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ACADEMIC ASPIRATIONS: Dr Hume Johnson has found her niche in research & teaching

Posted by Hume Johnson PhD on September 27, 2009 at 11:30pm
The following is the featured article on me in the Weekend Edition of the TOWNSVILLE BULLETIN. The article was the highlight of the Career section called CAREER ONE.______________________________________________________________By BESSIE BLORE

HAILING from Jamaica, Hume Johnson has worked across the globe as a radio and TV producer and presenter, political consultant, speech writer, vocal coach and media publicist. But Dr Johnson has found her niche in academic research and lecturing at James Cook University.“Teaching, of course is a fundamental part of being an academic and I enjoy that aspect very much,” Dr Johnson said. “However, I believe research is where the academic can best make his or her mark and contribute to our fields. “It is research which ultimately drives teaching,” she said.Dr Johnson said she found her way into the academic industry because of the confidence and inspiration of several university professors and close friends.“The professor of governance at the University of West Indies steered me in the direction of doctoral study at a time when I did not know where my next professional step would be,” she said.“Reading the news had become routine and I no longer felt challenged and was anxious to get stuck into something else.”Dr Johnson said the move into teaching had been a tremendously rewarding experience. “Students learn best when they are in an intellectual space in which they are free to express themselves,” Dr Johnson said. “I believe in a classroom environment which stimulates curiosity, independent opinions and critical thinking.”Dr Johnson’s fascination for journalism started in high school and was fuelled by the explosion of radio and disk jockeys in Jamaica in the late 1980s. However her real passion for politics and international news was cemented by the powerful stories of conflict and war she saw in the Jamaican media throughout the Lebanese civil war and the Gulf War.“There was no confusion in my mind. I wanted to be an international correspondent of the likes of Peter Arnett,” Dr Johnson said. In 2006 Dr Johnson was completing her PhD on political science and public policy in New Zealand when she fell in love with Australia on a holiday to Melbourne.“So post PhD I included Australia on my list of countries at which to look for academic jobs,” she said. “I landed a job at JCU, Townsville and I thought it was a great opportunity.”Though she is kept busy with teaching Dr Johnson also runs her own communications consultancy and keeps in touch with the journalism industry via her political, public relations and media training blogs. Dr Johnson said she always tried to take her research ideas into the classroom and provide her students with the latest information on both local and international media.“It is really in the classroom that new theories and developments in research are best put to the test,” she said._______________________________________Hume Johnson PhD can be contacted at humejohnson@gmail.com

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