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CURRICULUM VITAE
Dr Cath Filmer-Davies

ADDRESS:
Bryn Estyn,
Mill Road, Boverton
Llantwit Major, Wales CF61 1UH

TELEPHONE/FAX:
01446 794967
Mobile: 17816 641088
Email: bedwyr@ammanal.fsnet.co.uk
Web: http://cathf.addr.com/index.htm

NATIONALITY: Australian (British ancestry)
National Insurance Number

RELEVANT SKILLS
Former Senior Lecturer in English,
The University of Queensland, Australia.
Have many years of experience teaching business and professional communication skills to students from other disciplines (electrical engineering, computer science, town planning); devised and implemented the university’s first online professional communication course, which also made use of face-to-face lectures featuring audio and video material.
Additional to my university teaching, I have taught communication skills to disadvantaged students through ‘Save the Children’, with some excellent results, and have tutored Aboriginal and Islander students at secondary and tertiary levels, also with success.
I have successfully devised and revised a number of courses, and have successfully developed courses that have been sold to other university departments and bodies.

Other Skills and Experience
Public Relations
I was Publicity and Promotions Officer for the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir, Inc, Ipswich Queensland, for four years, during which I was instrumental in (i) doubling the membership, (ii) doubling the audience size, (iii) appointing Australia’s top conductor, Dr Guy Jansen, who has a PhD in choral conducting (iv) successfully proposing and promoting the tour of Timothy Evans, Welsh tenor, to Brisbane in 2000 and (v) successfully promoting the visit to Brisbane of the Lions Choir with conductor Haydn James to Brisbane in 2001. I was involved in promoting the tour of the Côr Cymry Gogledd America to Wales, and the tour of the Côr Meibion De Cymru to Australia, as well as a special gala concert at St David’s Cathedral on 9 August (2002). My business has involved marketing, but more particularly publicity and journalism, radio and print. I am currently involved in the promotion and organisation of touring choirs and artists.

Broadcasting Experience
I have been a regular broadcaster on ABC Radio: 6124QR Brisbane and also regional ABC regional radio stations. In the summer of 1997, I hosted my own weekly talkback program (summer series) for 8 weeks. Currently I broadcast to Australia to radio station 4BC on issues in Wales (‘The Week in Wales’ -- each Thursday broadcasting live at 9.00pm Brisbane time). I also appear regularly on the BBC Radio Wales Sunday Program ‘Something Else’ with Patrick Hannan. I appeared on the HTV-Wales documentary series The Welsh in Australia, and organized the events televised in that segment.

Writing Skills
My writing skills in English are superior. I hold a PhD in English, and have published ten books and monographs, and literally hundreds of pieces of journalism, short stories, articles, poems, and feature articles, as well as academic articles. My oral skills in English are superior, having engaged in public speaking, seminar presentation, and radio work for many years. I have a pleasant voice for radio and speaking. I have also been a book reviewer for The Courier-Mail (Queensland state daily) and The Australian (national newspaper), as well as for provincial newspapers such as The Queensland Times. Most recently I have had work accepted and/or published by The Western Mail, The North Wales Daily Post, The Llanelli Star, Cambria Magazine.
In December 2002, I was the only Australian, the only person from Wales, the only one over 45 years, and the only person whose material appeared twice, in a ‘Voice of the Nation’ writing competition held by the Daily Express Newspaper; I was one of six finalists chosen from 5,000 entrants in the competition.

Oral Communication Skills in English
As a practiced and popular public speaker and broadcaster, I have proven superior oral communication skills in English. Seminars I have given and courses I have run have been rated for presentation at ‘5’ (excellent) by more than 95 percent of those who have attended. I am accustomed to multi-media presentations and can address audiences of all ages.

Welsh Skills
For some years, in the absence of a reliable teacher, I have been struggling to teach myself Welsh. My reading skills are not bad; in fact I was able to handle the translations for my recent book Eisteddfod: A Welsh Tradition in Australia alone. But I have had no-one to converse with and no-one to explain the grammar. I have placed fluency in Welsh high on my personal list of priorities and it is one of the reasons I have come to live in Wales. In fact I was drawn here by a love of the culture and music, and I have written books and articles about Wales. I have enrolled for some intensive day and weekend school through Coleg Gwent and am committed to becoming fluent in Welsh; I am proud to say my skills are improving.

Music Skills
Although I am far from a competent musician, I have achieved the Australian Music Examinations Board levels (passed with credit) at Sixth Grade level in both pianoforte and singing. I have been a member of several choirs singing a range of popular, traditional and classical music, and a sometime solo performer of folk songs. As a member of the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir, I taught the choir the Welsh for the Male Welsh Hymn section of the Queensland Eisteddfod (they took out first place in 1999 and second in 2001), and for other performances at Welsh festivals. I have been a regular subscriber to Opera Queensland.

Computer Skills
I am completely self-taught, never having done a course in my life. But I have excellent skills in Microsoft Word, all versions; WordPerfect, all versions; I have skills in web-page development and can easily familiarise myself with most straightforward software. I am not a touch-typist, again never having attended a course; but I can type fairly fast and accurately nevertheless and can create documents of all kinds.

QUALIFICATIONS
Degrees:
Bachelor of Arts, University of Queensland, 1981.
Majors: English Literature (Chaucer to twentieth century), Language and the Media. Modern History. Minors: Law, Government.

Master of Arts (Qualifying), University of Queensland, 1982. Gained equivalent of First Class Honours.
Special Areas of Study/Research: Literary Theory from Plato to Postmodernism; Shakespeare; Milton; Henry James; Metaphor and Semiotics; C.S. Lewis.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Queensland, 1985.
Thesis Title. The Polemic Image: The Role of Metaphor and Symbol in the Rhetoric of the Fiction of C S Lewis.

Other Qualifications
General Nursing Certificate, Nurses’ Registration Board of Queensland, St Stephen’s Church Hospital, Maryborough, Queensland 1972. I have worked as a registered nurse at:
St Stephen’s Church Hospital, Maryborough Queensland
Kingaroy General Hospital, Kingaroy, Queensland
Nanango Hospital, Nanango Queensland
The Royal Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland (student midwife)
St Helen’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland (now the Wesley Hospital)
Blue Nursing (domiciliary) Service, Brisbane, Queensland
St Luke’s Domiciliary Nursing Service
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POSITIONS HELD
Senior Lecturer in English, The University of Queensland 1994-2001
Lecturer in English, The University of Queensland 1992-1994
Specialist Tutor in English, The University of Queensland 1986-1992
Teaching Assistant in English, The University of Queensland, 1983-1985

TEACHING AND EXAMINING AREAS
(1) I developed the following courses:
Writing and Style (later Academic Writing)
The Rhetoric of Popular Fiction (later Popular Fiction B) Science Fiction and Fantasy
Business and Professional Writing (an online and multi-media course for electrical engineers, computer scientists and other engineering students). To implement this I was given $10 000 by the Faculty of Arts.
(2) I have taught and examined in the following courses (C* refers to the fact that I also convened and helped develop them):
Writing and Style C*; Introduction to Communication Studies C*; The Prose of Persuasion in the Media; Popular Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy C*; Nineteenth-Century and Victorian Literature C*; Renaissance Literature C*; Introduction to British Literature C*; Milton; Shakespeare; Modernism; Romantic Literature.
(3) I devised and taught the following Continuing Education Courses:
Communication for Nurses; Myth and Theology; King Arthur’s Family Tree; Meet the Celts; Get Yourself Published; How to Write a Thesis; Science Fiction and Fantasy; How to Get Along with People You Can’t Stand; Winning Words; What Should Your Child Read?; Learning to Love Literature, or Why Not Take a Book to Bed?

I was also marker and examiner for the School of External Studies at the University of Queensland from 1983 until its closure in 1990.

PRIVATE BUSINESS
Since 1985, I have run private businesses in which I have successfully carried out the following:
Writing: fiction, non-fiction and poetry, feature articles and news articles
Editing and assessing typescripts for the Queensland Writers’ Centre and privately. Several of my clients have been published.
Broadcasting: on issues of myths and legends associated with popular holidays and celebrations – Easter, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Halloween, May Day etc.
Broadcasting on issues concerning the media and popular culture.
Broadcasting on issues in Wales and Britain (currently)
Publishing for authors who wish to self-publish.

RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE
1979-1985: Tutor for Save the Children Fund, Brisbane Australia; Tutor for Aboriginal and Islander Assistance Scheme; tutor for Indonesian students under the Colombo Plan Scheme; private tutoring.
January - December 1988: Tutor, Aboriginal and Islander Support Scheme. (Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Training and the Department of Social Security).
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AWARD, GRANTS, PRIZES AND FELLOWSHIPS:
Commonwealth Post-Graduate Research Award, January 1983 - July 1985.
Walter and Eliza Hall Travelling Scholarship, April 1983.
Research Fellowship, Hatfield College, University of Durham, England. Michaelmas Term, 1988.
Special Projects Grant, Humanities Group, University of Queensland. $3,000. 1989. To prepare collection of essays, The Victorian Fantasists.
Special Projects Grant, Humanities Group, University of Queensland. $5,000. To prepare a book on Scepticism and Fantasy.
Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1990.
Research Fellow, Coleg Prifysgol Dewi Sant, Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan, Wales. Michaelmas Term, 1992-93.
Department of Education, Employment and Training (Commonwealth)Consortium Grant to run ‘Get Yourself Published’ Seminars. $7000. 1992.
Honorary Research Associate, Centre for Research and Scholarship, Coleg Prifysgol Dewi Sant, Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan, Wales. For an initial period of four years from October, 1993.
Honorary Life Fellow, The Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia, by vote at Newman College, University of Melbourne, 1994.
The International Mythopoeic Society's Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies (1994) awarded at American University, Washington DC August 1994 for Twentieth-Century Fantasists.
ARC Research Travel Grant $4000 for Fantasy Fiction and Welsh Myth) 1996.
Senior Research Fellowship, Department of Theology, University of Glasgow,
Summer term 1997.
University of Queensland Research Grant $6500 to prepare Eisteddfod: A Welsh Tradition in Australia: August 2000
Ipswich City Council Award for ‘Outstanding contribution to Welsh Heritage in Ipswich’, 2001.

PUBLICATIONS:
Books
(Note: Starred items indicate research into Welsh material for this book/article)
As Editor:
• (Ed) The Victorian Fantasists: Essays on Culture, Society and Belief in the Mythopoeic Literature of the Victorian Age. London: MacMillan, 1991.
• **(Ed) Twentieth Century Fantasists: Essays on Culture, Society and Belief in the Mythopoeic Literature of the Twentieth Century. London: MacMillan, 1992.
• Fantastic Journeys: A Festschrift for David Lake and John Strugnell. Brisbane: Red Dragon: 1995.
• The Enchanted Wood: Proceedings of the Conference of the Mythpoeic Literature Society of Australia. Brisbane: Univ. of Qld. 1965.
• The Ring Bearer: J of the Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia 1984-1990.
• Journal of Myth, Fantasy and Romanticism 1994-1998.
• Keeping in Touch. Magazine of Christian Life Centre, Brisbane Australia. 1977-79.
• Imaginings: Proceedings of the Conference of the International Mythopoeic Society 1992. Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1993.

As Sole Author:
• The Fiction of C S Lewis: Mask and Mirror. London: Macmillan, 1992.
• **Scepticism and Hope in Twentieth Century Fantasy. Popular Press (Center for Popular Culture), Ohio USA. 1992.
• **Fantasy Fiction and Welsh Myth: Tales of Belonging. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996.
• Towards a Good Death: The Fantasy Fiction of C.S. Lewis. A Babel Handbook
Newcastle, Australia: Nimrod Press, 1999
• **Eisteddfod: A Welsh Tradition in Australia Brisbane, Australia: Seren Press, 2001
• **The Eisteddfod: A Comprehensive Guide. Cardiff: St David’s Press 2003.

Chapters in Books or Monographs
"Introduction" to The Victorian Fantasists.
"Dreaming Each Other: Fantasy, Metaphor and the Media" in Twentieth- Century Fantasists.
**"Atseiniau o ddyddiau gynt: Welsh Myth and Culture in Contemporary Fantasy" in Twentieth Century Fantasists, see above.
"Introduction" to The Victorian Fantasists.
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci: Cultural Criticism and the Mythopoeic Imagination in George MacDonald's Lilith." In The Victorian Fantasists.
"The Spectre of Self in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations". In The Victorian Fantasists.
"In Ten Seconds this Paper will Self Destruct: Recent Critical Trends and a Mythopoeic Response". In The Enchanted Wood: Proceedings of the First Annual International Conference of The Inner Ring -- The Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia. Ed. Kath Filmer. St Lucia: English Dept., The University of Queensland, 1985.
"The Polemic Image: Metaphor and Symbol in the Fiction of C S Lewis". In The Taste of the Pineapple and Other Critical Essays. Ed Bruce L Edwards, Jr. Bowling Green, Oh.: Popular Press, 1988.
"Why is a Raven Like a Holocaust? Cosmic Riddles and Psychological Truth in Lewis Carroll's Alice and Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker." In The Nameless Wood: Victorian Fantasists. Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of The Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia. Ed J.S. Ryan. Armidale, NSW: Department of English, University of New England, 1986.
"Charles Williams: A Prophet for Postmodernism: Skepticism and Belief in The Place of the Lion." In Essays on Charles Williams. Peter Schakel and Charles Huttar, eds. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996.
‘C.S. Lewis and the Baptised Imagination’ in Reading the Classics with C S Lewis. Thomas L Martin, Ed., Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Academic, 2000. 285-297.
‘Presence and Absence: God in Fantasy Literature’ in Christianity and Literature. Summer 1997.
And many more subsequent articles in books.

Articles in Refereed Journals
"An Allegory Unveiled: J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." Mythlore 50, 13:4. Summer, 1987.
"Beware the Nothing: A Reading of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story". Mythlore 46, 12:4. Summer, 1986.
"From Belbury to Bernt Arse: The Rhetoric of The Waste Land in Lewis, Orwell and Hoban". Mythlore 52, 14:2. Winter, 1987.
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci: Cultural Criticism and the Mythopoeic Imagination in George MacDonald's Lilith" (shorter, and different paper to one of the same name in the collection of essays cited above). In Mythlore 58, 15:4, Summer, 1989.
"The Masks of Lilith: C S Lewis's Reading of George MacDonald's Lilith." In CSL, Journal of the C S Lewis Society. Winter, 1987.
"Neither Here Nor There: The Spirit of Place in George MacDonald's Lilith and C S Lewis's Till We Have Faces. In Mythlore 59.16:1, Autumn 1989. Also to appear in The Ring Bearer: Journal of the Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia. 7:2, Summer, 1989.
"The New Paganism: Religious Iconography in Television News Broadcasts". In Australian Religion Studies Review. 2:2, August 1989.
"Of Lunacy and Laundry Trucks: Deconstruction and Mythopoesis". In Literature and Belief. Ed. Bruce L Edwards, Jr. Provo, Utah: BYU Press. 1989.
"A Place In Deep Heaven: Figurative Language in C S Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet." In Jahrbuch für Literatur und Asthetik, Band 3, 1985.
"Reconstructing Wells, with a Few Shots at Shaw: C S Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet". In Jahrbuch für Literatur und Asthetik, Band 7, 1988.
"Speaking in Parables: A Semiotic Analysis of C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in Mythlore 40, Autumn, 1984.
"That Hideous 1984: The Influence of C S Lewis's That Hideous Strength on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four" in Extrapolation 26:2, Summer, 1985.
"The Inklings: A Meeting of Minds". The Ring Bearer: Journal of the Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia. 1:4, Summer 1983.
"C S Lewis: The Significance of his Writings Today". Ring Bearer 2:1, Autumn 1985.
"Dreaming Each Other: Television News and the British Conservative Party Leadership Crisis of 1990" in The Journal of Myth, Fantasy and Romanticism (formerly The Ring Bearer) 9:1, 1991.
"The Image of Self: A Semiotic Analysis of C S Lewis's Till We Have Faces". Ring Bearer 3:1, Autumn 1986.
"J R R Tolkien as Critic". Ring Bearer 5:3, Spring 1987.
"Who Killed Boy Staunton and Does it Matter? The Mythopoeic Art of Robertson Davies: The Deptford Trilogy." Ring Bearer 6:3, Spring 1988.
"Neither Here Nor There: The Spirit of Place in George MacDonald's Lilith and C S Lewis's Till We Have Faces". Ring Bearer 7:2, 1989.
**"Scepticism, Fantasy and the Articulation of Hope". Ring Bearer 8:1, 1991.
"Religion and Romanticism in Michael Ende's The Neverending Story". Mythlore, Winter 1991.
**"Chwedl Gymraeg a Llenyddiaeth Gyfoesol: Welsh Myth in Contemporary Literature" in Journal of Myth, Fantasy and Romanticism 1:3, Dec. 1992.
**“Chwedl Gymraeg a Llenyddiaeth Gyfoesol: Welsh Myth in Contemporary Literature” (revised and expanded).Mythlore LXXIII, 19:3, 1993.
“King Arthur in the Marketplace, King Arthur in the Myth” in Mythlore LXXXI, 21:3, Summer 1996.
**“The Place of the Pig-Keeper: Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Series”
In the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual International Conference of the
Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia, ed. Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice. Humanities Dept., Australian Catholic University, Christ Campus, Melbourne. 2001.
**“Metaphysics and Metafiction in Stephen Lawhead’s Song of Albion Trilogy” in: Amazing Quests: The Journey into Growth, Essays Presented to David Lake and John Strugnell, ed. Cath Filmer-Davies (Brisbane: Red Dragon, 1996).
And numerous subsequent publications, including articles in Christianity and Literature; Literature and Religion, and the Journal of Theology and Literature.

Other Publications
Numerous short stories, poems, newspaper feature articles, plays for children, theological articles, book reviews, academic and other journalism, in various publications which include:
The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail, The Australian, The Australian Women’s Weekly, the New Idea, Woman’s Day, New Day International, Encounter, The Catholic Leader, Imago, Catalyst, Anglican Focus, The Daily Express (UK), The Western Mail (Wales), The Llanelli Star (Wales) The Daily Post (Wales), Cambria The National Magazine for Wales (Wales).

COMMUNITY WORK
Includes establishing and directing youth theatres (for 25 years) at Bundaberg (the first in country Queensland), Maryborough, Kingaroy, Ashgrove and Herston, Q; broadcasting including a weekly ‘Myths and Legends’ slot ABC Radio Newcastle NSW during 1995, my own talkback program for 10 weeks during the ABC’s summer season 1997; currently a regular on BBC Radio Wales ‘Something Else’ program with Patrick Hannan; currently regular on ABC Radio Geraldton Western Australia, Tuesday mornings; currently (from time to time) Foreign Correspondent for 612 4QR ABC Radio Brisbane, Australia; manuscript assessments for the Queensland Writers’ Centre; private writing consultancy; speaking at Rotary and other community societies’ meetings; liturgical assistant in the diocese of Brisbane, Q., membership of choirs (Imogen; St John’s Cathedral Women’s Choir, the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir, for which I was Publicity and Community Relations Officer), public speaking, co-worker in drop-in centre for elderly 1990-91, tutor for Save the Children Fund, tutor for Aboriginal and Islander students, member of One People of Australia League.

HOBBIES, INTERESTS AND OTHER SKILLS
Proofreading and editing, layout and design, publishing, manuscript evaluation, criticism and review of books and the arts, travel, myths and legends (including urban myths), theology and music; most recently (last 15 years) Welsh myth, legend, history and culture.

SPECIAL LINK:
Information about Defamation and Libel Laws:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/other/copyright/session3/