C.A.S. Hawker Scholars

Updated March 2025

Dr Rachel Buxton is currently Adviser and Special Projects at St Mark’s College, Adelaide – a residential college with a long association with C.A.S Hawker and the Hawker family. She joined the staff team at St Mark’s in 2020, having returned to South Australia after some twenty years studying and working in Oxford, England.

Rachel Buxton was a C.A.S. Hawker Scholar at St Mark’s College in 1993- 97, and served as College Club President in 1997, when she was also awarded the Collegians’ Prize. She graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1997 with First Class Honours in English Literature, and the University Medal.

Rhodes Scholar for South Australia for 1998, Rachel completed a Masters and a Doctorate in Oxford in English language and literature. Her thesis on the influence of Robert Frost on Northern Irish poetry – a topic inspired by a suggestion from the then Master of St Mark’s College, Robin Ashwin – was later published by Oxford University Press.

After completing her doctorate Rachel held Research Fellowships at Worcester College, Oxford (2001-02) and New College, Oxford (2002-05); she has also undertaken internships with McKinsey & Co. and at the UK Cabinet Office. While serving as Senior Lecturer in American Literature at Oxford Brookes University in 2005-09, Rachel completed an Executive MBA.

Rachel served as Senior Tutor of Merton College, Oxford, from 2015 to January 2020, and also held that role in 2009-10, serving in the interim as Domestic Bursar and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford (2010-15). As Senior Tutor at Merton, Rachel was responsible for managing all academic- and admissions-related activities at the College, and devoted considerable attention to supporting individual students in their academic and personal development.