Rate My Professor Kathryn van Beek

Kathryn van Beek is the Communications Adviser (Sciences) at the University of Otago, where she develops stories and content highlighting the research, work, and accomplishments of staff and students in the Division of Sciences. Her career spans communications roles at institutions including the University of Auckland, Otago Polytechnic, and Dunedin City Council. Van Beek earned a Master of Arts in creative writing from Victoria University of Wellington and a Doctorate of Professional Practice from Otago Polytechnic, with her doctoral thesis examining writing as a mechanism for positive social change. Additionally, she holds a bachelor's degree in writing for theatre from Unitec Institute of Technology and a Master of Arts in scriptwriting from Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters, completed in 2002.

In 2023, she held the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago, a prestigious literary residency during which she advanced her creative projects, delivered fiction writing classes to students and staff, judged the university's annual creative writing competition, and collaborated with other arts fellows. Her publications include the short story collection Pet (Victoria University Press, 2020), children's books Bruce Finds a Home (2018) and Bruce Goes Outside (2020), and co-editing the essay anthology Otherhood: Essays on not being a mother (Massey University Press, 2024). Key short stories feature "Frangipani" (Headland Prize winner, 2015) and "Emotional Support Animal" (third place, Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition, 2018). Earlier in her career, her play French Toast won Best Theatre at the 2002 New Zealand Fringe Festival and regional prizes from Playmarket. Other honors include the Otago Polytechnic Staff Excellence Award (2020), selection for international web fests for her series Misconceptions (2020), and the Winston Churchill McNeish Fellowship supporting a 2023 Hungarian writing residency. Van Beek has served on the Port Noise Liaison Committee and continues to contribute editorially and through public essays and interactive works such as The ManyEnding Story (2023).