Townson: Following in his prof’s footsteps

When Alex Townson checked his University of Victoria email account and saw three messages with the headline “congratulations” he was sure there had been some kind of mistake.

Townson finished his master’s in history in art last October with a thesis on early Islamic art. He’s now continuing his studies at the University of Oxford in England.

The emails that piled up in his account were to tell him that he was selected for the Lieutenant Governor’s Silver Medal for academic excellence and an outstanding thesis.

“I was really surprised,” says Townson. “Writing a thesis is such a huge task. It’s very hard to know what it looks like to somebody else reading it.”

His thesis advisor Dr. Marcus Milwright says Townson’s thesis was well above the level he’d expect from a master’s student, containing much which should be published.

“He’s really going to make an impact in his field,” says Milwright.

The thesis analyzed a building in Jordan called Mshatta. Townson made trips to the building’s site in the Middle East and Berlin where part of the building’s façade is stored in a museum.

“I wanted to see it in its true cultural context—as more than a two-dimensional slide, shot in perfect lighting,” he explained. “That’s how I got most of my ideas.”

He found art was a welcoming way to discuss cultural differences in an otherwise sensitive setting.

Through his studies at Oxford, he is following in his UVic advisor’s footsteps. Milwright studied in the same faculty there and even had the same advisor.

“I’m like a second-generation student for the professor,” Townson says. “To a certain extent I am representing UVic here and I want to do well because of that.”

He says his time at UVic prepared him well to compete at an international setting because of UVic’s global focus and supportive learning environment.

“Professors take an active interest in students’ lives there and help in every step,” says Townson, who noted that as a key factor that sets UVic apart. “That’s one of the main reasons I was successful.”