From securing the highest number of finalists in a renowned young legal awards program to a successful Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers scheme and a NSW Supreme Court presentation, see where the Faculty of Arts has been recognised this month.

GRANTS

2023 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers (MUFIR) scheme

Dr Mykaela Saunders, from the Department of Indigenous Studies, has been awarded a MUFIR scheme for the project: ‘Laying Down the Lore: a survey of First Nations speculative, visionary and experimental fiction’, which aims to undertake a comprehensive survey of Indigenous Australian speculative fiction (spec fic), a field which has exploded in recent years. Spec fic subgenres, such as futurism, are appealing to Indigenous writers and readers because they allow us to consider issues from our past, present and future in defamiliarised and inventive ways. Investigating these themes through genre theory will reveal important things about contemporary Indigenous cultural imagination and expression. This project will investigate how and to what ends Indigenous Australian writers are employing spec fic to tell our stories and will generate fresh, culturally grounded theory about these subgenres. The project will be sponsored by Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies.

New funded projects School of Education and Multilingualism Research Centre

The School of Education and Multilingualism Research Centre have received funding for two new projects:

Language Inclusion: Supporting people with intellectual disability and their carers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds: Associate Professor Alice Chik (School of Education), Associate Professor Marc Orlando (Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences), Associate Professor Yuanyuan Gu (Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy), Dr Sue Ollerhead (School of Education), Dr Lauren Gorfinkel (Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature), Dr Andrew Burridge (School of Social Sciences)

NSW Council for Intellectual Disability

This project assesses the language inclusiveness of the information provided on the Council for Intellectual Disability website and staff capacity to support clients and carers from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and provide fit-for-purpose workshop, guidelines and checklists to enhance organisational Language Inclusion capacity.

Digital future of the multicultural services and collection: Associate Professor Alice Chik (School of Education), Associate Professor Marc Orlando (Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences), Professor Jan-Louis Kruger (Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences)

Library Council of NSW

This proposal aims at providing a holistic assessment of the current digital pathways and access to multicultural services and collections of the State Library NSW to propose a forward-thinking hybrid and smart approach to best serve the increasingly diverse NSW population.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Macquarie Law School graduate success

29 graduates from the Macquarie University Law School have been named as finalists in the Lawyer’s Weekly 30 under 30 Awards, more than any other Australian university. Read more in the latest This Week article here.

NSW Supreme Court presentation

Dr Peter Edwell, from the Department of History and Archaeology, gave a joint presentation with the Hon. Keith Mason, former President of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, at the NSW Supreme Court on 18 April. The presentation, ‘Art and the Law: The Archibald prize case of 1944 and beyond’ was based on Dr Edwell’s book ‘The Case that Stopped a Nation’, which was short-listed for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in 2022. It investigated some of the key aspects of the famous Supreme Court case over the award of the Archibald Prize to William Dobell in 1944 and the behind-the-scenes influences at play on Garfield Barwick and Frank Kitto as senior counsel in the case. The presentation was very well attended by a diverse audience which included The Hon. Chief Justice Andrew Bell and several current and retired judges. The NSW Supreme Court holds a number of portraits connected to the case, including Mary Edwards’ portrait of The Hon. Chief Justice Sir Frederick Richard Jordan, and were placed on display as part of the presentation.