Single mum and emerging researcher, Louise Hawkins’ life has changed over the last few years.

The future definitely looks bright for the PhD candidate who has recently been awarded a scholarship which enables her to fast-track her studies by enrolling full-time.

From her research assistant work with Associate Professor Greg Whymark at Group SolutionS, CQU – an organisation involved in facilitating electronically supported group meetings – Ms Hawkins has developed an interest in electronic facilitation.

“In the last few years, academics within Group SolutionS have been involved in knowledge management and Activity Theory, so my research topic has been a combination of these interests,” Ms Hawkins explained.

Ms Hawkins is currently in the final stages of planning for her PhD data collection. Her PhD is titled ‘The knowledge building process: Using Activity Theory to aid facilitators’ knowledge articulation’.

She has presented papers at a number of conferences overseas and in-country. In 2005, she attended, presented and chaired a session at the ISCAR (International Society for Cultural and Activity Research) conference in Sevilla, Spain. She presented her proposed research at the Qual IT Doctoral Consortium at Griffith University, and this week she attended and presented at the ACKMIDS (Australian Conference on Knowledge Management and Intelligent Decision Support) conference in Melbourne.

“My goal is to complete my PhD and gain a full-time permanent academic position which will allow me to support my children with minimal external support, as well as providing my sons with a good role model,” Ms Hawkins stated.