Catherine McArthur
cm.mcarthur@gmail.com
I was born in Sydney (Five Dock for the locals) in 1984. I lived there for six years with my family until we out-grew our house - four kids, two parents, lots of noise. So we moved to the Blue Mountains, about an hour outside of Sydney, what Sydneysiders like to think of as the sticks despite the fact that it's very suburban - very much like most of Sydney. I grew up there and went to a private primary and high school in the mountains, culminating in my HSC year, which I completed in 2002. I then went on to Sydney Uni in 2003 where I began a Bachelor of Liberal Studies before transferring to a Bachelor of Arts in 2005, majoring in English and History (and one unit off a Religious Studies major). I underwent my Honours year in English in 2006, which was torture, and I loved every second of it! I'm planning on taking a couple of years off to travel before continuing on with a PhD. I may also use this time to revise some of my academic work including my Honours thesis for publication on the recommendation of my Honours supervisor and role model Kate Lilley. I wrote my thesis on two films, Catherine Brelliat's Anatomy of Hell (French Arthouse) and Mike Nichols' Closer, examining the ways they use sex as dialogic and visual devices through which they question and challenge our conceptions of intimacy, penetration and knowledge of the self and the other. If anyone has seen these films and would like to discuss them further, or the content of my thesis, feel free to send me an email. Having said that I still haven't managed to bring myself to read my thesis since I submitted it. I'm giving it room to breathe... like good wine...leave a message