• Title
  Item 1: Professor Emma Johnston interview by Bianca Nogrady
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  1 May 2024
• Type of material
  Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories
• Reference code
  9681020
• Physical Description
  1 audio file (2 hr., 10 min.) - digital, WAV, stereo (48 kHz, 24 bit)
  
• Scope and Content
  During this interview, Professor Emma Johnston talks in detail about her family history, growing up by the water in Williamstown, Victoria with a sense of having learned to swim before she could walk. She discusses the influence of going to school internationally and learning other languages, uncertainty about what to do as she approached tertiary studies and the difficulty of choosing between philosophy of science or ecology for her career.
  
  Professor Johnston reflects on moving to Sydney in the early 2000s to take up her first continuing academic role at the University of New South Wales in the Marine and Coastal Studies Centre. She gives detailed insight into her approach to establishing her own academic and research program before having children Ameila and Antonin, the establishment of her research centres, her role as Director of the Sydney Harbour Research Program, the ways her academic experience benefitted her in her roles as Dean of Science and Pro Vice Chancellor UNSW and her transition to advisory roles in government and industry.
  
  A theme of the interview is challenges for women; Professor Johnston describes being the only woman in 2004 in biological, earth and environmental sciences and the most junior staff member. She outlines the influence of student politics on her interest in equity and diversity, her efforts in leadership roles to attract more women to the university, the challenges of not having her own women mentors and the abuse experienced by women climate scientists online. She speaks repeatedly about the role a lack of confidence in her own abilities has played in her career, embodying the difficulty she has observed in other women believing they are ready for their next role and seeking promotion.
• Copying Conditions
  In copyright:
  Copyright holder:: State Library of New South Wales
  Approval for reproduction required: Research and study copies allowed. Approval for publication required: from interviewee.
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Recorded at Forbes Street Studios, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, on 1 May 2024
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Johnston, Emma, 1973-
  
• Subject
  Johnston, Emma, 1973---Interviews.
  Women scientists--Australia--Interviews.
  Women in science--Australia--Interviews.
  Scientists--Australia--Interviews.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE21127117

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