Curtin University of Technology has appointed Professor Majella Franzmann as the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Humanities.
She joins Curtin from the University of Otago, New Zealand, where she was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Humanities) and Professor of Religious Studies. She will commence in May 2010.
Curtin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket said Professor Franzmann was exceptionally well qualified to lead the faculty.
“Professor Franzmann comes to Curtin with a strong understanding of issues in the higher education sector, an impressive research record and as an expert in religious studies,” she said.
“She will be a great asset to the faculty and I am very pleased to welcome her to our senior executive team.”
Prior to assuming her current position at the University of Otago, Professor Franzmann was the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Arts at the University of New England, NSW.
Professor Franzmann said she was delighted about the opportunity to lead Curtin’s Faculty of Humanities.
“I am excited to have the chance to be involved in Curtin’s strategy for achieving excellence and to lead the Faculty of Humanities in enhancing its profile nationally and internationally,” she said.
“I am especially pleased to be able to bring my experience in growing research capacity to the faculty.”
Professor Franzmann was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2001 and awarded an Australian Centenary Medal in 2003. She served on the Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2007.
She is widely published and has research interests in gnosticism, feminist biblical interpretation and Manichaean and Nestorian remains in China.
Professor Franzmann gained her PhD at the University of Queensland in 1990 with a thesis on the Syriac, Coptic and Greek texts of the Odes of Solomon. She was the recipient of the prestigious Humbolt Fellowship at the University of Tubingen, Germany, in 1992-1993. She also held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University from 1986-1987 with her research focusing on the figure of Jesus in the Nag Hammadi writings.
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