Emma Barker
What is your involvement with the Monash Warwick Alliance?
I joined IATL as the Managing Editor for Reinvention: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research just as it became a joint project with Monash University as part of the Monash-Warwick Alliance, so I have been working with the Alliance since my very first day at Warwick. I later became Journal and Conferences Manager in IATL and now work with a team to run Reinvention and the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR) jointly with colleagues at Monash in a continuing Monash-Warwick Alliance sponsored collaboration, as well as supporting undergraduate research related projects in the department and wider university.
Give a brief overview of your background and how you came to the University?
After graduating with a degree in history from the University of Nottingham, I moved to London to start work for a book publishing company. I continued to work in publishing for the next 12 years, first in London and then in New York. After starting a family, I began to work part-time for the Association for Jewish Studies, before moving back to the UK and taking up a role in IATL here at the University of Warwick.
What are the top three highlights of working with the Alliance?
It’s been such a pleasure working with Alliance colleagues on these projects over the past 8 years and seeing the journal and conference grow and flourish. Highlights include watching our student teams collaborate across continents to develop the projects, seeing undergraduates across the world present such innovative and impressive research at the conference, and helping young researchers take the first steps towards publication of their work, setting them on the path for future success.
Can you share one fun fact about yourself or your work?
When I was working in Sydney in my gap year many years ago, I was duped into appearing in a practical joke TV show called Just Kidding through a job-ad in a backpackers hostel!