Orion community heads

Andrew Connor

Andrew is a Lecturer in Ancient History in the Faculty of Arts, where he teaches a range of classes on the history, archaeology, and language of ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. His research focuses on what happened to the temples of Egypt after the death of Kleopatra, and how they interacted with the new Roman authorities. He has been part of the Non-Residential College community since 2016, when he started as deputy head of Orion, before taking over from the inestimable Louise Broadbent as Head in 2018. He grew up and did his schooling in the United States, with some time living in Scotland and Greece, before moving to Melbourne in 2015, which has given him plenty of time to explore and embrace our wonderful city and state.

When Andrew is not teaching or researching the ancient world, or cheering on our Hunters, he enjoys reading (especially learning about Australian history), looking for birds, and barracking for the mighty Borough of Port Melbourne Football Club in the VFL and VFLW.

Lauren Watson

Lauren is a lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences. She has been at Monash since 2012, all the way back when she started her Bachelor of Arts as a terrified first year. Since then, she has been an adviser for NRC, a Psychology Honours student, a Psychology PhD student, and now a part of the teaching team and a College Head for NRC. Lauren is interested primarily in Taylor Swift. Other hobbies include travelling, reading, writing (she is writing her first fiction novel right now!), patting animals, and kayaking. She is an amateur kayak enthusiast, as she likes to say.

You can chat to Lauren about anything from Taylor Swift, books, animals and kayaking to the more academic things like what it’s like to study psychology (undergrad, Honours, PhD) or just what it’s like to generally do a research PhD and be an academic. She can also cover things like study tips, procrastination help, life advice, etc.