Ten presenters, ten absorbing research subjects, three minutes each — and one winner.
Griffith University’s 2026 Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Final delivered on all fronts at South Bank’s QCAD Lecture Theatre.
In a closely fought final, the judges found PhD candidate Yasmin Khan to have delivered the best presentation for her subject titled ‘Behind the Bridal Henna’.
The runner-up was Minh Nhan (Griffith Business School) for his presentation titled ‘Virtual Tourism for Workforce Wellbeing’.
While there was a feeling in the room that Ms Khan would present strongly, the Arts, Education and Law candidate admitted the result caught her off guard.
“I was surprised, actually,” she said.
“I’ve always got confidence in myself, but I was surprised, and pleasantly surprised.”
Ms Khan’s research examines the experiences of South Asian women in Australia and the domestic abuse they can face — not from husbands, but from mothers-in-law.
A series of podcasts was her method of shining a light on this issue; they’ll be made available at the end of her thesis journey.
“The old trope of the nasty mother-in-law was always there, but all these women were coming to me and saying, ‘It’s not really my husband who’s the problem — it’s my mother-in-law,’” she said.
“I thought there’s got to be something in that.
“Nobody had researched it.
“Nobody had looked at what these women had been through — what sort of humiliation and disrespect they’d experienced.”
Her presentation gave voice to women often cloistered within communities bound by honour and respect, and to behaviour that carries new weight in an Australian context.
“It’s all right if you’re doing that back home, because nobody cares,” she said.
” But if you’re doing that in Australia, a lot of those things are against the law..
“These micro-aggressions or macro-aggressions are all of a sudden illegal.
“How do we navigate our way through that system?
“And what are these women actually saying?”
Far from struggling to find participants, Yasmin was inundated with women calling from as far away as Perth to share their stories.
“They weren’t only willing to tell their story — they wanted to break the cycle and they wanted to educate people,” she said.
“They were quite proud, not of what they’d been through, but of the fact they could now stand up and fight back against the patriarchal system that put them in that situation.
“Something’s got to break the cycle otherwise you’re going to be the nasty mother-in-law next time for your daughter-in-law.”
Ms Khan paid tribute to her supervisors, Professor Susan Ford, Associate Professor Heather Anderson and Dr Zoe Rathus, who attended each of her heats, along with colleagues across the humanities.
“They’ve been very, very supportive,” she said.
”It’s been terrific — they’ve all been great.”.
A woman of faith, she also thanked “the good Lord above — I’m sure my mother was sitting in the audience praying immensely. I know I was praying.”
With her win, Ms Khan takes home $1,500 and will represent Griffith at the Asia-Pacific 3MT Final in October, aiming to become the University’s second-ever winner of the overall title after Sienna van Rossum’s 2024 triumph.
“Let’s hope I can represent Griffith really well,” she said.
“I intend to put my best effort in to do so.”
