Tereza is a professional historian. She has a Master of Applied History degree, specialising in ‘Biography and Life Writing’ from Monash University. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a double major in History, from the University of Sydney, and Honours from Monash University. She also has a Graduate Diploma of Education, qualifying her to teach English and History, from the University of Melbourne.

In the Master of Applied History degree, Tereza specialised in ‘Biography and Life Writing’ and was trained to go and work amongst the public. What is Biography and Life Writing? ‘Biography’ is telling a person’s life story; ‘Life Writing’ is telling a part of their life story. A part of a life story might be someone’s migration to Australia story, or their war story, or workplace story, or small business story etc. Tereza is also trained to tell a community’s story, for example, its frontier or settlement history, or its experience of fire or flood going through its town, or a drought impacting its town.

Through the Master of Applied History degree, Tereza gained some specialized knowledge and skills, such as:
• the neuroscience of how memory works, and how to sensitively work with people who have difficult or traumatic memories they want to recount;
• the practical skills required to undertake professional oral histories;
• the literary skills to write histories that are still academically rigorous, but are written in a way that makes them interesting and engaging for wider audience too

As a university-trained historian, Tereza also has a broad knowledge of historic trends and events over time and in time. She also has the skills to undertake historical research, to analyse and interpret materials, to historically contextualize, to draw conclusions, to write history, to edit and proof-read history, and to present history in a variety of formats. This includes hard copy books, on-line books, digital stories and podcasts. Tereza utilises continual professional development to keep her knowledge and skills current.