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Jennifer Strauss AM (born 30 January 1933) is one of Australia's pre-eminent contemporary Australian poets, an academic, [1] and pioneer of women's rights. Working in academia she has published several books of criticism and literary autobiography as well as editing anthologies and several volumes of her own poetry. Strauss is a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award amongst others.
Jennifer Strauss, née Wallace, younger sister to Mary and older brother to Bob, was born in Heywood, Victoria and grew up on a dairy farm. She was schooled at Loreto Convent, Portland and, later at Alexandra College, Hamilton, where she finished as Dux of School. She also scored second highest in the state's Year 12 Latin exam.
Strauss graduated with honours in English from Melbourne University [2] in 1954 where her poetry was published by the Melbourne University Magazine. Despite this, Strauss was denied eligibility to be considered for the Melbourne University Travelling Scholarship because "they wouldn't give it to a woman".
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Without an immediate opportunity for further academic pursuits, Strauss obtained her first teaching post with The University of New England, Armidale NSW where it was "very cold". After 2 years, Strauss eventually achieved sponsorship and attended the University of Glasgow for postgraduate study. The sponsorship was terminated in 1958 when she married compatriot Werner Strauss who was studying his PhD in Sheffield. "Marriage cancels all contracts" (at least as far as women were concerned) she was told, and her further studies ceased at that point. Instead, she took up a teaching post at a girl's grammar school.
Returning from England in 1959, she taught at Melbourne University and, from 1964 on, at Monash University in the Department of English where her specialties were medieval literature, Australian literature and feminist writing. She received her PhD from Monash University in 1991. Also in that year, she became an Associate Professor in the Department of English in 1991. It seems her late rise in hierarchical status was in large part due to her extracurricular activities. On her retirement in 1998, Strauss was made an Honorary Senior Research Fellow.
Throughout her academic life, Strauss consistently demonstrated commitment to social issues through office-bearing roles in professional and union bodies and reflected of these themes in her poetry. Strauss is a former president of the Australian Federation of University Women, later the Australian Federation of Graduate Women. She became a Member Emerita in 2011. She leaves an enduring legacy via the "Jennifer Strauss Fellowship for PhD students."
Despite, indeed because of, being a woman, Strauss became a working mother, having three sons (Simon, 1959; Jonathan, 1963; and Nicholas, 1967). These events were managed to occur – as far as practical – at the beginning of the academic summer holidays as no maternity leave was available. The establishment of maternity leave became one of the cornerstone achievements of Strauss' union activities.
As well as in Scotland and England, Strauss also lived for various periods in the United States, Canada and Germany. She has also been involved in a series for Video Classroom (1984-1993), discussing with Alan Dilnot (q.v.) various novels such as Potok's The Chosen and Austen's Emma, and the forms of poetry.
The author of a number of critical works, in particular on the poetry of Judith Wright and Gwen Harwood, and the editor of The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore (2004-2007), Strauss's own poetry has been published in many journals and in several collections, and her work has been widely anthologised. She has written a number of poems that 'are already anthology classics and are likely to remain so' (Geoff Page, 1995). Tierra del Fuego: New and Selected Poems (1997) was set has Victorian HSC English text for four years.
Recurrent themes in Strauss's writing are memories of a country childhood; motherhood and domestic issues; depression and suicide (especially among females); anti-war concerns; and the re-interpretation of old stories and myths.
In 2007, Strauss was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, for her work in education, her work as an academic in the fields of literature and poetry and for her work in woman's issues and industrial relations. [3]
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