From prestigious appointments to several award finalists and new book launches, see where Faculty of Arts academics have been recognised this month.

GRANTS

Aireen Grace Andal, PhD candidate from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, has been awarded an International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) Writing Up Grant to support the final stages of her PhD research, which explores children’s urban spaces and the importance of children as co-creators of spatial knowledge. Aireen is the first recipient from an Australian university to receive this highly competitive award. The IJURR Foundation aims to promote and improve social scientific research, education and scholarship in the field of urban, rural and regional studies.

Associate Professor Courtney Fung, from the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, is a contributing investigator on a recently awarded grant for the project ‘CHIMULTI: China and Evolving Multilateral Craftmanship in the Age of Digitalisation’. The project, led by the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUPI), will explore how China, with a comparative view of India, the USA and other major powers, is working to build influence over the international governance of digital technology (digi-tech).

AWARDS

Dr Emily O’Gorman, from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, has been named as a finalist in the 2023 Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Creative Writing Book Awards for her publication ‘Wetlands in a Dy Land: More-than-human History of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin’. Using the Murray-Darling Basin as a case study and drawing on archival research and original interviews, the book examines how people and animals have shaped wetlands from the late nineteenth century to today.

Dr Patricia Koromvokis, from the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, has been shortlisted in the category of Education and Psychology as part of the Greek International Women Awards (GIWA).

ACHIEVEMENTS

Academia Europaea appointment

Professor Ronika Power, from the Department of History and Archaeology, has been elected to the Academia Europaea. The Academia Europaea (formed in 1988) is the pan-European academy of science, humanities and letters, with a membership of over 5000 eminent scholars. Its objective is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for public benefit and for the advancement of public education in Europe.

Membership of Academia Europaea is via invitation, which is extended only after peer group nomination, scrutiny and confirmation as to the scholarship and eminence of the nominee in their chosen field. Election to the Academia Europaea is a personal honour that is a distinct recognition by international peers of personal excellence in science and scholarship within the European convocation of learned and professional scholars. Members are drawn from across the whole European continent, as well as European scholars - and scholars of Europe - resident in other regions of the world.

Appointment to the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations Board

Associate Professor Courtney Fung, from the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, has recently been appointed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong as an Advisory Board member for the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. The Advisory Board brings together distinguished Australians with diverse perspectives and expertise across business, community, education, the arts, academia and national security. The Advisory Board will help guide the Foundation in its work to support governments, businesses, and communities build links and strengthen constructive engagement with China, consistent with the country’s national interest.

New books

Dr Robyn Moloney, from the School of Education, and Father Shenouda Mansour, a Macquarie PhD graduate, have co-published a new book titled ‘Language and Spirit: Exploring Languages, Religions and Spirituality in Australia Today’ with contribution from academics in Applied Linguistics, Geography and Planning and the School of Education. The book is a collection of 36 personal narratives and 11 research studies which offer accounts into the intersection of languages, religion and spirituality in people’s lives. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contributors speak of the critical connection between language, the spirituality of Country, and well-being. Immigrant community members from all major religions speak of the joint role of language and faith in maintaining culture and belonging. This edited volume brings new dimensions to the understanding of multilingualism in all complex global societies.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah and Dr Jumana Bayeh, both from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, have contributed the foreword to a new publication from Macquarie University alumni, Professor Ghassan Hage, titled ‘The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism’. The new book is a necessary tool for every Australian who seeks to understand the complexities of modern-day race politics on the unceded lands of a settler colonial society.