From successful DECRA schemes to book launches and an abundance of grant wins, see where Faculty of Arts academics have been recognised this month.

GRANTS

Dr Isobelle Barrett Meyering, from the Department of History and Archaeology, was awarded $392,161 in funding as part of the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards 2024 for the project ‘Child Citizens: Young People and Australian Democracy since 1945’. This project provides a new account of Australian democracy from the perspective of children and young people. It tracks changes in children’s conceptions and practices of citizenship since 1945 to explain their contested status in contemporary politics. Far from simply being ‘citizens in waiting’, the project shows that young people have long been active participants in political and civic life and reveals how their citizenship claims have expanded across this period, alongside those of other marginalised groups. Its findings will add nuance to current debates about children’s political exclusion, with its social impact enhanced through the development of an online research portal and collaboration with the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Dr Christoph Sperfeldt, from Macquarie Law School, was awarded $429,000 in funding as part of the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards 2024 for the project ‘Universal Legal Identity and the Sustainable Development Goals’. This project is the first comprehensive study into the risks of exclusion associated with the pursuit of the universal legal identity target enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals. Through a systematic examination of legal identification initiatives at international and country levels, in Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, the project will generate new knowledge on how exclusion in legal identity regimes is produced and who it affects. Outcomes include improved understanding of these risks and practical guidance to address them. Expected benefits include more inclusive state and non-state approaches to legal identity, as well as enhanced protections and development opportunities for marginalised populations in different contexts.

Professor Wendy Lipworth, from the Department of Philosophy, is part of a multi-institutional research team who have been awarded $999,541 in funding for the project ‘Development of a generalisable evaluation framework for high upfront-cost therapies: clinical, economic, ethico-legal, social and cultural considerations’. Gene therapies repair faulty genes and may improve or possibly cure some serious diseases, however there is limited evidence on long-term safety and effectiveness and can cost up to $1,000,000 per treatment. This project, led by the University of Sydney, will develop a new approach to compare costs and benefits of gene therapies that will incorporate patient and stakeholder views and preferences and can be used by government to inform funding decisions. Professor Wendy Lipworth and Honorary Professor Ian Kerridge, also from the Department of Philosophy, will lead the ethics phase of the project at Macquarie University.

Dr Madeline Taylor, from the Macquarie Law School, has been awarded a partnership seed grant to support the initial activities for her collaboration with the Office of Pacific Energy Regulators Alliance (OPERA) Network in connection with the Asian Development Bank. As part of this collaboration, Macquarie University and OPERA have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a three year period to support collaborative research activities to help strengthen Pacific power utilities’ regulation to support clean energy technologies and decarbonise Pacific economies.

Professor Sandie Wong, Professor Rebecca Bull, Professor Linda Harrison, Associate Professor Fay Hadley, Dr Frances Gentle and Honorary Dr Kathy Cologon, from the Macquarie School of Education, have been awarded funding by UNICEF. The aim of the project is to design and conduct a study exploring the effectiveness of the School Readiness Program in Timor-Leste. The School Readiness Program was developed in response to very low levels of early childhood attendance in Timor-Leste, resulting in children often being ill-prepared for school and needing to repeat their first year at great expense. Working in collaboration with UNICEF Timor Leste, the Timor Leste Ministry of Education, Sport, and Youth, and research colleagues in Timor Leste, the team brings expertise in early childhood, assessment of child development, and rich knowledge of the Timor Leste context. This project will result in the design of a culturally relevant and robust evaluation of the program.

Associate Professor Eva Anagnostou, from the Department of History and Archaeology, alongside researchers from the University of Athens and University of Ioannina have been awarded $33,000 in funding from the Tsagada Trust, handled by the University of Athens, for a project on Gender and Sex in Late Antique Philosophy and Early Christianity. The project will fund a visit for Associate Professor Anagnostou to undertake research in Greece and cover expenses toward open access Q1-Q2 publications.

Dr Madeline Taylor, from the Macquarie Law School, alongside an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Macquarie Business School, have been awarded a $10,000 Transforming Energy Markets Consilience Research Centre grant to examine agrivoltaics, combining solar energy projects with agricultural activities, offering a dual opportunity to decarbonisise and use agricultural land in multiple ways. The research project aims to identify barriers and opportunities to establish an Australian agrivoltaics sector from economic, engineering, and legal perspectives, providing recommendations for reform to establish market incentives and settings to increase agrivoltaics development and uptake in Australian agricultural regions.

Dr Hannah Harris, from the Macquarie Law School was awarded a $9761 seed grant from the Transforming Energy Markets Research Centre for the project ‘Evaluating the Efficacy of Energy Market Regulation’, in collaboration with colleagues from Macquarie Business School.

Dr Umut Ozguc, from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, is the winner of the 2023 Capstone Editing Early Career Academic Research Grant for Women. Dr Ozguc is currently writing her first monograph, 'Floating Borders: Walls, Islands and Entangled Lines'. It examines the construction of borders in settler-colonial states by focusing on two bordering practices, walls and islands. The funding from the Capstone Editing grant will assist Dr Ozguc in preparing her manuscript for submission to an academic press.

Yanama Budyari Gumada involving Professor Sandie Suchet-Pearson and Marnie Graham, from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, were awarded $45,000 from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Trust Foundation for the professional training of the Dharug Shadow Rangers in on-ground conservation management skills.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Associate Professor Trevor Evans, from the Department of History and Archaeology, has become an invited member of the World Philological Union.

Dr Sung-Young Kim, from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, has launched his book 'Developmental Environmentalism: State Ambition and Creative Destruction in East Asia’s Green Energy Transition', published by Oxford University Press.

Associate Professor Sara Fuller, from the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, has released 'Handbook on Energy Justice', co-edited with Stefan Bouzarovski, from the University of Manchester and Tony G. Reames, from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

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