Crossing Cultures

Majeda Awawdeh is a mathematician and a mathematics lover, an academic, entrepreneur and advocate for women’s education. Born in the turbulent region of ‘1948 Palestine’, she is one of two million Palestinians who lived within Israel, navigating a complex identity under occupation. As a teenager, she experienced the rise of Islamic conservatism, shaping her early life and family dynamics. Majeda’s path has been extraordinary. In 2005, she received a scholarship to study a PhD in Mathematics Education and Cognitive Load Theory at UNSW, a pivotal moment that led her to Australia, and enabled her to escape an abusive marriage and pursue a life of independence. While completing her studies, Majeda raised three children and worked multiple jobs, demonstrating remarkable resilience. Following her academic career, she founded a business applying her research findings, and self-published 98 academic. Her entrepreneurial achievements have been recognised with the Telstra Businesswomen’s Award for Small Business in NSW. Majeda’s memoir, The Sky is Concave, offers a compelling story about defeating (she does not use the word surviving) domestic violence, reclaiming her voice, and navigating cultural and political challenges as a Palestinian woman in Israel and later in Australia. Written through the lens of the language of the universe, Majeda uncovers the deep beauty of mathematics.

Sean Jacobs is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian writer, and government relations and public policy specialist. He is a former Brisbane City Council election candidate, ministerial adviser, United Nations worker, international youth volunteer, and national water polo champion. Sean holds a BA (International Relations) from Griffith University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism from Macquarie University. He also holds qualifications from the Australian National Security College, the Australian Institute of Management and the University of New England.

Tyree Barnette is a transplant to Sydney, originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a member of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement and is featured in a few of their anthologies. Tyree has also written several pieces for SBS Voices which all culminated in his debut novel, Stolen Man on Stolen Land.

Durkhanai Ayubi is an Afghan-born writer. Her first book, Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen received global acclaim. Her new book She Who Tastes, Knows is a sweeping repositioning of shared identity and possibility, through a lens of her inherited food ways.

Rhianna Patrick is a Torres Strait Islander journalist, broadcaster and writer.