Congratulations to Alum Nick Strole (PhD 2019) who has recently been named Senior Tutor and Teaching Specialist, the equivalent of Teaching Assistant Professor, at the University of Melbourne in Australia!

Nick is a researcher and instructor for French language, literature, and culture courses at all levels, with particular emphasis on contemporary theatre and media in French, digital humanities, and collaborative learning.

Nick's creativity and resilience during the pandemic allowed him to seek out opportunities he may have not considered otherwise. He worked on the digital humanities project, Corr-Proust, as a graduate and as a post-doctoral research assistant for Associate Professors François Proulx and Caroline Szylowicz at the University of Illinois. With increased visibility and some digital humanities experience under his belt, Nick applied to multiple academic positions, including a temporary teaching and translation position in French at the University of Melbourne.

Since moving to Australia in April 2021, he has been invited to give lectures at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne on his digital humanities research and the Corr-Proust translation platform. He plans on incorporating his digital humanities skills into his own research on contemporary French and Francophone theatre in the future.

The most important asset he learned at the University of Illinois was the importance of collaboration within a single department and networking with faculty in other departments and universities. He learned to reach out to colleagues, including established academics, on possible future projects and research or teaching opportunities at their universities. These collaboration and networking skills also encouraged him to publish more and to compete for postdoctoral fellowships. In his teaching and coordination roles in Australia, he has been harnessing his mentorship skills learned from his advisor, Associate Professor Marcus Keller, and other faculty in the Department of French and Italian at Illinois. He is especially proud of having taught and supported many students who struggled in hard lockdowns in Melbourne and Sydney.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Nick, and all the best with your promising career!