PhD student reaches Top 10 of Asia-Pacific 3MT finals

Victoria University PhD candidate Sarah Mokrzycki became the first VU contestant to make it into the Top 10 of the Asia-Pacific 3-Minute Thesis finals last week in Queensland.

The annual 3MT competition judges PhD students on how well they present the essence of their research within three minutes to a non-academic audience.

Orators representing more than 50 universities came from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong for the Asia-Pacific finals.

Sarah’s presentation focusing on the problem with a lack of family diversity in children’s books was one of the few Arts topics to ever make it into the international 3MT finals, held annually since 2008.

 “I’m really proud of what I accomplished and very proud of representing VU,” she said.

Sarah’s research shows that Australian picture books persist in portraying ‘family’ as two parents with biological children, ignoring the country’s changed reality.

This portrayal does not represent Australia’s 51,000 foster families, 99,000 step families, or 961,000 single-parent families, among many other family possibilities.

Sarah triumphed over other VU 3MT contestants last month, winning a $1000 first prize and a trip to 3MT host, University of Queensland, to represent VU.  

Watch Sarah’s winning 3MT presentation in the VU finals.