Humanities & Social Sciences
Creating a kinder world
Macquarie alumnus Professor Joseph Pugliese (BA/DipEd 1985) has spent his career focusing on social justice issues, exploring deep themes like the relationship between knowledge and power, the way discrimination and injustice are meted out in today’s world, the concept of state violence and institutional racism, and ideas around regimes of colonialism and empire. Today, Pugliese is the Pr...
Shocking film
In the famous Milgram experiments in social psychology, performed over 50 years ago, subjects were instructed to give electric shocks of increasing intensity to another person (an actor pretending to be another subject) each time the person failed an experimental task. Prompted by the defence of Nazis who claimed they were just following orders, the experiments were designed by Yale Univers...
School’s in
Driven by alumni, the business of learning reaches far beyond the university campus, with innovative, research-backed thinking that is transforming the lives of students of all ages. Literacy organisation MultiLit – short for Making Up Lost Time In Literacy – has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. Many MultiLit staff, including the Literacy Centre director, tutors and members of the ...
Media for the masses
The media is in a state of paradox where the world increasingly relies on effective communication, while traditional media is cutting journalists and other objective commentary. Macquarie is preparing graduates to carve out careers that creatively combine their passion with entrepreneurial skills and their powers of persuasion across a range of platforms. “The media has been in flux throu...
Life, simulated
A quick glance at accident statistics tells a grim story – alcohol or drugs and driving or any other skilled activity don’t mix. But while the relationship between drug or alcohol consumption and impaired performance is well known, until now, researching this relationship has been difficult: giving someone a stiff drink and putting them behind the wheel of a car crosses ethical boundari...
Research briefs
Macquarie University has a tradition of breaking the mould, of being a centre where high levels of research engagement are strongly encouraged and where a pervasive research culture spanning all academic levels provides the opportunity for innovative breakthroughs. Some of the most intriguing stories are below. Healthy reefs Planet of the bugs Transforming surgical innovation Creat...