.