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Michael Taylor (LLM, DPhil) is new to the WEA but has extensive teaching experience over a long career. He began over thirty years ago as a College Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy at Lincoln College, Oxford, and has since been actively engaged in teaching and lecturing at many leading universities around the world. Although his professional career mainly involved work in economics and economic policy, Michael has always retained his passion for philosophy, and has published several well received books on the nineteenth century thinker Herbert Spencer. He believes that philosophy helps us think more clearly about the problems of everyday life and the great questions that now confront us as a species.  Michael’s classes aim to be interactive, with all the members of the class engaged in a a voyage of discovery.

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Maria Teixeira-Alves studied Germanic Philology at Porto University in Portugal before coming to Australia where she graduated from the University of Sydney with a major in Linguistics and then undertook post-graduate studies in Vocational Education and Training and Public Relations at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Maria has led a career in the development and implementation of policies, training programs and resources in the NSW Department of Education and Training for 23 years. She also taught Portuguese to speakers of other languages in the Cambridge Institute in Porto and reading and writing to adults in the Portuguese Association in Sydney. Maria is a native speaker of Portuguese and has also studied French and Italian at the University of Sydney.

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Pernilla Thakur-Lundqvist holds a BA in Social and Economic Geography and an Advanced Certificate in Language Teaching. She has been working as a teacher since 2014 and previously served as Headteacher at the Swedish School in Sydney for 3.5 years, following more than a decade of involvement with the school. During her leadership tenure, she also initiated and strengthened a regional network for Swedish schools across APAC and Oceania, fostering collaboration and long-term strategic development. Alongside her educational background, she brings experience in sales and marketing, contributing strategic insight and strong communication skills to her teaching practice. Pernilla is a driven and dedicated educator who designs interactive, engaging lessons using varied methods to optimise language acquisition and long-term retention. She believes that anyone can learn - the key lies in discovering how each individual learns best.

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The Deaf Society of NSW. Tutor of WEA Sydney

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Sonya Thompson, MA, MALP, has taught in the subject areas of history and politics for over thirty years, much of that time with the WEA. Sonya holds postgraduate degrees in history, law and government. Her studies focussed on Australian history and international relations. Sonya believes the study of history is important because we need to understand the past to truly understand the present. Sonya embraces the opportunity the WEA provides to share learning with students and to exchange experiences and viewpoints. Sonya believes that learning should be about challenging views and perceptions, including her own.

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Dr John Tidmarsh was formerly President of the University of Sydney's Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation and currently Chairman, Executive Committee of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens.  He was previously  part-time lecturer in the Department of Archaeology. He is also Co-Director of the University's excavations at Pella in Jordan, and the ANU/University of Melbourne excavations at Jebel Khalid in Syria. He has also excavated in Greece and Cyprus. His special interests are in the Hellenistic period in the East (in which area he gained his PhD) and in the art and archaeology of the Islamic period. He has led numerous tours to Iran, Oman, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and other countries in the eastern Mediterranean.

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Elsa (BA) is an emerging researcher of classical philology and history. For several years, she has taught both young students and adults; she approaches her tuition with warmth and enthusiasm. She has received numerous awards for her academic work, including the Douglas Kelly Australian Essay Competition Prize (subsequently published in “Classicum” 49), the Audrey Meaney Prize, and the Ancient History Senior Essay Prize. Presently, she is undertaking an Honours thesis in Latin literature at the University of Sydney. Her ecocriticism- and posthumanism-informed scholarship examines ancient conceptions of the non-human world and their practical ramifications, with a particular focus on environmental ethics in Roman poetry. Her interests extend to modern literature, art history, the French language, Baroque music, and film.

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Toolbox Education. Tutor of WEA Sydney

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Graziella Trafeli (GDLIS - Graduate Diploma of Library and Information Studies, Australia) is a native speaker of Italian residing in Australia since the mid-1980s. She has led a vast range of courses in settings such as the WEA, the Dante Alighieri Society, Co.As.It, the Institute of Foreign Languages (University of NSW), Continuing Education at the University of Sydney, several local Sydney Community Colleges, and within the corporate sector. While teaching and working for Waverley Library, Graziella penned short stories as part of a collection of short novelle published by the Italian Consulate, Sydney in 1999, and a number of articles in the bi-weekly publication II Mondo and the Italian publication Melting Pot; from 1992 to 1996 she was a casual broadcaster, producer, and researcher at SBS Radio for the Italian Program. Graziella is an enthusiastic and outgoing teacher whose animated style encourages interaction from her students. She uses a variety of teaching methods and provides support materials to aid and assist student learning. For Graziella, studying a language prepares you to understand a great deal more than words or phrases, but more importantly, the culture and history of a different people.

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Hugh Tranter is an author and historian, with interests in creative writing and the research and examination of Australian history.