Representation of gender and sexual diversity in Australian film and television. This project aims to investigate the cultural, health and identity impact of gender/sexually-diverse characters, themes and narratives in Australian film and television from 1990 to present. The project expects to generate new knowledge by providing the first comprehensive account of Australian media production’s contribution to sexual minority representation, in the context of its importance for fostering healthy i ....Representation of gender and sexual diversity in Australian film and television. This project aims to investigate the cultural, health and identity impact of gender/sexually-diverse characters, themes and narratives in Australian film and television from 1990 to present. The project expects to generate new knowledge by providing the first comprehensive account of Australian media production’s contribution to sexual minority representation, in the context of its importance for fostering healthy identities, and acceptance of minorities to mainstream audiences in a digital media era. This knowledge will provide significant benefit to the mental health, wellbeing and social harmony for both minority and mainstream Australians and help showcase an important aspect of Australian media inclusivity and diversity in international scholarship.Read moreRead less
Living Together: New Approaches to Multispecies Conflict and Coexistence. Building on the methods and concepts of the emerging environmental humanities, this project will produce a new conceptual vocabulary for a world in which multispecies conflict and coexistence is increasingly important. It brings critical and generative rereadings of classical political thought and contemporary biopolitical and cosmopolitical approaches into dialogue with a set of empirical case studies emerging from novel ....Living Together: New Approaches to Multispecies Conflict and Coexistence. Building on the methods and concepts of the emerging environmental humanities, this project will produce a new conceptual vocabulary for a world in which multispecies conflict and coexistence is increasingly important. It brings critical and generative rereadings of classical political thought and contemporary biopolitical and cosmopolitical approaches into dialogue with a set of empirical case studies emerging from novel encounters between humans and other animals. This project will expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capacity in the interdisciplinary environmental humanities and stake out new approaches to the question of living together in a changing environment.Read moreRead less
Perceptions of harm from adolescents accessing online sexual content. This project aims to investigate Australian adolescents’ responses to online sexual content through a comparative communication-based study with teens in Greece, Ireland and Norway. The project seeks to generate knowledge through in-depth interviews with Australian high school students, aged 12-17, and their parents, comparing their perceptions with children and parents from other countries. The project will combine qualitativ ....Perceptions of harm from adolescents accessing online sexual content. This project aims to investigate Australian adolescents’ responses to online sexual content through a comparative communication-based study with teens in Greece, Ireland and Norway. The project seeks to generate knowledge through in-depth interviews with Australian high school students, aged 12-17, and their parents, comparing their perceptions with children and parents from other countries. The project will combine qualitative and quantitative data to explore why Australian teens might access sexual media more often than their peers overseas, and be more likely to feel bothered by it. Expected outcomes include strategies to support teens who feel affected by access to online sexual content, thus minimising negative impacts.Read moreRead less
Deep Timetable: A Noongar Rail History. This project aims to clarify the impact of the railway on Noongar people and Country. Rail infrastructure across south-western Western Australia exploited an older network of Aboriginal pathways; dislocated Noongar families found relocation through rail employment. Working closely with Noongar knowledge custodians the Project aims to reconstruct this hitherto overlooked history using a Noongar narrative framework - where storytelling actively maps Country ....Deep Timetable: A Noongar Rail History. This project aims to clarify the impact of the railway on Noongar people and Country. Rail infrastructure across south-western Western Australia exploited an older network of Aboriginal pathways; dislocated Noongar families found relocation through rail employment. Working closely with Noongar knowledge custodians the Project aims to reconstruct this hitherto overlooked history using a Noongar narrative framework - where storytelling actively maps Country and kinship relations - to plot the relationship with the emergent rail network. The Project will advance a new relational logic and a history that enhances the capacity of regional planning and development authorities in their future relationship with Indigenous people.Read moreRead less
The Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Education. This project aims to compare, for the first time, ancient language education across world cultures with ‘classical’ literatures. It expects to illumine the purpose and value of classical language education in Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit historically and within global education systems today by comparing pedagogic ideals and practices across times and cultures. It aims to test the potential of inclusive classical langua ....The Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Education. This project aims to compare, for the first time, ancient language education across world cultures with ‘classical’ literatures. It expects to illumine the purpose and value of classical language education in Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit historically and within global education systems today by comparing pedagogic ideals and practices across times and cultures. It aims to test the potential of inclusive classical language learning to boost educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. Other expected outcomes include two books, scholarly articles, education policy reports, and PhD student training. This should strengthen intercultural understanding and benefit school students, educators, policy makers and the wider public.Read moreRead less
Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia. This project aims to determine how culture and social diversity interact with landscape in representing physical space in the minds and grammars of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages. The project will conduct the first Australia-wide survey of Indigenous spatial description correlated with landscape, and the first large-scale investigation of diversity in spatial behaviour among individuals within communities. The findings are exp ....Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia. This project aims to determine how culture and social diversity interact with landscape in representing physical space in the minds and grammars of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages. The project will conduct the first Australia-wide survey of Indigenous spatial description correlated with landscape, and the first large-scale investigation of diversity in spatial behaviour among individuals within communities. The findings are expected to inform crucial debates on the formative role of landscape in language, and advance our knowledge of human spatial cognition. It will collect completely new experimental and natural data in six endangered languages, with significant benefits for the maintenance of Indigenous languages and cultures.Read moreRead less
IDENTIFYING CONTROL ELEMENTS IN CHLOROPLAST GENE EXPRESSION. Energy from sunlight is captured by photosynthesis in plants, providing the basis for the terrestrial food chain. This process takes place in chloroplasts, subcellular structures that derived from photosynthetic bacteria a billion years ago. Chloroplasts have their own DNA, containing genes encoding the most important photosynthetic proteins. This project aims to provide the world’s best resources for the study of chloroplast genes. In ....IDENTIFYING CONTROL ELEMENTS IN CHLOROPLAST GENE EXPRESSION. Energy from sunlight is captured by photosynthesis in plants, providing the basis for the terrestrial food chain. This process takes place in chloroplasts, subcellular structures that derived from photosynthetic bacteria a billion years ago. Chloroplasts have their own DNA, containing genes encoding the most important photosynthetic proteins. This project aims to provide the world’s best resources for the study of chloroplast genes. In the process, we will discover how these important genes are regulated to provide photosynthetic proteins in the right amounts, in the right cells, at the right time. The knowledge and resources gained will facilitate improvement of photosynthetic function in future agricultural crops.Read moreRead less
Roads to the Future: Infrastructure and the New Development in Africa. This project aims to conduct a comparative analysis of new road schemes in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (a region which sits at the intersection of several major global transport and development corridors), in order to understand their economic, socio-political, cultural and public health effects. As global road-building accelerates at an unprecedented rate, especially in the developing world, there is an urgent n ....Roads to the Future: Infrastructure and the New Development in Africa. This project aims to conduct a comparative analysis of new road schemes in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (a region which sits at the intersection of several major global transport and development corridors), in order to understand their economic, socio-political, cultural and public health effects. As global road-building accelerates at an unprecedented rate, especially in the developing world, there is an urgent need for new models for understanding roads' potential economic benefits, as well as their risks, including their environmental risks. This project is benefitting citizens, NGOs, donors and governments, by generating new knowledge about how we have in the past, do at present, and should in the future, engage with roads.Read moreRead less
Optimizing benefits of cultural diversity in Australian healthcare sector. Australian society and workplaces are increasingly becoming culturally diverse with growing numbers of immigrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. However, it is not clear to what extent this diversity is being harnessed to improve organisational performance by leveraging the diverse range of knowledge and skills of CaLD customers and employees. This project aims to use social identity theory ....Optimizing benefits of cultural diversity in Australian healthcare sector. Australian society and workplaces are increasingly becoming culturally diverse with growing numbers of immigrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. However, it is not clear to what extent this diversity is being harnessed to improve organisational performance by leveraging the diverse range of knowledge and skills of CaLD customers and employees. This project aims to use social identity theory and role theory to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for the process by which organisations identify, acknowledge, engage, accept, and adapt to cultural and linguistic diversity among their customers and employees. We also plan to test this model with data from customers and employees in Australian service sector.Read moreRead less
Ancestors' words: Noongar writing in WA government archives (1860-1960s). This project aims to produce the first account of Noongar letter writing in Western Australian archives from 1860 to 1960. The project’s significance lies in revealing this hidden activism in the archive, restoring silenced Noongar stories to the documents, advancing scholarly understanding, and promoting decolonisation of the Western Australian archive. Expected outcomes include an ethical Noongar research model and commu ....Ancestors' words: Noongar writing in WA government archives (1860-1960s). This project aims to produce the first account of Noongar letter writing in Western Australian archives from 1860 to 1960. The project’s significance lies in revealing this hidden activism in the archive, restoring silenced Noongar stories to the documents, advancing scholarly understanding, and promoting decolonisation of the Western Australian archive. Expected outcomes include an ethical Noongar research model and community research knowledge space developed with Noongar leaders. This new evidence of Noongar political agency could benefit sustainability for the emerging Noongar nation and advance equity and reconciliation for all citizens of the Australian settler nation and advocacy for Indigenous rights internationally.Read moreRead less