Helen Hopcroft’s year dressed as Marie Antoinette may be about to come to an end, but on Thursday she marked the end of an eight-year journey to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
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Graduating at the University of Newcastle’s (UON) Great Hall in a ceremony of 282 students, Ms Hopcroft brought her English and writing studies to a close.
Her PhD had focused on “basically fairy tales and the Arabian Nights” and her research was supervised by Associate Professor Caroline Webb.
Ms Hopcroft first gained an undergraduate degree – a Bachelor of Fine Arts – at the University of Tasmania, before gaining employment in the media.
She later headed to London, England, where she attended the Royal College of Art and studied a Master of Painting.
But after about a decade abroad, she returned to Australia and settled in the Hunter.
“They [UON] were very nice, they let me into the PhD program even though my prior degrees weren’t in English,” she said.
“Just because I had been working as a journalist and had a certain amount of writing experience.”
Ms Hopcroft, 46, said she took up the additional PhD studies in order to have more time with her young daughter.
She believes the extra level of study is sometimes misunderstood by employers.
“PhDs are, by their nature – hard,” Ms Hopcroft said. “You have to work autonomously at a high level and as you get further through your research, the number of people that know or are interested in your topic, narrows. When you go out into the job market and you tell people you have a PhD, there’s a bit of a disconnect. People don’t understand what that means and how it translates into employability.
“Basically every single PhD graduate has got a hell of a lot of grit. They’re resilient, they know how to stick at something and they can get stuff done.”
There’s no denying Ms Hopcroft’s ability to stick at something, given on April 30 she will have worn the Antoinette attire every day for the past year.
But it’s what she wants to get done next that she’s most excited about.
“My year as a fairy tale is coming to an end,” she said. “I’ve got some loose ends to tie up, but I really want to get a museum for Maitland.
“We’ve got an expression of interest in with Minister Victor Dominello at the moment for a beautiful building in East Maitland.
“We’re really hoping he makes a decision in favour of the Maitland community, which has grown so rapidly in the last few years.
“Unfortunately, spending on cultural infrastructure hasn’t kept up.
“So it would be great to have a museum for Maitland as something to celebrate the end of this project.”
