Resume

Doctor Jan (Johannes) Scherpenhuizen is an author/illustrator, editor, graphic novelist and academic. He studied literature, the history or ideas and religion at Deakin University as an undergraduate and wrote his honours year thesis on key figures in Modern German philosophy. He assessed fiction and non-fiction manuscripts for 15 years and acted as a writing mentor and literary agent while also working in freelance illustration. In 2015 he commenced a Doctor of Arts at the University of Sydney where he began to teach in 2019.

He taught a variety of courses for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, specialising in critical thinking, persuasive writing and media and communications. Jan is interested in critical thinking as applied to all major disciplines. He reads widely as an antidote to the limitations of specialisation. He is particularly interested in how ideas are negotiated in the digital age and the role of influencers and the public intellectual. His main goal is not so much as to hand over information in any particular sphere as to equip students with the ability to source good information themselves and critique ideas wherever they may encounter them.