University Medal awarded to Dr Laura Cerbus

Congratulations to Dr Laura Cerbus who was awarded the University Medal at the recent Melbourne graduation ceremony, held Friday 21 March 2025. 

The University Medal may be awarded by the Academic Board of the University to a student of the University who has completed a doctoral thesis of exceptional quality. Commissioned in 2016, each medal is hand-crafted by local Melbourne artist Michael Meszaros.

Dr Laura Cerbus completed a doctoral dissertation of exceptional quality which proposes a Reformed account of bodily beauty centered on the ascended body of Christ. The thesis, entitled Glorious Bodies: The Spirit, the Ascended Christ, and Aesthetic Formation, critically retrieves and interrogates the theology of Jonathan Edwards, in conversation with Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, in order to construct a theology of beauty. Dr Cerbus derives four characteristics of beauty from her reflection on the ascended body of Christ, human, hidden, wounded, and fruitful, arguing that the Spirit, beautifies saints’ bodies after the ascended body of Christ, a beautification that has both present significance and an eschatological orientation. Dr Cerbus’s thesis is praised for its critical acumen, its ambition, and its ability to wrestle with the complexities of asceticism, suffering, wounding and the physicality of the body. The thesis is described as evocative, stimulating and engaging.

Professor Liz Boase, Dean of the University’s School of Graduate Research, said:

“I’m delighted that Dr Cerbus was awarded the University Medal. Laura’s thesis received high praise from her examiners, and her work is already becoming recognised internationally through her conference presentations and publications.”