Rate My Professor Maria Tumarkin

Maria Tumarkin is an Associate Professor in Creative Writing in the School of Culture and Communication within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. She serves as Joint Head of Program for Creative Writing. As a writer and cultural historian, Tumarkin holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a PhD in cultural history from the University of Melbourne. Her work bridges cultural history and creative practice, focusing on traumascapes, memory, and the power of places transformed by tragedy. She teaches creative writing and contributes to research initiatives such as the Research Initiative on Post-Soviet Space.

Tumarkin is the author of several acclaimed books of ideas. Her debut, Traumascapes: The Power and Fate of Places Transformed by Tragedy (Melbourne University Publishing, 2006), was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in the category for a first book of history. Subsequent works include Courage and Otherland, both shortlisted for literary prizes. Her fourth book, Axiomatic (Brow Books, 2018), won the Best Writing Award in the Melbourne Prize for Literature. Axiomatic is a boundary-shifting fusion of thinking, storytelling, reportage, and meditation, taking as its starting point five axioms—'Time Heals All Wounds,' 'History Repeats Itself,' 'Those Who Forget the Past are Condemned to Repeat It,' 'Give Me a Child Before the Age of Seven and I’ll Give You the Woman,' and 'You Can’t Enter The Same River Twice'—to explore how beliefs about the past shape the present. Tumarkin has published scholarly works such as 'Crumbs of Memory: Tracing the "More-than-Representational" in Family Memory' and essays including 'Memory Work' (2022) and contributions to Meanjin (2021). Her essays and reviews appear regularly in The Age, The Australian, The Monthly, and other publications. She engages in wide-ranging artistic collaborations and serves as a discipline adviser and program director. Tumarkin's contributions have earned recognition through shortlistings and awards, influencing discussions in cultural history and creative writing.