Writer, community worker & social justice campaigner
Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Writing & Cultural Studies)* / Bachelor of Arts in International Studies
My passion for altruism came from my parents, who worked in hospitals, helping people in some way every day. I chose writing because for me, the way to restore compassion and empathy in the world is through art. It’s rarely through politics.
Mark Isaacs is a writer, social worker, adventurer, campaigner for social justice, and author of 'The Undesirables: Inside Nauru'.
Since graduating from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2011, Mark has combined his passions for writing and advocacy, by documenting the stories of refugee experiences, both in Australia and internationally.
Mark has travelled to conflict zones in Mexico, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and to detention centres at Villawood and Nauru, to write about his observations and experiences. At great risk of personal persecution, he was among the first to publicly shatter the veil of secrecy around Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres, giving his eyewitness account into the climate of fear and suicidal despair for the detainees within.
Building on his work with the Edmund Rice Centre tracking returned asylum seekers in Afghanistan, Mark returned to Kabul in March 2017 to document the lives of a peaceful collective of around 80 youths with the shared goal of bringing about social change in their fractured and volatile country. Mark seeks to give renewed life to these stories in his third book, due for release by Hardie Grant in 2019.
Mark was also the winner of the UTS Community Alumni Award Winner for 2017. Read more about Mark's recent achievements.
