It has been an incredible month of achievements for the Faculty, with our reimagined Bachelor of Arts degree winning a major national award, our researchers receiving grants, book awards and significant appointments for our academics.

Macquarie wins AFR’s Higher Education Award for employability

Macquarie has won the Employability Award at the Australian Financial Review (AFR) Higher Education Awards, announced on 18 November, for preparing students for the world of work through the reimagined Bachelor of Arts.

The University worked with major employers – including the NSW Government, Accenture, EY, Deloitte, Adobe and CBA – to redesign the degree, ensuring students are provided with in-demand transferable skills, along with the knowledge and tools they require to be successful throughout their careers.

The judges said it was “refreshing that course developers in a humanities degree were willing to be explicit about entrepreneurialism.”

“Our reimagined Bachelor of Arts has already proved popular with students,” says Martina Möllering, Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts. “Students have responded very positively to the new foundation and capstone units that focus on employability skills.

“It’s great that our innovative approach to employability has now also been acknowledged at a national level with this AFR award.”

Professor Mary Ryan achieves first invitation to Chair

Dean of the Macquarie School of Education Professor Mary Ryan, has been invited to take on the role of Chair of the Education Research Council (ERC) for Australian Independent Schools (AIS) NSW.

The remit of the ERC is to help guide the development, commissioning, and implementation of valuable research, further contributing to enhancing the quality of independent schooling. In addition to benefitting AISNSW and independent schools, the Council provides an opportunity for the sector to contribute to and lead the education debate within Australia.

This is the first time that the role of Chair has been offered to someone external to AIS and indicates their eagerness to engage more with universities, and, in particular, it demonstrates Macquarie School of Education’s excellent reputation in the field. Read more about the appointment here.

The Faculty shines at the Learning and Teaching Awards

The Vice-Chancellor's Learning and Teaching Awards ceremony took place virtually on 2 December.

Hosted by Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton, the ceremony celebrated the contributions made by individual teachers, teams and professional staff who make a difference to our students’ learning experience and contribute to their ongoing success.

It is a testament to the Faculty of Arts that 14 academic staff were assessed as highly commended finalists across all award categories. Special mention to the winner of a Student-Nominated Award, Dr Zara Bending (Macquarie Law School) for her work in teaching the foundations of law and what it means to be a lawyer in contemporary society. 

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners.

Professor Carlson joins the humanities elite

Professor Bronwyn Carlson from the Department of Indigenous Studies has been elected as a new Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities – the highest honour for achievement in the humanities in Australia.

One of only 22 researchers and practitioners elected in 2020 across a wide range of fields including culture, history, the arts, languages, linguistics, philosophy and ethics, archaeology and heritage.

“I feel very humbled to be elected among such high-calibre researchers, including several Indigenous scholars who continue to make a huge contribution to Humanities,” says Bronwyn.

Another Fellow at the Academy is Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley from the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature (MCCALL), who has recently been elected as Head of the Academy's Cultural and Communication Studies Section.

Heads of Section are a key source of advice for both the Council and the Secretariat. They are an important conduit to disciplinary expertise within the Fellowship of the Academy to inform their policy responses to government, international initiatives, and annual Symposium themes.

Research Awards highlight impressive breadth of Faculty research

The 2020 Faculty of Arts Research Awards were announced last week, attracting a strong field of entries.

The panel was impressed by the quality of research publications, and the researchers’ passion for ideas and communicating their findings in all the applications. After such a challenging year, these research achievements are particularly remarkable.

Research Excellence Prize
Winner: Dr Stephanie Russo
Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature

Research Engagement Prize
Winner: Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Dr Tristan Kennedy, Dr Ryan Frazer, Dr Jo Rey, Madi Day, Andrew Farrell
Department of Indigenous Studies

Highly Commended: Professor Linda Harrison, Associate Professor Fay Hadley, Professor Manjula Waniganayake, Professor Phillip Li, Dr Rebecca Andrews, Dr Belinda Davis
Macquarie School of Education

Early Career Researcher (ECR) Prize
Winner: Dr Shireen Morris
Macquarie Law School

Highly Commended: Dr Jac den Houting
Macquarie School of Education

Dharug-led research collective recognised again

The Yanama budyari gumada research collective – involving researchers and students from Macquarie – is the joint winner of a NSW National Trust Heritage Award in the Aboriginal Heritage category.

The collective is led by Dharug custodians Uncle Lex Dadd (an Adjunct Fellow in the Department of Geography and Planning) and Aunty Corina Norman, together with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Macquarie’s Associate Professor Sandie Suchet-Pearson and Marnie Graham, and Newcastle University.

Learn more about Yanama budyari gumada in this story about their International Green Gown Awards nomination.

Songspirals wins 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award

Songspirals: Sharing Women's Wisdom of Country through Songlines written by the Gay’Wu Group of Women, including Geography and Planning’s Associate Professor Kate Lloyd and Associate Professor Sandie Suchet-Pearson is the joint winner of the non-fiction award in the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

The judges noted its exemplary collaborative work making it a major contribution to our understanding of contemporary Indigenous culture.

Winning titles receive $80,000. The full shortlist and winners can be viewed here.

New Emeritus Professors announced

At the 498th meeting of the Macquarie University Council held on campus on 10 December, the members resolved unanimously in favour of a recommendation from the Academic Senate to confer upon the following Professors the title of Emeritus Professor at Macquarie University:

GRANTS

Macquarie’s multidisciplinary team wins MRFF grant

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has awarded a $174,992 grant to Faculty of Arts Professor Sheila Degotardi and team, under the MRFF Coronavirus Communications and Strategies Approaches During Outbreaks grant opportunity.

The project entitled ‘Harnessing the health communication power of the early childhood sector’ brings together researchers from across the University including academics from the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, as well as nine external partner organisations.

Professor Sheila Degotardi from the Macquarie School of Education says the project will investigate the quality and effectiveness of public health information used and communicated by the early childhood education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, with findings to inform Best Practice Health Communication Guidelines and Recommendations.

“The early childhood sector was an unsung hero during the pandemic – largely remaining open to provide continuity of care and education for young children and families,” says Sheila.

“This grant is a recognition of the work the sector does in supporting the health needs of families in times of crisis. It is an exciting opportunity for early childhood researchers and sector partners to collaborate with health researchers and organisations in order to strengthen health communication channels for the future.”

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius says, “Macquarie is excited for multidisciplinary teams, such as this, to pave the way for creative and world-leading contributions to ‘COVID-19 communication pathways’ in the early childhood education sector.”

ARC Discovery success

A total of 14 Macquarie research projects were successful in securing more than $5 million in funding in the 2021 Discovery Projects scheme, with two further projects securing Linkage Projects scheme funding in the latest round.

Two of the ARC Discovery projects were from the Faculty of Arts, with Dr Anna-Karina Hermkens from the Department of Anthropology awarded $370,165 for her project ‘Faith in Development: Religion, Gender and Resource Extraction in PNG’. While Dr Jumana Bayeh, Politics and International Relations, was awarded $112,914 for her project ‘Precarious Borders: The Nation-State and the Arab Diaspora Novel’.

Two members of the School of Education are part of a Linkage led by WSU. Associate Professor Rebekah Grace (WSU); Associate Professor Amy Wright; Professor Manjula Waniganayake; Dr Pooja Sawrikar; Dr Stacy Blythe; Dr Fay Hadley are involved in the project ‘Upholding the right to cultural connection for children in care'.

Associate Professor George Newhouse, an Adjunct Professor in the Macquarie Law School, is a member of a team awarded an Indigenous Discovery led by Associate Professor Chelsea Bond (UQ) titled ‘Building An Indigenist Health Humanities Collective’.

School of Education continues grant success winning streak

Congratulations to the following multi-disciplinary teams on their grant success:

• NSW Department of Education Leveraging Grant (a team from Education, Psychology and Linguistics) Sheila Degotardi, Emilia Djonov, Fiona Zheng, PhD Sarah Jacobson, Naomi Sweller (Psychology), Mridula Sharma (Linguistics) for a project titled: Plotting the emergence of young children’s learning-oriented talk in early childhood centres: an analysis of growth trajectories and individual differences ($277,185)
• NSW Department of Education Evidence Grant (a team from Linguistics and Education) Nan Xu Rattanasone (linguistics), Jae-Hyun Kim (linguistics), Sue Ollerhead, Scott Barnes (linguistics), Shirley Wyver for a project titled Enhancing the learning outcomes of children from diverse language backgrounds: Building evidence on bilingual education ($172,430).
• Partnership Grant (a team from Computing and Education) Amin Beheshti (Computing), Matt Bower, Michael Sheng (Computing), Jian Yang (Computing), Mohsen Asadniaye Fard Jahromi (Computing) for a project titled Intelligent Educational Knowledge Lake (Facilitating the analysis of Big Educational Data) ($500,424)