I have an MLitt degree in visual art and culture, and a PhD in cultural semiotics. I also have a dental degree and specialist qualifications in periodontics and oral plastic surgery. My background as an honorary visiting specialist clinician at Sydney Dental Hospital has provided years of experience treating First Nations people and war veterans. I have also worked as a volunteer at Redfern Community Centre, documenting indigenous children’s spoken stories generated from photographic images taken by themselves and their friends. I have published in medical sociology, cultural theory, fine art photography, dental science, and adult fiction. For the last six years I have worked as a freelance academic editor for several major European conferences, chiefly for those speakers whose first language is not English. I am an Australian citizen, and now live in Sydney.