Catching up with Jack Migdalek

I have been teaching at Trinity for almost twenty years now. Wow - It seems like only yesterday! I think the reason that I have been teaching here for so many years is because to work with the student cohort that Trinity attracts is incredibly gratifying. It is fulfilling to be a part of a journey that students make during their year with us, and to witness the creative, communicative, and collaborative skills that they develop during that very formative year of young adulthood.

In addition to teaching Drama, I have been involved with Student Services and the provision of orientation activities (‘Team Skilling’ and ‘Trinity Tournament’). These sessions take the edge off the nervousness of starting out at a new institution, and provide students with enjoyable but challenging events through which they are able to meet others and forge friendships. I also run Pronunciation support sessions and courses to assist students with improving their spoken English communication skills.

In 2014 Jane Sykes and I were given the opportunity to teach master-classes in Malaysia and Singapore. It was wonderful to visit some of the schools from which our students hail, and to also meet alumni along the way.

It is thrilling to learn what Trinity FS alumni have been up to since their time at college. A couple of years ago my partner needed to have a heart operation. When I visited the hospital following the procedure, I was awestruck and thrilled to be greeted by one of the surgeons who performed the operation. Yes, Doctor Minz Cheah, a cardiac Fellow at the hospital, turned out to have been a Foundation Studies student to whom I had taught Drama some seventeen years prior! What a buzz to reconnect by chance like that.

Outside of Trinity, I completed a PhD on the Embodiment of Gender (2012), which has since been published as a book by Routledge (2016). I continue writing papers for journals and attending and presenting at conferences. In my spare time I enjoy the theatre (no surprise), doing yoga, pilates, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.