Doctor Jonathan Lelliott
Nationality: United Kingdom
Year: 1999
Subject Area: Arts and Humanities
My grant was awarded towards my PhD in the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Dept at University College London. I completed that in Jan 2000 and the following month moved to Brisbane Australia with my then wife.
I loved working on the history of eugenics in the USA, on ethnicity issues and on the history of genocide, but decided academia wasn’t the career for me.
I worked for a while doing research and programme evaluation in government, was briefly a Ministerial Advisor, spent two years working as an industry researcher for a bank, worked in market research and am now back in banking as a public policy advisor. I also write and have published in the British Medical Journal, BBC History, New Statesman, Australian Jewish News and Australian Fabian News amongst others.
Before the PhD, I already had an MA and MSc. In Australia I have completed a Grad Cert in Journalism and recently completed a Grad Cert in Business. I have promised myself that five postgrad degrees is the limit - but I said that at three and four as well.
My main interest is the Australian Labor Party. I joined the party a month after arriving in Australia and have slowly built up my position within it, serving in local branches, campaign committees and policy committees. I am hoping to stand for election to State Parliament in the 2009 election, but nothing is certain in politics until it happens!