Getting to know... Robert Nelson
Associate Professor Robert Nelson
Name: Robert Nelson
Title: Associate Professor
Faculty: The Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor – Learning & Teaching (OVPLT)
Campus: Caulfield
How long have you worked at Monash? 30 years
Where did you work prior to starting at the University? La Trobe University
What do you like best about your role? The invigorating cycle of talking, envisaging, creating and talking again – all on the topic of Better Teaching, Better Learning.
Why did you choose your current career path? It wasn’t planned but things lined up: my lifelong passion for education, plus creative approaches to the history of ideas. Once the opportunity appeared, it seemed to have been made just for me.
First job? University tutor
Worst job? Organizing a conference
What project are you currently working on and what does it involve? We’re building an Academic Orientation Online, which deals with learning about learning. For research, I’m planning a book on the history of learning.
What is your favourite place in the world and why? Home! I have family, cooking, art, music and conversation around me, two silly greyhounds, and all my books; everything that I need can be reached by bike, including Monash and lots of galleries in between, which I visit as art critic for The Age.
What is your favourite place to eat and why? Apart from home, Breizoz, a wee crêperie on Gertrude St in Fitzroy that has excellent galettes.
What is the best piece of advice you have received? Learn ancient languages as well as modern languages, and drop maths and science, even though you love them. This advice during first year was from my mum, who is a research chemist.
Tell us something about yourself that your colleagues wouldn’t know. I’m currently revising an article that attempts to explain the meaning of low notes in music.