Philippa Martyr

Dr Philippa Martyr was born in Perth, Western Australia, where she also currently lives and works. She spends most of her week at the University of Western Australia where she teaches women’s health and the history of pharmacology. On her off-days she does research and writing for the University of Notre Dame Australia.

Philippa’s main off-day research interest is the state of the Catholic Church in Australia. She’s been a weekly columnist for Sydney’s The Catholic Weekly (TCW) newspaper since 2019, which is impressive, given that most people said she'd last about three weeks. You’ll find a lot of these articles online on the TCW website. You’ll also find her popular academic work online in places like The Conversation (Australia).

Philippa likes plain speaking because it saves a huge amount of time, but she is also keen to temper that with courtesy and mutual listening. She basically talks for a living, so she’s very happy to come and speak at events.

An eternal student right down to the Birkenstocks, Philippa has a PhD in the history and sociology of medicine (UWA), a Graduate Diploma and Graduate Diploma Advanced in Psychology (Monash University), and a Graduate Certificate in Counselling Skills (Edith Cowan University).