2023 Ramsay Postgraduate Scholar, Dr Shirley Quo, from Perth, Western Australia, is studying for a Master of Arts (Liberal Arts) degree at St John’s College in Annapolis, USA.
St John’s is the third oldest college in the US and its students have been reading the Great Books since the College’s famed ‘New Program’ commenced in 1937. From Aristotle to Aquinas, Wordsworth to Woolf, Herodotus to Hegel, ‘Johnnies’ explore the greatest thinkers of all time in a challenging, interdisciplinary program.
Shirley has an extensive legal background; she has a doctorate in competition law from Monash University, has practiced law and is a former senior law lecturer. She discovered the Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship to St John’s through the Higher Education section of The Australian newspaper. Reading about St John’s, she was immediately attracted to the philosophy of the world-renowned liberal arts college and its adherence to the original idea of liberal education through the Great Books of Western Civilisation.
With an interest in incorporating a more interdisciplinary approach to her academic writing and contributing to thought leadership at think tanks in the future, she leapt at the chance to study there.
In her own words:
“My previous studies were focused on law and my work experience and doctoral thesis narrowed this focus even further to commercial law. As Nicholas Butler said, ‘an expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he/she knows absolutely everything about nothing’. I realised that I wanted to broaden my career path and research horizon including undertaking interdisciplinary research, for example, law and literature, law and politics, law and religion.
I applied for a Ramsay Scholarship because it gives me the opportunity to study the great books of Western civilisation at a top liberal arts college in the US and combine my academic and personal interests. I am particularly interested in the classical liberal tradition of law and politics and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. Studying for a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts at St John’s College allows me to engage in serious debate and conversation with tutors and fellow students about the first principles of a free society as they appear in law, literature, political thought and other aspects of culture.
The liberal arts program at St John’s College is interdisciplinary and its academic program crosses disciplinary boundaries. Last semester, I studied Literature as my core subject (segment) and Galileo as my elective (preceptorial). This semester, I am studying Politics & Society and Proust. The choice of preceptorials adds to the depth and breadth of the academic program. So far, I have read some of the works of the greatest thinkers of all time including Aristotle, Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Aquinas, Hobbes and Locke.
Unlike the Australian higher education experience (other than the Ramsay undergraduate courses which model themselves on St John’s), St John’s has small, discussion-based classes (less than 20 students) where students and tutors engage in a lively dialectic using these timeless texts as a basis for inquiry and conversation. The books studied have many things to say about different aspects of life and provide me with insight into the fundamental questions of humanity.
St John’s unique approach to teaching and learning helps to create an inclusive environment where there are no incorrect questions or answers although more questions may arise! Its academic program acts as the capstone to a process of spirited conversation and deliberation by giving me ample opportunity to vindicate my ideas and convictions.
I love living in Annapolis and being in a shared house with my fellow students including Ramsay Scholars Michael Connors, Sydney Rowe, Luca Stephen-Sujdovic and Mark Lovell. Our accommodation is a short walk from the College which is subleased to students by the College. It is affectionately known as the Oz Embassy. St John’s has an extensive program of extra-curricular activities and I have been fortunate to have participated in the US Naval Academy Leadership Conference in January 2024 as well as joining the Socratic Society, which is an intellectual venture between the College and our neighbour, the US Naval Academy, to discuss the great books, between Johnnies (students at St John’s) and midshipmen (students at the Naval Academy).
The College has a planetarium and observatory and I was lucky enough to be able to view a solar eclipse – the North American Eclipse – from the observatory on 8 April 2024 through eclipse glasses. It was an ineffable and unforgettable experience.
There have been many highlights but there are two standouts. The first highlight was in October 2023 when Ramsay Centre Academic Director, Professor Diana Glenn, visited Annapolis to meet the Ramsay Scholars studying at St John’s. I also took the opportunity to visit Washington DC during Professor Glenn’s visit to the US.
The other highlight was meeting Ramsay Board member and former Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Tony Abbott, in Austin, Texas, when he was invited by the University of Austin, Texas (UATX), to visit the new university as part of a special program designed by Ramsay Postgraduate alumnus, Ben Crocker, who works at UATX.
My favourite text so far is Homer’s Iliad, an epic poem in 24 books attributed to the ancient Greek poet. It is a great story across history and culture and tells us about what it means to be human and to live a richer and more meaningful life. Great stories are central to how we engage with others and the world around us. It tells us who we are, why we are here and defines our purpose for existence. It connects us to people in other times and places, to each other and to our innermost selves. Written in 750 BC, the Iliad is the oldest surviving work of Greek literature. That it is still read and discussed today reminds me of its continuing relevance and the remarkable constancy of human nature and the human experience. The Iliad emphasises humility, empathy and forgiveness drawn from the human experience of suffering. It is not about individual glory per se, but the reality of a shared humanity.
Reading the foundational works of classical Greek literature made me realise, inter alia, that there is no necessary nexus between law and morality. Yet the decisions of corporations and our investment choices do have moral dimensions. This realisation led me to write an article, ‘ESG and social licence: what does The Voice have to do with it?’ ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. The article was published in the Company Lawyer, a highly regarded academic law journal. It discusses the relationship between ESG and a corporation’s social licence to operate in the context of ‘The Voice’ referendum in Australia proposing to amend the Constitution to enshrine a First Nations Peoples’ Voice. It argues that the commercial telos of large public corporations is prima facie inconsistent with ESG concepts and a social licence to operate. From a legal perspective, it may also be a breach of a director’s duty to act in the best interests of the company where there is no direct nexus to a corporation’s business activities and no link to corporate benefit.
The Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship at St John’s College has given me the opportunity to immerse myself in the foundational works of Western civilisation from an Australian perspective. I am extremely grateful to the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because it would not be possible without the generous scholarship of AU$75,000 p.a. for two years.”
Interested in a Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship? Our scholarships support outstanding, thoughtful, and imaginative young Australian leaders to study at the world’s best overseas universities and are valued at up to AUD$90,000 p.a.
For more information go to: https://www.ramsaycentre.org/scholarships-courses/postgraduate-scholarships/
To read more about Shirley Quo and our other 2023 Ramsay Postgraduate Scholars go to: https://www.ramsaycentre.org/scholarships-courses/postgraduate-scholarships/2023-ramsay-postgraduate-scholars/
Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098/ sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org
For more information on the centre please visit our website: www.ramsaycentre.org