Category: General interest
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George Robertson Award winner Heather Fawcett reflects on more than 30 years in an ever-changing industry
Director of Higher Education at Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand, Heather Fawcett, was last week awarded a prestigious George Robertson Award by the Australian Publishers Association. Heather tells us about her experience in the Australian publishing industry and why she welcomes change. I’m thrilled to be a recipient of a George Robertson Award,…
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A tale of three schools
By Anthony Welch There has been much interest in the recent Schools that Excel series in The Age. The series aimed to reveal to readers which Victorian schools had improved the most in the past decade, according to factors including the number of students who progressed to university, or the median VCE scores. All of…
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Mock foods continued: colonial goose
By Bernadette Hince First published in the April 2019 edition of Ozwords ‘Colonial goose’ — that rings a bell! In 1970s Melbourne, our typically Australian Anglo-Celtic family of the time went to mass every Sunday and came home to a family ‘roast dinner’ for lunch, almost always a leg of lamb. We all loved roast…
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On Barrackers and Barracking
By Matthew Klugman In 1877 the Melbourne writer Marcus Clarke mocked celebrations of the coming greatness of white Australia in an essay on The Future Australian Race. Among other attributes, Clarke predicted that Australian men would become renowned for their ‘good lungs’ and strong jaws. But while Clarke was imagining the Australia of 1977, within…
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A new women’s network is tackling the big and small of gender inequality
A new network across Oxford University Press aims to tackle the issues that women face – from goal-setting to dresses with pockets. On International Women’s Day, Women’s Network founder Cassie Jane Buckley explains why such an initiative is so important. What is the OUP Women’s Network? The OUP Women’s Network is an employee-led initiative that…
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Word of the Month – March: Tassie tuxedo
noun: (also Tasmanian tuxedo) a quilted jacket filled with a light insulating material; a puffer jacket. In the online version of the Lonely Planet travel guide, some helpful advice is given to those contemplating a trip to Tasmania (or Tassie): A ‘Tassie tuxedo’ – aka a down-filled ‘puffer’ jacket – is mandatory Tasmanian garb in…
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Our favourite love quotes from the classics
To mark Valentine’s Day, we have trawled through the Oxford World’s Classics series to find our favourite words of love. “Love… it means too much to me, far more than you can understand.” – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy “This perfect indifference, and your pointed dislike, make it so delightfully absurd!” – Pride and Prejudice…
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Word of the Month – February: fair dinkumness
noun: reliability; genuineness; honesty; truthfulness. A headline for a recent online article reads: ‘Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister for fair dinkumness, is losing election options fast’. The article mentions a debate surrounding that most Australian of traditions, the sausage sizzle: At a more retail political level, the Prime Minister for fair dinkumness got himself involved…