Abstracts - Combined
Justin Betar, School of Law - One Office, Many Disciplines: The Notary across Law, Technology, Ethics and Reform
The notary public occupies an unusual position in legal life: a single office authenticates documents for use across the world, yet it is regulated unevenly within Australia and has gone almost entirely unexamined in Australian scholarship.
This presentation draws on the first sustained Australian study of the office, which treats the notary as a meeting point for several disciplines at once. Law supplies the doctrinal frame, technology studies inform the analysis of artificial intelligence (blockchain and biometric verification), applies ethics addresses privacy, bias and accountability, comparison sets Australia beside civil law, common law, and mixed systems, and education research underpins a proposed national framework.
The original claim is that these tools displace notarial tasks but not the accountable human judgment that gives notarisation its legal force, a distinction that holds only once the civil and common law traditions are kept apart. The argument needs each of its methods. Doctrine to establish the law, comparison to test what is contingent, interview to reach practice that doctrine cannot, and policy analysis to ground reform. The presentation reflects on what such a blend gains, and what it costs.
This presentation draws on the first sustained Australian study of the office, which treats the notary as a meeting point for several disciplines at once. Law supplies the doctrinal frame, technology studies inform the analysis of artificial intelligence (blockchain and biometric verification), applies ethics addresses privacy, bias and accountability, comparison sets Australia beside civil law, common law, and mixed systems, and education research underpins a proposed national framework.
The original claim is that these tools displace notarial tasks but not the accountable human judgment that gives notarisation its legal force, a distinction that holds only once the civil and common law traditions are kept apart. The argument needs each of its methods. Doctrine to establish the law, comparison to test what is contingent, interview to reach practice that doctrine cannot, and policy analysis to ground reform. The presentation reflects on what such a blend gains, and what it costs.
Danielle McInness, Institute for Culture and Society - Territorial stigma and the news media representations of Western Sydney
The concept of territorial stigma – coined by urban sociologist Loïc Wacquant (1993) – describes a social and representational process through which negative associations become attached to geographical regions. Over the past two decades, territorial stigma has been widely applied in sociology and human geography to examine stigmatised regions including the Parisian banlieues, the Población in Santiago de Chile, and Tarlabaşı in Istanbul. While it has been widely adopted in the social sciences, the concept has significant and underexplored relevance for communication and media studies. Scholars acknowledge the role of news media in constructing negative place narratives and frequently use news coverage as a barometer of place-based stigma. However, precisely how journalists produce a spatial taint remains an underexplored topic.
This paper presents findings from a Master of Research study, which conducts the first systematic scoping review of the role of news media in producing territorial stigma and develops a new model for assessing the stigmatising features of contemporary news coverage. This new model is applied to a 2025 analysis of metropolitan print news coverage of Western Sydney. Consistent with the literature on territorial stigma, the results indicate that Western Sydney fits the criteria of a stigmatised region – with 72% of articles being predominantly negative; 94% containing at least one stigmatising editorial feature; 44% focusing on crime or disorder; and only 22% including voices from local communities.
Through a close reading of one illustrative case study – a news article which depicts Western Sydney as ‘sick’ and ‘unhealthy’ – the paper demonstrates how journalists contribute to the stigmatisation of a geographical region by framing it as environmentally unsafe or uninhabitable. By foregrounding the journalistic practices through which stigmatising narratives are produced, this study takes territorial stigma out of the social sciences and asserts its relevance to communication and media studies – contributing a new disciplinary perspective and highlighting the ongoing role of news discourse in shaping public perceptions of place.
This paper presents findings from a Master of Research study, which conducts the first systematic scoping review of the role of news media in producing territorial stigma and develops a new model for assessing the stigmatising features of contemporary news coverage. This new model is applied to a 2025 analysis of metropolitan print news coverage of Western Sydney. Consistent with the literature on territorial stigma, the results indicate that Western Sydney fits the criteria of a stigmatised region – with 72% of articles being predominantly negative; 94% containing at least one stigmatising editorial feature; 44% focusing on crime or disorder; and only 22% including voices from local communities.
Through a close reading of one illustrative case study – a news article which depicts Western Sydney as ‘sick’ and ‘unhealthy’ – the paper demonstrates how journalists contribute to the stigmatisation of a geographical region by framing it as environmentally unsafe or uninhabitable. By foregrounding the journalistic practices through which stigmatising narratives are produced, this study takes territorial stigma out of the social sciences and asserts its relevance to communication and media studies – contributing a new disciplinary perspective and highlighting the ongoing role of news discourse in shaping public perceptions of place.
Grace Thida, School of Arts - Myanmar Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Styles in Australia
Myanmar possesses a rich cultural and linguistic heritage, highlighting the importance of understanding its unique verbal and nonverbal practices. This qualitative case study will explore Myanmar verbal and nonverbal request strategies in social interaction and the development of Myanmar speakers’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in Australia. Studying Myanmar social interactions in Australia will be both practically and socially significant, particularly considering Australia's growing Myanmar population and its commitment to multiculturalism. Additionally, no previous studies in the Australian context have been examined despite several research studies regarding Myanmar cultures, language, and communication. This study will 20-30 adult Myanmar-speaking participants in Australia. The data will be collected through three sources: 1. an online Discourse Completion Task (DCT) 2. on-site observations, fieldnotes and video recordings, 3. interviews. Analytical tools, NVivo 15 and ELAN, will be utilised to code and analyse the data. This research aims to fill a substantial gap in the cultural and linguistic research of Myanmar students and migrants. A better understanding of Myanmar communicative norms will enable other professionals and international interactants engage in more effective and successful communication.
Christopher Hastas, School of Social Sciences - Exploring Para-Athleticism and Its Role in Identity Creation Through Powerchair Football
The paper researches the relationship between powerchair football participation and identity creation for PwD. For the purposes of this project, the 2023 Federation Internationale de Powerchair Football Association (FIPFA) Powerchair Football World Cup took place in Sydney, Australia from the 15th to the 20th of October and will be considered for its potential to provide great insights into para-athleticism and identity. Against the theoretical backdrop of structuration theory complemented by narrative theory, this project will engage narrative methodology to explore the researcher’s insider personal narrative, powerchair football players’ narratives, and the public narrative with specific focus on the said World Cup. Multi-method approach that includes autoethnography, semi-structured interviews, and a discourse analysis will be used to explore those narratives.
James R. Sadler, School of Business - Examining Social Robot Adoption among Clinicians: Clinician-Robot Adoption Model (CRAM)
The global population is on a trajectory toward a ‘population timebomb’ (Schwarz et al. 2014). By 2050 in Australia, 1 in 4 people will be over 65 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018). Consequently, there will be a dramatic increase in older adults requiring care and a higher demand for aged care practitioners. The aged care industry is already experiencing vast worker shortages, with many practitioners overworked, stressed and burning out of the profession. Moving into assisted living/care settings is challenging for the elderly. It unmoors them from essential social connections such as family and friends, as well as disrupting their long-standing routines and meaningful daily activities (Blazer et al. 2020). This can tarnish the quality of life for an older person by entrenching a more sedentary and socially isolated lifestyle (Blazer et al. 2020).
With advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, technological interventions in aged care are being increasingly discussed for use among older adults. Social robots are one such technology, which are emerging in this sphere. Social robots are a newer form of robotics, specifically designed for companionship, social interactions, and entertainment (Hegel et al. 2009). However, research among social robots in Australia is still emerging, especially among aged care practitioners. Therefore, a theoretical gap in the literature is prominent and needs further exploration. This research seeks to rectify this by building upon existing theories of technology adoption and use, such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance & Use of Technology (UTAUT), to formulate a more focused technology adoption model toward clinicians and social robots. The Clinician-Robot Adoption Model (CRAM) is the theoretical focus of this research.
With advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, technological interventions in aged care are being increasingly discussed for use among older adults. Social robots are one such technology, which are emerging in this sphere. Social robots are a newer form of robotics, specifically designed for companionship, social interactions, and entertainment (Hegel et al. 2009). However, research among social robots in Australia is still emerging, especially among aged care practitioners. Therefore, a theoretical gap in the literature is prominent and needs further exploration. This research seeks to rectify this by building upon existing theories of technology adoption and use, such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance & Use of Technology (UTAUT), to formulate a more focused technology adoption model toward clinicians and social robots. The Clinician-Robot Adoption Model (CRAM) is the theoretical focus of this research.
Tanya Phan, School of Business - Environmental sustainability: Perceptions and responses of SME cafe businesses and Millennial and Gen Z consumers in Vietnam
Sustainable practice implementation within firms and of sustainable consumption in emerging markets is critical for long-term sustainable development. This study explores environmental sustainability as perceptions and responses from small and medium enterprise (SME) cafés and young consumers in Vietnam. This study adopts an inductive, qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews, with nineteen young consumers and thirteen staff from eight SME cafés.
Through the lens of theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and triple bottom line (TBL), the initial findings focus on young consumers’ understanding of sustainability, key sustainability themes, and obstacles to sustainable practice adoption and for SME cafés, the initial findings focus on the sustainable practice implementation, including motivations, examples and challenges for implementation. The combined two study findings are developed into an initial conceptual framework. Initial contributions include a dyadic approach to exploring perceptions of environmental sustainability from a set of consumers and service providers in an emerging economy, and managerial insights for SME cafes and relevant governments understanding consumers’ expectations around undertaking sustainable business practices, products and services. Further development of key propositions and the conceptual framework will enable future research to be scaled up for testing, generalisation, and applicability to other emerging contexts.
Through the lens of theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and triple bottom line (TBL), the initial findings focus on young consumers’ understanding of sustainability, key sustainability themes, and obstacles to sustainable practice adoption and for SME cafés, the initial findings focus on the sustainable practice implementation, including motivations, examples and challenges for implementation. The combined two study findings are developed into an initial conceptual framework. Initial contributions include a dyadic approach to exploring perceptions of environmental sustainability from a set of consumers and service providers in an emerging economy, and managerial insights for SME cafes and relevant governments understanding consumers’ expectations around undertaking sustainable business practices, products and services. Further development of key propositions and the conceptual framework will enable future research to be scaled up for testing, generalisation, and applicability to other emerging contexts.
Mikee Federizo, School of Business - Robots as Advertising Agents: Developing the Robot Advertising Model (RAM) for Out-of-Home Retail Environments
Social robots are transforming retail spaces at scale. Since 2014, more than 10,000 Pepper robots have been deployed globally appearing in Nescafé stores across Japan, Pizza Hut outlets across Asia, and airport dining environments. Despite this commercial adoption, no established framework exists for measuring their effectiveness as advertising agents. Existing models are limited to web advertising, social media advertising and out-of-home media and fails to address the unique characteristics of a humanoid robot ads operating in retail environment.
This paper proposes the Robot Advertising Model (RAM), the first conceptual framework designed to measure consumer responses to robots as advertising agents. The RAM integrates five independent variables, namely informativeness, entertainment, irritation, expertise, and trustworthiness, mediated by attitude toward the robot to predict behavioural intention. The model will be tested through a 2x2 field experiment comparing a humanoid robot against a digital billboard, across central and peripheral advertising routes in a highly populated area in Parramatta.
Theoretically, this study bridges advertising effectiveness and human-robot interaction literature into a previously unmeasured domain. The RAM provides scholars and practitioners insights into what drives the consumer response to robotic ads in retail. Practically, it gives marketers a structured basis for evaluating robots as a viable advertising medium. As humanoid robots move from novelty to retail infrastructure, the RAM provides the first empirical basis for deciding whether they work as advertising agents, and why.
This paper proposes the Robot Advertising Model (RAM), the first conceptual framework designed to measure consumer responses to robots as advertising agents. The RAM integrates five independent variables, namely informativeness, entertainment, irritation, expertise, and trustworthiness, mediated by attitude toward the robot to predict behavioural intention. The model will be tested through a 2x2 field experiment comparing a humanoid robot against a digital billboard, across central and peripheral advertising routes in a highly populated area in Parramatta.
Theoretically, this study bridges advertising effectiveness and human-robot interaction literature into a previously unmeasured domain. The RAM provides scholars and practitioners insights into what drives the consumer response to robotic ads in retail. Practically, it gives marketers a structured basis for evaluating robots as a viable advertising medium. As humanoid robots move from novelty to retail infrastructure, the RAM provides the first empirical basis for deciding whether they work as advertising agents, and why.
Rajesh Nandakumar, School of Business - Exploring the Influence of Voice AI Shopping on Consumer Behaviour
Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant are transforming voice commerce (Brinson, 2024; Hu et al., 2023). Transactional voice commerce (online shopping) is less examined than non-transactional voice AI adoption (e.g., playing music) (Chahal & Mahajan, 2025). As AI-EVA expands, the global Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) market is projected to reach US$178.80 billion by 2034 (Precedence Research, 2024). Consumers will lean on algorithmic recommendations because AIEVAs do not offer visual product comparison like traditional websites do (Hari et al., 2025). The VAI (Voice Attitudinal Influence) model integrates the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) to analyse the influence of cognitive (trust, privacy risk, and AI literacy) and emotional factors (social presence, human-likeness, and inspiring awe) on consumer attitudes and behavioural intentions in voice commerce in a cohesive manner that was studied fragmentally in the previous literature. VAI encompasses sequential vocal interactions, paralinguistic cues, and unique vocal appeals that text-based adoption models overlook. The research advances three formal assertions by moderating the rational, emotional, and prosocial voice appeals' effects on consumers' attitudes, leading to behavioural impact.
Valentina Schulte, School of Arts - Thinking Routines and how they can apply to a diverse range of disciplines
Thinking routines, developed by Project Zero at Harvard University, are teaching and research tools that are used to help students of all ages untangle complex ideas and problems. These could range from observation and interpretation of visual material, including texts, investigating perspectives and distilling information for data analysis.
Within my own research in the arts and media and work as a STEM educator at the Powerhouse, I have learnt to utilise these thinking tools to better help me think and analyse information more abstractly and organise my ideas.
This paper aims to discuss how I use a selection of different thinking routines such as ‘See, Think, Wonder’ and ‘What makes you say that’ to better understand my readings and research, and how they can be utilised across different disciplines that perhaps are less visually based, to foster curiosity, inquisitiveness, and approach your research from a different perspective.
Within my own research in the arts and media and work as a STEM educator at the Powerhouse, I have learnt to utilise these thinking tools to better help me think and analyse information more abstractly and organise my ideas.
This paper aims to discuss how I use a selection of different thinking routines such as ‘See, Think, Wonder’ and ‘What makes you say that’ to better understand my readings and research, and how they can be utilised across different disciplines that perhaps are less visually based, to foster curiosity, inquisitiveness, and approach your research from a different perspective.
Lilik Istiqomah, School of Arts - Crossing disciplinary boundaries through Photovoice: Lessons from translation education research
Photovoice is a participatory visual methodology that originated in public health and community research before being adopted in sociology, education, and other social science disciplines. Despite its growing use across these fields, its application in translation studies remains limited. This presentation explores how photovoice enables translation education research to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden methodological approaches within translation studies.
Drawing on a doctoral study investigating Indonesian English language education students’ experiences of learning translation through Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools, the presentation reflects on the methodological journey of adapting photovoice to translation education research. The study combined participant-generated photographs, reflective narratives, interviews, classroom observations, and translation outputs to capture dimensions of student engagement that were often difficult to articulate through conventional qualitative methods alone.
The presentation argues that photovoice creates a productive meeting point between visual sociology, educational research, participatory inquiry, and translation-education studies. By enabling learners to represent and interpret their own experiences visually, the methodology offers deeper insights into the cognitive, affective, behavioural, and cultural dimensions of translation learning.
The presentation concludes by discussing the opportunities and challenges of using photovoice across disciplinary boundaries and highlights its potential to expand methodological diversity within translation studies, multilingual education, and technology-mediated learning research.
Drawing on a doctoral study investigating Indonesian English language education students’ experiences of learning translation through Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools, the presentation reflects on the methodological journey of adapting photovoice to translation education research. The study combined participant-generated photographs, reflective narratives, interviews, classroom observations, and translation outputs to capture dimensions of student engagement that were often difficult to articulate through conventional qualitative methods alone.
The presentation argues that photovoice creates a productive meeting point between visual sociology, educational research, participatory inquiry, and translation-education studies. By enabling learners to represent and interpret their own experiences visually, the methodology offers deeper insights into the cognitive, affective, behavioural, and cultural dimensions of translation learning.
The presentation concludes by discussing the opportunities and challenges of using photovoice across disciplinary boundaries and highlights its potential to expand methodological diversity within translation studies, multilingual education, and technology-mediated learning research.
Muthiah, School of Arts - Translanguaging Practices Across Classroom Contexts in Tertiary EFL Classrooms
Tertiary EFL classrooms in South Sulawesi, Indonesia feature considerable linguistic diversity, and within them translanguaging has become a part of everyday classroom interaction. This study examines translanguaging, defined as the flexible drawing on learners' full linguistic repertoire, as both a naturally occurring communicative behaviour and a deliberate pedagogical strategy. The research is based on qualitative classroom observations conducted across seven speaking classes at two local universities, with a combined sample of 236 students and three lecturers. It set out to determine how translanguaging manifested, and for what purposes, across three distinct classroom activities: oral presentations, small-group discussions, and project-based activities. The findings revealed distinct patterns of language use across activities. In oral presentations, most frequently observed are English-Bahasa Indonesia and English-Arabic mixing, mostly through embedded clauses and content morphemes. Small-group discussions, by contrast, showed richer and more fluid combinations, notably English-Bahasa Indonesia and English-Bahasa Indonesia-local language mixes, expressed mainly through system morphemes and embedded clauses. Project-based activities were more restrained, drawing mostly on English-Bahasa Indonesia combinations realised through content morphemes. Emphasising key points was the dominant function of translanguaging across all activity types. Beyond this shared function, oral presentations also used translanguaging to integrate religious references which connected to the university's institutional character. while small-group discussions used it to clarify meaning, and project-based activities used it to reinforce requests. These results suggest that although translanguaging shares common purposes, its specific purposes are shaped by task demands, topic, and institutional context. The study adds to a more detailed understanding of translanguaging as a flexible, context-dependent pedagogical practice in multilingual EFL settings.
Vanessa Campbell, School of Arts - When Social Justice Meets Social Media: Navigating Mission and Visibility in the Not-for-profit Sector
Not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) operate at the intersection of two competing worlds: social justice and social media. While their purpose is to create social change, build community, and support vulnerable groups, they must do so within digital environments shaped by algorithms, engagement metrics, and attention economies. Unlike commercial organisations with dedicated communication teams and marketing budgets, many NFPs rely on volunteers or staff with limited communications training, informal planning processes, and constrained resources.
This paper explores how Western Sydney-based NFPs navigate the tension between remaining visible online and remaining focused on their mission. Drawing on a netnographic study incorporating interviews, survey data, social media analysis, and researcher immersion, the research examines audience responses to different forms of organisational content. Findings suggest that posts celebrating member achievements, milestones, donations, and collective successes consistently generate stronger engagement than educational or mission-focused content.
These outcomes highlight a paradox for NFP communication: the content most effective at attracting attention is not always the content most directly connected to social justice advocacy. By blending perspectives from public relations, social media studies, and community sector research, this paper examines how NFPs balance mission, visibility, and authenticity in increasingly competitive digital spaces.
This paper explores how Western Sydney-based NFPs navigate the tension between remaining visible online and remaining focused on their mission. Drawing on a netnographic study incorporating interviews, survey data, social media analysis, and researcher immersion, the research examines audience responses to different forms of organisational content. Findings suggest that posts celebrating member achievements, milestones, donations, and collective successes consistently generate stronger engagement than educational or mission-focused content.
These outcomes highlight a paradox for NFP communication: the content most effective at attracting attention is not always the content most directly connected to social justice advocacy. By blending perspectives from public relations, social media studies, and community sector research, this paper examines how NFPs balance mission, visibility, and authenticity in increasingly competitive digital spaces.
Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan, Writing and Society Research Centre - The Gendered Space of Puberty Blues as viewed through a Lefebvrian lens
Henri Lefebvre’s concept of socially produced space is used as a lens through which to examine how the beach in Puberty Blues produces gendered identities. We see these gendered identities reinforced through rituals and hierarchies of surf culture. Although the Australian beach is considered a democratic public space, associated with freedom and equality, Puberty Blues offers it as a social environment and one where belonging is distributed unevenly. Boys establish status via their occupation of the waves showing how surfing is a performance of masculinity and authority. Girls are positioned on the sand. It is here that their belonging is shown through their proximity to male surfers and the following of the surfer group’s codes. The division between sand and surf becomes a spatial expression of gendered power when looked at through a Lefebvrian lens. The paper contends that Debbie’s and Sue’s identities are formed through the spaces that they are allowed to occupy and the practices that they are expected to perform.
Rahmatul Furqan, Institute for Culture and Society - The Hidden Work of Visibility: Digital Labour Among Young Microcelebrities with Disabilities in Indonesia
Digital platforms have expanded opportunities for young people with disabilities to participate as content creators, advocates, and entrepreneurs. However, the everyday labour required to achieve and sustain online visibility remains largely overlooked, particularly in the Global South. Drawing on qualitative interviews with young Indonesian microcelebrities with disabilities, this paper explores how participants produce accessible content, engage audiences, navigate platform algorithms, and negotiate the tensions between advocacy, authenticity, and monetisation.
Bringing together perspectives from digital labour studies, disability studies, platform studies, and media and communication research, the paper argues that visibility is not merely a product of platform participation but a continuous form of labour shaped by intersecting technological, social, and cultural conditions. Participants describe visibility as both empowering and precarious, requiring ongoing emotional, creative, and relational work while confronting accessibility barriers and ableist platform norms.
By placing disability at the centre of debates on digital labour and creator economies, this paper demonstrates how an interdisciplinary approach reveals dimensions of platform work that are often absent from mainstream studies of influencers and digital entrepreneurship. In doing so, it contributes to more inclusive understandings of labour, participation, and visibility in Indonesia's evolving digital sphere.
Bringing together perspectives from digital labour studies, disability studies, platform studies, and media and communication research, the paper argues that visibility is not merely a product of platform participation but a continuous form of labour shaped by intersecting technological, social, and cultural conditions. Participants describe visibility as both empowering and precarious, requiring ongoing emotional, creative, and relational work while confronting accessibility barriers and ableist platform norms.
By placing disability at the centre of debates on digital labour and creator economies, this paper demonstrates how an interdisciplinary approach reveals dimensions of platform work that are often absent from mainstream studies of influencers and digital entrepreneurship. In doing so, it contributes to more inclusive understandings of labour, participation, and visibility in Indonesia's evolving digital sphere.
Restaria F. Hutabarat, School of Law - Data Governance in Digital Finance: Regulating Cross-Border Data Flows in Indonesia
The tension between data protection and data liberalisation has led some global institutions to frame strong data protection as a barrier to market integration. As the world’s fourth most populous country and a rapidly digitalising democracy, Indonesia provides a critical setting for examining how these tensions are managed in regulatory practice. Focusing on the period 2020–2025, this study explores how global data governance norms are interpreted and adapted during Indonesia’s digital economic transformation.
Using a socio-legal approach, the study examines the legal culture of the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (IFSA) to understand how regulators construct meaning and make decisions under conditions of uncertainty surrounding cross-border data flows. It conceptualises regulatory decision-making as a social process rather than a purely legal or technical exercise.
The research employs qualitative methods, combining interviews and document analysis to investigate regulatory practices and organisational culture within IFSA. By providing empirical insights into data governance in Indonesia’s financial sector, the study contributes to ongoing debates on data protection and digital governance, while offering lessons for understanding similar regulatory dynamics in other emerging Asian economies.
Using a socio-legal approach, the study examines the legal culture of the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (IFSA) to understand how regulators construct meaning and make decisions under conditions of uncertainty surrounding cross-border data flows. It conceptualises regulatory decision-making as a social process rather than a purely legal or technical exercise.
The research employs qualitative methods, combining interviews and document analysis to investigate regulatory practices and organisational culture within IFSA. By providing empirical insights into data governance in Indonesia’s financial sector, the study contributes to ongoing debates on data protection and digital governance, while offering lessons for understanding similar regulatory dynamics in other emerging Asian economies.
Abeer Alam, School of Business - Influence of personality congruency between charity brand and social robot
Social robots have transformed the way organisations interact with their customers. However, the non-profit sector remains underexplored. With existing issues of securing funds and volunteer retention, charities lose on potential donors. This highlights importance to look at strengthening donor relationships and intention through an innovative and engaging lens. This study examines whether personality congruency between social robots and nonprofit brands drives donor intentions. Drawing on theories from psychology, human-robot interaction and marketing, this study proposes a conceptual model called the Robot Personality Donation Model. A pilot experimental study was conducted using an introverted charity brand and a congruent introverted robot (Pepper), with data collected from 92 participants. Factor analysis and reliability tests confirmed the validity and consistency of measures. Regression results indicate entertainment and source credibility significantly influence attitudes toward the message, while empathy, expertise, and perceived persuasion do not. Furthermore, attitudes toward the message positively influence attitudes toward the robot, which in turn drive donation intention. The findings contribute to theory by demonstrating the importance of communication delivery and robot personality in shaping donor responses. Practically, the study highlights how nonprofits can leverage socially intelligent robots as persuasive agents to enhance engagement and optimise fundraising strategies through personality alignment.
Dr W.G. S. Konarasinghe, School of Business - Vector Spaces for Measuring Digital Maturity of an Organization
The third industrial revolution is commonly referred as the ‘Digital revolution’ or ‘Digital Transformation’. The digital revolution transforms the traditional businesses to a digital platform. Digital Maturity (DM) is the measurement used to assess the degree of adoption and application of digital technologies in an organization. The existing models use digital capabilities and leadership capabilities to assess the DM, however these models are not capable on quantifying the DM. Also, recent studies showed the importance of digital literacy for the success of DM. This study defines three dimensions for DM: Digital Capabilities (X), Leadership capabilities (Y) and Digital Literacy (Z). These dimensions satisfy the properties of a ‘Vector Space’ where a vector space is a mathematical environment made up of a set of vectors, set of scalars and two operations: vector addition and scalar multiplication. Hence, magnitude of the position vector (x, y, z) is the DM of an organization. This model has several advantages over the existing models. It helps the organizations to monitor their DM over time and identify their position within or between industries.
Sarah Nectoux, Institute for Culture and Society - The right to the inclusive city: counter-narratives of mobility across two “worlds” – Western Sydney and Seine-Saint-Denis
Mobility is more than moving from one place to another; it shapes participation, underlines who is a legitimate urban citizen and who must work harder to remain present in space. This presentation examines counter-narratives of mobility by people with disabilities across two “worlds”: Western Sydney (Greater Paris) and Seine-Saint-Denis (Greater Paris). Bringing together two geographical sites and two methods – semi-structured interviews and social media analysis – the research identifies distinct local experiences that still converge in the ways mobility is formed through labour and disorientation. Across both sites, the city extracts extra-physical, cognitive, affective and temporal labour from people with disabilities, while feelings of disorientation signal that these individuals are not the expected urban subjects. Together, these findings raise broader questions about who is given the means to produce the city and to exercise a right to the city: the right to belong, to shape everyday urban space through practice and to be recognised by those who plan, design, and govern the city as legitimate urban citizens. Ultimately, I argue that improving the mobility of people with disabilities is greater than “access fixes”, toward the need to address the broader ableist system within which mobility takes place.
Jo Davies, School of Social Sciences - Using diffractive, creative practices to facilitate emotional recalibration after disasters
Two creative, diffractive workshops were run with a group of people, including this researcher, that enabled us to process our 2019/2020 bushfire experiences in a community setting. The material -discursive workshop method utilised facilitated the emergence of multiple different stories about the fires to become visible, hearable and tangible. This was enacted through the engagement of bodily, affective and sensory materials, as we tuned into our bushfire memories, artworks, the environment, and each other. The dominant patterns of verbal, visual and embodied discourses held around our bushfire experiences were made visible, alongside newly emerging, or reshaped others allowing us to recalibrate and reinterpret our embodied memories. These, and other encounters such as listening and bearing witness to each other added more layers to our existing understandings of the bushfires, enabling us to become with them differently.
Patricia Arthur, School of Arts - The Power of Music Criticism: Shaping Rock Genres in the 1960s
When you imagine a classic rock band in its most basic line-up you envisage drums, bass guitar, lead guitar and vocalist. The format seems to be somewhat given when viewed from here in the 2020s. When we imagine a rock solo, why do we reflexly think of the lead guitar and not a flute or a church organ? It is not as if challenges to the soloing dominance of the guitar were commercially unsuccessful: Jethro Tull (flute soloist) and Deep Purple (organ soloist) sold millions of albums. Yet we don’t see that pattern repeated and normalised.
This paper examines the genre of rock in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of ‘habitus’. The ‘field’ is the genre of rock music; its members having the ‘cultural capital’ of instrumental virtuosity and performance prowess. Nevertheless, what forces formed and maintained that field? Who were the gatekeepers of ‘taste’?
Using Framing Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis I hope to show how the rock music press at that time were significantly biased towards developing and maintaining the guitar hero legend at the expense of other instrumentalists. They achieved this in their writing by leaning into the predominantly masculine discourse around rock music at the time.
This paper examines the genre of rock in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of ‘habitus’. The ‘field’ is the genre of rock music; its members having the ‘cultural capital’ of instrumental virtuosity and performance prowess. Nevertheless, what forces formed and maintained that field? Who were the gatekeepers of ‘taste’?
Using Framing Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis I hope to show how the rock music press at that time were significantly biased towards developing and maintaining the guitar hero legend at the expense of other instrumentalists. They achieved this in their writing by leaning into the predominantly masculine discourse around rock music at the time.
Henry Chase Richards, School of Arts - Irony, sincerity and oscillation in the collected essays of Eda Gunaydin and Luke Carman
Henry’s thesis focuses on how the personal essay collections of Intimate Antipathies by Luke Carman (2019) and Root & Branch by Eda Gunaydin (2022) incorporate oscillation between tone and mood from irony to sincerity and back again, recurrently. Henry argues that the central feature of constant oscillation becomes the means for literary depth. This depth and the oscillation from which it stems, they argue, situates these works in the contemporary moment or metamodern epoch, while supporting the writers and their audiences to reflect on and engage with associated challenges, whether personal, interpersonal or societal. Henry’s presentation will give a window into their thesis by defining and unpacking oscillation between irony and sincerity, before demonstrating how this phenomenon manifests in the essays of Gunaydin and Carman through examples, before suggesting the effect of using this technique as a conclusion.
Kevin Dodds, School of Arts - Family Affair: Sisters in Crime aboard the Asia (5), 1830: Kinship, Poverty, Children and Co-Prosecution Signals in the Digitised Asia 5 Female Convict Indent
This paper uses the Asia 5 female convict indent as a pilot study in relational prosopography and digital humanities. The digitised spreadsheet contains 200 ship rows, of which 32 have been identified as familial or relationship rows: 22 same-ship female kin rows across 10 onboard clusters, and 10 rows identifying external kin already in the colonial field, including husbands, sons and a brother. The indent also records 130 children attached to 73 women: 69 male and 61 female. Because those children are unnamed and their ages are not recorded, the data exposes maternal responsibility while simultaneously concealing child movement, separation and mortality. The paper argues that the Asia 5 evidence is strongest when read as a history of kinship, poverty, prosecution, children and survival, rather than as proof of organised criminal gangs. In doing so, it demonstrates how a single digitised convict indent can shift analysis from individualised criminal biography to household systems, prosecution clusters and family disruption across Ireland and New South Wales.
Shoilee Sumiyaa, School of Business - Corporate Transparency in Disability Services: Evaluating Voluntary Public Disclosure Practices of Australian NDIS Providers
Despite regulatory reforms, funding constraints, and competitive pressures, voluntary disclosure by Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) providers remains uneven, limiting stakeholders' ability to assess service quality, safeguarding practices, and organisational accountability. Recent audits and public inquiries have highlighted persistent shortcomings in quality and safeguarding, emphasising the need for transparent and meaningful public reporting.
This study aims to examine the transparency of voluntary disclosures by large Australian NDIS providers in their annual reports, against the NDIS Practice Standards. Applying stakeholder and legitimacy theories, it will employ content analysis to evaluate annual report narratives using the 24 NDIS Practice Standards outcomes across four core modules: rights and responsibilities for participants; governance and operational management; provision of supports; and support provision environment. It will develop Practice Standards transparency indices to assess the extent and quality of disclosure and explore variations in reporting across organisations. By identifying where disclosure is comprehensive or limited, the research is expected to provide new evidence on how far annual reports support stakeholder accountability and organisational legitimacy. The findings are expected to guide NDIS providers seeking to enhance reporting quality, transparency, and accountability, while informing regulators and policymakers on opportunities to strengthen reporting practices within the NDIS sector.
This study aims to examine the transparency of voluntary disclosures by large Australian NDIS providers in their annual reports, against the NDIS Practice Standards. Applying stakeholder and legitimacy theories, it will employ content analysis to evaluate annual report narratives using the 24 NDIS Practice Standards outcomes across four core modules: rights and responsibilities for participants; governance and operational management; provision of supports; and support provision environment. It will develop Practice Standards transparency indices to assess the extent and quality of disclosure and explore variations in reporting across organisations. By identifying where disclosure is comprehensive or limited, the research is expected to provide new evidence on how far annual reports support stakeholder accountability and organisational legitimacy. The findings are expected to guide NDIS providers seeking to enhance reporting quality, transparency, and accountability, while informing regulators and policymakers on opportunities to strengthen reporting practices within the NDIS sector.
Losa (Seilosa) Patterson, School of Social Sciences - The Loud Silence: When Our Island Drums Fall Silent – Towards a Pasifika Understanding of Racism, Racial Harm, and Recovery in the Sydney Diaspora
Racism is increasingly recognised as a significant social determinant of health, yet dominant understandings remain grounded largely in Western theories that do not fully reflect Pasifika worldviews, relationships, spirituality, or lived experience. This paper introduces a doctoral study that seeks to privilege Pasifika epistemologies in exploring how Pasifika peoples living in the Sydney diaspora understand, experience, and recover from everyday racism and racial harm.
Grounded in Indigenous Pasifika methodologies, the study employs sequential e-Talanoa (family conversations) followed by e-Talaloto (individual conversations), recognising that experiences of racism are first understood collectively before being explored personally. Guided by relational concepts such as vā and collective wellbeing, the research seeks to understand how racism affects identity, belonging, family, culture, faith, and health.
The metaphor The Loud Silence symbolises both the silencing of Pasifika voices and the enduring presence of our island drums that continue to call communities towards truth, healing, and hope. The study aims to contribute a culturally grounded understanding of racism, racial harm, and recovery that informs future theory, research, policy, and culturally responsive practice to advance health equity for Pasifika communities.
Grounded in Indigenous Pasifika methodologies, the study employs sequential e-Talanoa (family conversations) followed by e-Talaloto (individual conversations), recognising that experiences of racism are first understood collectively before being explored personally. Guided by relational concepts such as vā and collective wellbeing, the research seeks to understand how racism affects identity, belonging, family, culture, faith, and health.
The metaphor The Loud Silence symbolises both the silencing of Pasifika voices and the enduring presence of our island drums that continue to call communities towards truth, healing, and hope. The study aims to contribute a culturally grounded understanding of racism, racial harm, and recovery that informs future theory, research, policy, and culturally responsive practice to advance health equity for Pasifika communities.
Kazi Sultana, School of Social Sciences - Examining Older adults’ adaptations to AI-Enable Self-Service Checkout (SSC) in Retail: Developing an AI Ethics framework based on privacy, fairness and transparency for age inclusive Retail design
The rapid implementation of AI-enabled technologies in business, including the retail sector, brings significant efficiency in consumer service and overall operation. Despite this efficiency and advancement there are also concerns related to the ethical use and implementation of AI technologies, particularly self-service checkouts in supermarkets from the perspectives of older adults’ adaptation challenges. Comparison between traditional counter-service and AI-enabled self-service checkout technologies in large supermarkets required more study regarding vulnerable groups adaptation intention as it remains under-explored. AI-enabled Self-Service Checkouts ‘product recognition’ error reduction’, weight variation’, along with other issues need further investigation that might drive older adults to feel less interest and adaptation intention in using SSC technology.
The older consumers who experience lower levels of digital literacy are being excluded from various technological advancements which can alleviate the economic and social difficulties of their daily lives. This study aims to identify ethical challenges with the objective of understanding older adults adapting intentions to the using Self-service checkout (SSC) in large supermarkets. This research will contribute through an interdisciplinary approach by practical, social, and theoretical prospectives to mitigate ethical challenges of AI technologies implementation for gerontology and aging population studies towards a broader societal and economic impact.
The older consumers who experience lower levels of digital literacy are being excluded from various technological advancements which can alleviate the economic and social difficulties of their daily lives. This study aims to identify ethical challenges with the objective of understanding older adults adapting intentions to the using Self-service checkout (SSC) in large supermarkets. This research will contribute through an interdisciplinary approach by practical, social, and theoretical prospectives to mitigate ethical challenges of AI technologies implementation for gerontology and aging population studies towards a broader societal and economic impact.
Xinyi Mao, School of Education - Engaging with AI Intimacy: A Qualitative Study of Romantic Meanings and Practices among Emerging Adults in China
This study examines how Chinese emerging adults (aged 18–25) engage with AI companions in emotionally meaningful, relationship-like ways, and how these engagements relate to their broader understandings of intimacy. Amid limited school- and family-based relationship education and strong cultural taboos around adolescent romance, many young people in China are turning to new relational forms, including situationships, Dazi companionships, and AI intimacies, that minimise emotional risk. Adopting a qualitative, interpretive design, the study combines semi-structured interviews with an online qualitative survey to explore how participants develop AI-mediated intimacy over time, the personal, relational, and sociocultural conditions shaping it, and its implications for real-life relationships. The analysis draws on a feminist poststructural and Foucauldian framework, reading intimacy as discursively produced rather than natural, alongside Davila et al.'s relationship competence model, comprising insight, mutuality, and emotion regulation, used here as sensitising concepts extended beyond their original Western, human-to-human context. By bringing together media and technology studies, feminist theory, developmental psychology, and Chinese sociocultural analysis, the study treats AI intimacy not as a purely technological phenomenon but as a socially situated relational practice, illuminating how gendered scripts of care and emotional labour may be reproduced, or reworked, in human–AI relationships.
Tran Ngoc Quyen Quyen, School of Arts - Navigating the Shadowed Zalo: EFL Teaching as Invisible Labour in Vietnamese Higher Education
This presentation reports a mixed-methods project on how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lecturers at a public university in Central Vietnam use Zalo, with Facebook as a secondary channel, for teaching. This use operates outside institutional governance, a condition known as Shadow IT. The first, quantitative phase surveyed 93 lecturers and found two unresolved patterns: lecturers who communicated most with students on social media did not integrate the platforms more into their teaching, and lecturers with over 20 years of experience remained fluent in online communication while adapting their pedagogy more slowly than junior colleagues. The present phase explains both by triangulating open-ended survey responses from the 93 lecturers, interviews with 21 lecturers, and interviews with five institutional leaders. The qualitative data show that lecturers deliberately keep social media in a logistical role, separate from formal teaching, and that senior withdrawal and junior burnout are responses to the same ungoverned condition. While leaders did discuss workload in institutional terms, lecturer concerns about the erosion of personal boundaries and the right to disconnect received zero references from leaders. Lecturers and leaders operate in different informational worlds. The findings point to the need for policy that recognises social media teaching as institutional labour, not personal choice.
Chenxi Chen, School of Arts - Linguistic Creativity in Bilingual Early Childhood: A Group Case Study of Language Play in a Chinese Classroom in Australia
This qualitative longitudinal study investigates how linguistic creativity develops among fifteen heritage Mandarin-speaking children aged 5–6 in a community language school in north-west Sydney, and how multimodal resources support their creative language use. Although Mandarin is widely spoken in multilingual Australia, many heritage language children rely primarily on English and experience difficulty using Mandarin actively in classroom interaction. Previous research has examined bilingual language play, but little is known about its development in formal classrooms or the role of visual materials and auditory elements.
Over six months, data were collected through weekly classroom recordings, teacher interviews, and field notes. Drawing on translanguaging theory, visual grammar, and situated-embodied creativity, the study combines inductive thematic analysis with multimodal discourse analysis using NVivo and ELAN.
Preliminary findings indicate that children’s language play develops from non-target forms towards increasingly complex and creative uses of Mandarin. Multimodal resources help children overcome lexical gaps, co-construct playful meanings, and experiment with Mandarin in low-stakes interactions. The study conceptualises linguistic creativity as both developmental and context-bound, proposes a model of heritage Mandarin-speaking children’s creative language development, and offers implications for heritage language pedagogy, bilingual education, and theories of early bilingual development research.
Over six months, data were collected through weekly classroom recordings, teacher interviews, and field notes. Drawing on translanguaging theory, visual grammar, and situated-embodied creativity, the study combines inductive thematic analysis with multimodal discourse analysis using NVivo and ELAN.
Preliminary findings indicate that children’s language play develops from non-target forms towards increasingly complex and creative uses of Mandarin. Multimodal resources help children overcome lexical gaps, co-construct playful meanings, and experiment with Mandarin in low-stakes interactions. The study conceptualises linguistic creativity as both developmental and context-bound, proposes a model of heritage Mandarin-speaking children’s creative language development, and offers implications for heritage language pedagogy, bilingual education, and theories of early bilingual development research.
Saumindra (Somu) Bhattacharya, Institute for Culture and Society - Developing global supply chain for sustainable growth of the Australian agribusinesses in the Indian markets
Although Australian agricultural exports remain a significant contributor to the national economy, export across sectors has become increasingly volatile, with the mean value of agricultural exports forecast to decline by 3% in FY2026 (ABARES, 2025). Increasing climate change events and reduction of farm productivity (by 23% since 2020) makes it urgent to increase exports. While existing studies have examined export competitiveness and supply chain efficiency independently, there is limited empirical evidence explaining how technology infused innovative supply chain practices influence sector specific export growth. Bridging the research gap, this mixed method study will combine a systematic literature review and a practice review methodology to examine in-depth case studies from 8 subsectors, preceded by a Qualtrics-based online survey of owners and managers. With the help of SPSS software and a deductive thematic analysis of the interview insights, in comparison with established theories, the study will contribute to the literature on agribusiness supply chain practices and how they influence firm performance, export outcomes and competitive advantage. Findings will provide policy and managerial implications for Australian agribusinesses seeking to expand exports and strengthen their competitive advantage in emerging markets like India. Furthermore, the study contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 8, 9,12, and 17.
Kharman Mahmud, School of Arts - “If we burn, you burn with us”: Identity, Family, and Home in The Hunger Games Trilogy
Applying a literary approach through a genre lens to The Hunger Games trilogy, my thesis discusses how Collins’ trilogy adheres and/or subverts two of its identifiable genres – the dystopian and bildungsroman. With identity being the prominent focus of this, I also examine how family and home are intrinsically connected in the web of Katniss’s forming identity and sense of selfhood.
To do this, my thesis proposes two research questions:
1. How does The Hunger Games trilogy reimagine identity, family, and home?
2. How does Suzanne Collins’ use genre to construct identity, family, and home in the trilogy?
In exploring Collins’ hybridisation of dystopian traits within a bildungsroman framework, this thesis argues that the trilogy situates Katniss’s coming-of-age journey and her developing identity as negotiated and mediated, rather than emancipatory - like the traditional bildungsroman depicts. Katniss’s bildung is constructed through a cyclical structure of - struggle-survival, struggle-defiance, and struggle-(reluctant)redemption - to emphasise the simultaneous non/linearity of her bildung in this dystopian society. In the trilogy’s resolution,
Katniss’s social integration is partial; she is paradoxically free and marginalised from the socio-cultural pressures she faced during her adolescence when she achieves the final stage of the coming-of-age process, which is adulthood.
To do this, my thesis proposes two research questions:
1. How does The Hunger Games trilogy reimagine identity, family, and home?
2. How does Suzanne Collins’ use genre to construct identity, family, and home in the trilogy?
In exploring Collins’ hybridisation of dystopian traits within a bildungsroman framework, this thesis argues that the trilogy situates Katniss’s coming-of-age journey and her developing identity as negotiated and mediated, rather than emancipatory - like the traditional bildungsroman depicts. Katniss’s bildung is constructed through a cyclical structure of - struggle-survival, struggle-defiance, and struggle-(reluctant)redemption - to emphasise the simultaneous non/linearity of her bildung in this dystopian society. In the trilogy’s resolution,
Katniss’s social integration is partial; she is paradoxically free and marginalised from the socio-cultural pressures she faced during her adolescence when she achieves the final stage of the coming-of-age process, which is adulthood.
Katherine (Katie) Acheson, Institute for Culture and Society - Can Creative Practice Build Governance Infrastructure? Methodological Questions at the Intersection of Co-Design, Speculative Design, and Youth Digital Rights
Governance of AI and digital platforms is being established globally, but young people particularly those from marginalised communities, are almost entirely absent from those processes. This paper-in-progress examines whether creative and participatory practice can generate the governance participation infrastructure that young people need, rather than merely documenting its absence or advocating for its creation.
The proposed Doctor of Creative Arts project is grounded in a 2023 Churchill Fellowship examining international practice in youth-led governance across five countries and 33 expert interviews, which identified both the conditions required for meaningful structural participation and a critical gap: no equivalent participation infrastructure exists for AI and digital platform governance. Drawing on practice-led research traditions (Smith and Dean, 2009), participatory action research (Kemmis and McTaggart, 2005), and speculative and critical design (Dunne and Raby, 2013), the project mobilises three interconnected creative modes: participatory governance design with young co-designers, speculative design as epistemic provocation, and creative knowledge translation.
This presentation maps the methodological tensions at the intersection of these traditions, specifically, the friction between participatory action research's commitment to community-responsive process and speculative design's tendency toward designer-led provocation, and asks whether those tensions are problems to resolve or productive sites of inquiry in their own right. It is hoped this paper will contribute to interdisciplinary debates about what creative practice can generate as knowledge that empirical or theoretical research alone cannot, and how methods from across disciplines might strengthen practice-led approaches to urgent questions of digital governance.
The proposed Doctor of Creative Arts project is grounded in a 2023 Churchill Fellowship examining international practice in youth-led governance across five countries and 33 expert interviews, which identified both the conditions required for meaningful structural participation and a critical gap: no equivalent participation infrastructure exists for AI and digital platform governance. Drawing on practice-led research traditions (Smith and Dean, 2009), participatory action research (Kemmis and McTaggart, 2005), and speculative and critical design (Dunne and Raby, 2013), the project mobilises three interconnected creative modes: participatory governance design with young co-designers, speculative design as epistemic provocation, and creative knowledge translation.
This presentation maps the methodological tensions at the intersection of these traditions, specifically, the friction between participatory action research's commitment to community-responsive process and speculative design's tendency toward designer-led provocation, and asks whether those tensions are problems to resolve or productive sites of inquiry in their own right. It is hoped this paper will contribute to interdisciplinary debates about what creative practice can generate as knowledge that empirical or theoretical research alone cannot, and how methods from across disciplines might strengthen practice-led approaches to urgent questions of digital governance.
Nick Keys, School of Arts - Method and Literary Science
This paper discusses the problems of method that arise from trying to take literature seriously as an object of scientific study. The premise of my paper, and of my thesis project, is the contention that the ancient quarrel between Poetry and Philosophy, which in modern terms is the bifurcation of Literature and Science, is in the end a false distinction. All four of these things, whatever their differences, which are certainly real, are all ultimately dealing with or failing to deal with the same reality: the way things are. The nature of gravity does not change character when it crosses into literature, and the nature of human desire does not suspend its operation when it crosses into physics. Of course, they study different parts of this common reality and the methods they use to inquire are different. This paper will wrestle with the problems of method that I encounter when applying a hypothesis to the data of literary texts. These problems seems to be, on the level particular to literary science, equivalent to the general problem of thinking about the way things are, namely, how to treat things as parts of a whole, parts that can be separated and studied apart from the whole, and then how to put those parts back together in a way that does justice to the unity of the whole. In other words, how to get at the underlying continuity of the pattern without betraying the reality and meaning of differences.
Mohammad Harahsheh, School of Education - Becoming More Creative Through Interdisciplinary Research: Integrating Democratic Education, Participatory Action Research and Cultural Wellbeing in Jordanian Secondary Schools
This presentation demonstrates how interdisciplinary research can generate new understandings of teacher professional learning by integrating educational philosophy, participatory methodology, and cultural theory. My doctoral research explores how secondary English teachers in Jordan became more creative through a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project informed by John Dewey's theory of democratic education and the Cultural Wellbeing Framework.
Rather than treating creativity as a teaching technique, the study conceptualises creative teaching as an ongoing process of professional, relational, and cultural transformation. PAR enabled teachers to become co-researchers who collaboratively reflected on classroom practice, while Dewey's philosophy provided a democratic lens for understanding teacher learning and student participation. The Cultural Wellbeing Framework further extended the analysis by examining how creativity contributes to belonging, identity, agency, and meaningful educational experiences.
By bringing together these complementary theories and methods within the context of Jordanian public schools, the research illustrates how interdisciplinary inquiry can address complex educational challenges that cannot be understood through a single disciplinary perspective. The presentation reflects on the opportunities and challenges of combining philosophical, methodological, and cultural perspectives in educational research and argues that interdisciplinary approaches provide richer explanations of teacher learning and educational change than any individual framework alone.
Rather than treating creativity as a teaching technique, the study conceptualises creative teaching as an ongoing process of professional, relational, and cultural transformation. PAR enabled teachers to become co-researchers who collaboratively reflected on classroom practice, while Dewey's philosophy provided a democratic lens for understanding teacher learning and student participation. The Cultural Wellbeing Framework further extended the analysis by examining how creativity contributes to belonging, identity, agency, and meaningful educational experiences.
By bringing together these complementary theories and methods within the context of Jordanian public schools, the research illustrates how interdisciplinary inquiry can address complex educational challenges that cannot be understood through a single disciplinary perspective. The presentation reflects on the opportunities and challenges of combining philosophical, methodological, and cultural perspectives in educational research and argues that interdisciplinary approaches provide richer explanations of teacher learning and educational change than any individual framework alone.
Geena Cheung, School of Arts - Exploring the therapeutic use of music technology by Registered Music Therapists within residential aged care settings in Australia
Technology has become increasingly embedded in everyday life, including in how people experience and access healthcare. However, the aged care sector has seen slower uptake of technology in care provision, despite rapid technological advances offering potential to support health, functional ability, and quality of life. Findings from previous workforce research suggest a similar pattern within music therapy practice, where music therapists have reported lower integration of music technology into interventions when working with older adults compared to other clinical populations. Additionally, older adults remain underrepresented in existing literature examining clinical applications of music technology, which has predominantly focused on disability, neurorehabilitation, and mental health contexts. This presentation will report preliminary findings from a survey-based study exploring how Registered Music Therapists use music technology in residential aged care settings, including perceived barriers and facilitators, and attitudes towards its use. Implications for practice and future research will be discussed through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating perspectives from music therapy, healthy and active ageing, dementia care, and health services research.
Carolyn Galbraith, School of Education - Walking Outdoors as an Interdisciplinary Practice
The practice of walking is simultaneously a concept to be studied, a method of gaining data, and has the potential to be an essential tool for researchers, practitioners, and others working alongside children and their families. Walking itself can be studied from an interdisciplinary perspective, exploring its history, physiology, and social implications, but can also be used as an occupational tool, such as walking therapy, or, as in my work, part of a methodology to gain data from participants. As a research practice, walking may generate ideas, assist with problem-solving, and restore one’s attention after depletion. Walking outdoors offers benefits to human health and wellbeing, with particular advantages when walking in natural rather than urban settings. In my research, parents of children with and without autism went for a short walk in nature and shared their experiences afterwards. The participants reported that walking with their children provided opportunities for communication and connection, coordination and calm. The multiple possibilities of walking allow it to be a useful interdisciplinary practice for researchers across many fields.
Tianci (Yoko) Yuan, School of Business - The Impact of AI Adoption on A-REITs’ Financial Performance
My research topic is The Impact of AI Adoption on A-REITs’ Financial Performance, it discusses the impact of AI on the global economy, especially on the real estate market from various aspects. As my research focuses on A-REITs, a lot of investigations also be done to analysis the AI application on A-REITs company. Through the data collection of different A-REITs company's annual report and other literature reviews, we can see if the new technology of AI can benefit the company's profit and how.
This study will use the secondary data from MorningStar which provide up-to date detailed financial data of A-REITs. The methodology of this research is panel data regression. We will find if these A-REITs companies use AI on their financial performance in their annual reports. For further analyze, a specific Excel table will be done to demonstrate the different types of AI activities used for A-REITs in recently years.
Contributions to REITs: This study fills a key gap by linking AI adoption to financial performance in A-REITs, demonstrating how AI can enhance asset management and operational efficiency. It provides practical guidance for REITs to implement AI strategically, improving competitiveness, transparency and long-term value creation. Implications for Investors: This research shows how AI adoption influences the financial performance of A-REITs, helping investors make more informed investment decisions. It highlights AI implementation as a potential indicator of long-term growth, operational strength and innovation capacity.
This study will use the secondary data from MorningStar which provide up-to date detailed financial data of A-REITs. The methodology of this research is panel data regression. We will find if these A-REITs companies use AI on their financial performance in their annual reports. For further analyze, a specific Excel table will be done to demonstrate the different types of AI activities used for A-REITs in recently years.
Contributions to REITs: This study fills a key gap by linking AI adoption to financial performance in A-REITs, demonstrating how AI can enhance asset management and operational efficiency. It provides practical guidance for REITs to implement AI strategically, improving competitiveness, transparency and long-term value creation. Implications for Investors: This research shows how AI adoption influences the financial performance of A-REITs, helping investors make more informed investment decisions. It highlights AI implementation as a potential indicator of long-term growth, operational strength and innovation capacity.
Ahmed Bunduka, School of Social Science - Income Inequality - An Urban Socioeconomic Disparity (A Case Study of Western Sydney, Australia)
Income inequality is an interdisciplinary approach that interests not only economists, but also other social scientists including sociologists, health scientists, psychologists, criminologists, and political scientists. This paper will investigate the relationship between income inequality and economic growth for a sample of ten western Sydney local government areas for the periods 2010 to 2014, 2015 to 2019 and 2021 to 2025. The average economic growth during these periods will be regressed against the 2010, 2015 and 2021 values of inequality and controlled key social variables including initial growth, education, health, and occupation using OLS models. Although few previous studies show positive relationship between income inequality and economic growth, many studies reveal a negative relationship using cross-sectional data. There is no consensus in these theories thereby striking debatable premises. Western Sydney provides an opportunity to examine whether the relationship between income inequality and economic growth identified in national and international studies also holds at the metropolitan or regional level. This paper will offer insights into how government policymakers and development practitioners build sound policies geared towards inclusive growth of the economy. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations will be proposed for policy reform.
Sarka Dvorakova, School of Business - Enhancing Local Government Service Delivery by Strengthening Internal Strategic Decision-Making: A Case Study of Councils in Western Sydney, NSW, Australia
Balancing limited financial resources with competing community priorities presents a significant strategic decision-making challenge for local governments. Yet, there is limited understanding of how internal strategic decisions are made to allocate resources and prioritise services. This research investigates the factors influencing internal strategic decision-making in three councils in Western Sydney , with a focus on domestic waste management, sport and recreation services, and infrastructure provision.
Using a qualitative multiple case study approach, the study examines the factors shaping internal strategic decision-making and seeks to develop an evidence-based Advanced Strategic Decision-Making Management Model. The research is guided by three questions: (1) how can local government service delivery be enhanced through an Advanced Strategic Decision-Making Management Model; (2) who are the key stakeholders involved in decision-making for the selected services; and (3) how are internal strategic decisions made for these services?
The study has received Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval and collected primary and secondary data through semi-structured interviews with 14 senior and middle managers, supported by documentary analysis. Data are currently being analysed using thematic analysis and triangulation. The findings are expected to advance the theoretical understanding of internal strategic decision-making in local government and inform the development of an evidence-based Advanced Strategic Decision-Making Model. The model will provide councils with a practical framework to improve resource allocation, strengthen governance, and enhance service delivery for local communities.
Using a qualitative multiple case study approach, the study examines the factors shaping internal strategic decision-making and seeks to develop an evidence-based Advanced Strategic Decision-Making Management Model. The research is guided by three questions: (1) how can local government service delivery be enhanced through an Advanced Strategic Decision-Making Management Model; (2) who are the key stakeholders involved in decision-making for the selected services; and (3) how are internal strategic decisions made for these services?
The study has received Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval and collected primary and secondary data through semi-structured interviews with 14 senior and middle managers, supported by documentary analysis. Data are currently being analysed using thematic analysis and triangulation. The findings are expected to advance the theoretical understanding of internal strategic decision-making in local government and inform the development of an evidence-based Advanced Strategic Decision-Making Model. The model will provide councils with a practical framework to improve resource allocation, strengthen governance, and enhance service delivery for local communities.
Nicole Campbell, Institute for Culture and Society - Exploring infrastructure investment within Western Sydney: "Whose voices are heard? not heard? silenced?"
My research project focuses on decision making processes and practices in relation to urban planning and large infrastructure investment within Western Sydney. I am exploring “Whose voices are Heard? Not Heard? Silenced?”
My theoretical framework draws on Loic Wacquant’s “Territorial Stigmatisation” (Wacquant, 2006, 2009, 2014) as I examine whether the triangulation of class, race and the State might apply to decision making processes in parts of Western Sydney. I also draw on Tess Lea’s concept of the “Policy Ecology” (Lea, 2024), to consider what sits behind the artefact of a written policy like a published metropolitan planning strategy. What social norms, prejudices, political influences and competing timeframes may have influenced the end document produced?
My methodology uses a Foucauldian based discourse analysis (Bachhi and Goodwin, 2025), to analyse Sydney metropolitan planning strategies spanning the last 5 decades. Concurrently, I am undertaking semi-structured interviews with participants from NSW State government agencies, local government, commercial developers, consultants, First Nations organisations, and community based organisations within in Western Sydney.
In developing a clearer picture of the extent to which external and personal factors may influence decision making processes, my research makes a valuable contribution to governance, urban planning, policy development, and public administration.
My theoretical framework draws on Loic Wacquant’s “Territorial Stigmatisation” (Wacquant, 2006, 2009, 2014) as I examine whether the triangulation of class, race and the State might apply to decision making processes in parts of Western Sydney. I also draw on Tess Lea’s concept of the “Policy Ecology” (Lea, 2024), to consider what sits behind the artefact of a written policy like a published metropolitan planning strategy. What social norms, prejudices, political influences and competing timeframes may have influenced the end document produced?
My methodology uses a Foucauldian based discourse analysis (Bachhi and Goodwin, 2025), to analyse Sydney metropolitan planning strategies spanning the last 5 decades. Concurrently, I am undertaking semi-structured interviews with participants from NSW State government agencies, local government, commercial developers, consultants, First Nations organisations, and community based organisations within in Western Sydney.
In developing a clearer picture of the extent to which external and personal factors may influence decision making processes, my research makes a valuable contribution to governance, urban planning, policy development, and public administration.
Jingying Cai, School of Education - Analysing the Media Images of Women Tennis Players: A Mixed-Method Comparative Study of China and Australia
Women's sport has received increasing media attention in recent years, yet the representation of women athletes continues to vary across cultural contexts. This study will examine how Chinese and Australian mainstream media construct the public image of women tennis players during the Australian Open (2021–2025). It will adopt a convergent mixed-method approach within an interdisciplinary framework that integrates cross-cultural communication, gender studies, and sport media studies to investigate how cultural values, gender norms, and media practices shape news narratives.
Using mixed-method content analysis, the study will analyse news articles published by leading Chinese and Australian media outlets. Quantitative analysis will identify reporting patterns, including the frequency of key themes, framing strategies, and media focus. Qualitative content analysis will examine how language, cultural meanings, and gendered representations are constructed in news discourse. By integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches, the research will compare reporting trends across the two countries and examine how broader cultural and social contexts influence media portrayals of women athletes.
This study will combine interdisciplinary perspectives with mixed methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of gender representation in sport. It will also contribute to discussions on cross-cultural communication, media practice, and gender equality in contemporary sport.
Using mixed-method content analysis, the study will analyse news articles published by leading Chinese and Australian media outlets. Quantitative analysis will identify reporting patterns, including the frequency of key themes, framing strategies, and media focus. Qualitative content analysis will examine how language, cultural meanings, and gendered representations are constructed in news discourse. By integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches, the research will compare reporting trends across the two countries and examine how broader cultural and social contexts influence media portrayals of women athletes.
This study will combine interdisciplinary perspectives with mixed methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of gender representation in sport. It will also contribute to discussions on cross-cultural communication, media practice, and gender equality in contemporary sport.
Scott Meechan, School of Social Sciences - Ongoing Occupational Training and Citizen Engagement: How police officers and police organisational management perceive training and professional practice.
Police organisations face criticism regarding the quality of police-citizen interaction and how they engage with citizens. Much of the criticism is underpinned by the way officers meet service-oriented outcomes and whether they are professional. While research has focused predominantly on how initial academy-based training prepares officers for civilian engagement, there remains limited understanding of how post-academy training, referred to as ongoing occupational training (OOT), maintains or effects professionalism during police-citizen engagement. To examine this phenomenon, semi-structured interviews were conducted with police officers employed within one Australian police organisation. Consistent with the conference theme of interdisciplinary perspectives, the study integrates insights from policing, education, human society and psychology to analyse the impact of OOT on police-citizen engagement. Applying Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and Procedural Justice Theory (Tyler, 1990), preliminary findings suggest that officers’ ability to engage professionally with civilians is shaped by the quality, content and delivery of OOT, together with informal learning experiences. These findings highlight that there is a significant need for police organisations to reassess the importance and structure of OOT and how it affects officer professionalism.
Adrijana Tomovic, School of Arts - Expectations, assumptions and realities of HDR candidates through supervisors’ lens
Western Sydney University’s (WSU) cohort of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students is highly heterogeneous in terms of candidates’ academic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds (WSU, 2025). Within this diversity, WSU HDR supervisors not only supervise projects but also, quite often, have to reconcile their own world(s) with their candidates’ world(s) and find the best way to support their students towards successful completion of candidature. This paper presents WSU HDR supervisors’ views on HDR candidates’ academic readiness skills across academic communication literacy, research literacy and cultural literacy, as well as their assessment of the available support for HDR candidates at WSU. This is a qualitative study based on thematic analysis (Xu & Zammit, 2020) of the data collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 HDR supervisors at the Faculty of SABEL. The results show that WSU HDR supervisors recognise a range of challenges that HDR candidates are encountering across the three targeted sets of skills. They mostly agree that the reasons behind these challenges often stem from candidates’ diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, which are not always acknowledged. The participants shared their ideas for addressing these challenges at both the supervisory and institutional levels.
Tara Pound, School of Social Sciences - Preparing Adolescents for Disasters: Integrating Psychological, Educational and Community Perspectives to Inform Bushfire Preparedness Research and Interventions
This presentation explores how interdisciplinary research can generate new understandings of adolescent disaster preparedness by integrating perspectives from psychology, education, disaster studies, and community resilience research. My doctoral research examines how evidence from these intersecting fields can inform the development of an adolescent bushfire psychological preparedness intervention for Australian communities.
Despite adolescents being increasingly exposed to disaster risks, preparedness programs have traditionally focused on younger children or adults, with limited attention given to adolescent-specific needs. This scoping review examined international evidence on adolescent disaster preparedness programs, exploring effective educational approaches, program strategies, and outcomes, with particular consideration of implications for bushfire preparedness.
Using a scoping review methodology, 22 studies from academic and grey literature were synthesised through a deductive framework analysis. Findings were mapped across seven domains of disaster preparedness and resilience, allowing evidence from diverse disciplines and hazard contexts to be integrated. Results highlighted that existing programs commonly prioritise hazard knowledge and awareness, while psychological, behavioural, and social dimensions of preparedness remain less developed. Experiential and participatory approaches, including simulation, collaboration, reflection, and real-world problem solving, demonstrated greater potential for developing confidence, self-efficacy, and preparedness behaviours than passive instructional approaches.
By bringing together psychological theory, educational practice, and disaster resilience frameworks, this research demonstrates how interdisciplinary approaches can address complex challenges that extend beyond the boundaries of a single discipline. The presentation will reflect on the value of integrating diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives to inform the design of culturally and contextually appropriate bushfire preparedness programs for adolescents in Australia.
Despite adolescents being increasingly exposed to disaster risks, preparedness programs have traditionally focused on younger children or adults, with limited attention given to adolescent-specific needs. This scoping review examined international evidence on adolescent disaster preparedness programs, exploring effective educational approaches, program strategies, and outcomes, with particular consideration of implications for bushfire preparedness.
Using a scoping review methodology, 22 studies from academic and grey literature were synthesised through a deductive framework analysis. Findings were mapped across seven domains of disaster preparedness and resilience, allowing evidence from diverse disciplines and hazard contexts to be integrated. Results highlighted that existing programs commonly prioritise hazard knowledge and awareness, while psychological, behavioural, and social dimensions of preparedness remain less developed. Experiential and participatory approaches, including simulation, collaboration, reflection, and real-world problem solving, demonstrated greater potential for developing confidence, self-efficacy, and preparedness behaviours than passive instructional approaches.
By bringing together psychological theory, educational practice, and disaster resilience frameworks, this research demonstrates how interdisciplinary approaches can address complex challenges that extend beyond the boundaries of a single discipline. The presentation will reflect on the value of integrating diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives to inform the design of culturally and contextually appropriate bushfire preparedness programs for adolescents in Australia.
Scott Davis, School of Arts - Surviving Through Syncretism: The Transformation and Resilience of Indigenous Cosmologies in Palawan
This paper explores the transformation of indigenous cosmological beliefs in Palawan under the influence of Christianity and Islam. Focusing on rituals such as the Pagdiwata and spiritual figures like diwatas and Mangindusa, it examines how these traditions have been reinterpreted through processes of syncretism and adaptation. Drawing on secondary sources and archival research, particularly on the Taaw’t Bato and Tagbanua peoples, the study reconstructs fragmented histories. It argues that syncretism operates as a strategy of cultural survival rather than simple fusion, highlighting how indigenous communities negotiate identity, belief, and belonging within changing religious landscapes shaped by colonialism, modernity, and globalisation.
Reza Taghipour, School of Arts - Persuasive Murals in Iran: Artistic Depictions of Violence and War
This practice-led research project investigates the socio-political nature of Iranian public art, focusing principally on murals composed after the 1979 Iranian revolution that juxtapose images of artistic beauty with depictions of war and violence. Consequently, the primary objective of this research is to investigate the persuasive power of mural art in Iran by examining how the combination of aesthetically beautiful images containing violent and warlike themes serves to influence public perception and collective consciousness. The project’s creative component will also employ culture jamming design techniques to subvert existing elements of the murals, thereby creating a contrasting art form to generate the opposite effect. To critique the propagandistic function of Iranian mural art, these “remixed” artworks, in stark contrast to their principal themes (for example, concerning the justification and glorification of war), intend to promote social awareness, peace, anti-war sentiment, and democratic ideals. The project utilises a comprehensive methodology that includes aesthetic evaluation through visual analysis techniques such as Gestalt theory. Furthermore, the dialogue between empirical research and creative work, including experimenting with different techniques and visual elements, holds the potential to unlock innovative artistic creations inspired by Iranian mural art.
Ansa Riaz, School of Social Sciences - Socio-cultural construction of Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan
This study aims to explore the socio-cultural construction of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Pakistan, with a focus on how parents, community leaders, and stakeholders construct CSA. Following a qualitative research design, sixteen face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with parents, community leaders, and stakeholders. The findings identified that participants construct CSA as a gendered phenomenon shaped by socio-cultural norms and reinforced by ineffective support systems and media globalization. They termed it gendered due to gender roles and gender stereotyping determining the risk, vulnerability, and impact. Besides, socio-cultural norms of procreation, marriage, parenting, and social interactions shaped its gendered construction. The cultural scripts were identified as dominating the description of offenders' drivers of sexual offence. Support systems were considered ineffective in implementation, with biased, unprofessional behaviours, and corrupt practices. The results revealed that the police and judiciary reinforced the same social norms that promote silence and non-reporting. Whereas the child protection system was identified as inadequate in terms of approach, coverage, and services. Lastly, the media’s coverage was constructed as positive for CSA visibility, and the internet was termed as facilitating uncensored access to sexual content promoting CSA. The results will help to develop a comprehensive community-centred child safeguarding framework.
Yutong Zhang, School of Arts - A Comparative Analysis of ChatGPT and DeepSeek in English-Chinese News Translation
Large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT and DeepSeek, are increasingly used in cross-cultural communication and global news production. However, systematic comparisons of their English-Chinese news translations remain limited, particularly in how they reconstruct meaning, stance, and cultural or political perspectives. This ongoing study examines how ChatGPT-4o and DeepSeek-V2 translate English language news into Chinese from a translation studies perspective. Guided by Skopos Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Translation Quality Assessment, and Media Framing Theory, it considers both the linguistic quality of the translations and the ways in which news meaning is reconstructed across languages. The analysis covers news reports on politics, economics, technology, and culture, focusing on accuracy, fluency, terminology, journalistic style, cultural and political sensitivity, stance, and ideological framing. Selected examples illustrate how the two models may interpret and represent the same source text differently. The study contributes to current research by bringing translation theory, discourse analysis, translation evaluation, and news framing into an interdisciplinary framework for examining AI news translation. It extends discussions of translation quality beyond linguistic accuracy and offers further insight into the relationship between human interpretation and AI-generated language in global news communication.
Mitra Khalili, School of Social Sciences - Does a greener neighbourhood mean you pay less for cooling when it is hot?
Extreme heat is increasing the demand for domestic cooling. Urban tree canopy is widely recognised as a nature-based solution that can mitigate heat exposure. However, its influence on household electricity consumption during extreme heat remains poorly understood.
This study investigates the relationship between tree canopy cover, extreme heat and residential electricity use across the Ausgrid electricity network and its 1.8 million customers. The presentation will unpack the relationships between tree canopy cover and electricity use during summer, taking household wealth into account. The analysis was based on data from 736 smart meters across the operating area of Ausgrid in Metropolitan Sydney.
Applying quantitative analysis and regression modelling, results revealed significant socioeconomic differences in the cooling benefits provided by urban trees. Greater canopy cover was associated with reduced electricity use during hot days in areas where households were less wealthy. In contrast, increasing tree canopy cover had little to no effect on the electricity use of wealthier households during the same hot days.
These results indicate that growing new trees in areas where household income and tree shade are low will lead to better thermal and monetary outcomes for residents. Recommendations for urban greening policies that better address energy-equity are provided.
This study investigates the relationship between tree canopy cover, extreme heat and residential electricity use across the Ausgrid electricity network and its 1.8 million customers. The presentation will unpack the relationships between tree canopy cover and electricity use during summer, taking household wealth into account. The analysis was based on data from 736 smart meters across the operating area of Ausgrid in Metropolitan Sydney.
Applying quantitative analysis and regression modelling, results revealed significant socioeconomic differences in the cooling benefits provided by urban trees. Greater canopy cover was associated with reduced electricity use during hot days in areas where households were less wealthy. In contrast, increasing tree canopy cover had little to no effect on the electricity use of wealthier households during the same hot days.
These results indicate that growing new trees in areas where household income and tree shade are low will lead to better thermal and monetary outcomes for residents. Recommendations for urban greening policies that better address energy-equity are provided.
Sara Shaji, School of Arts - Postcolonial Narratives of Existence and Coexistence: Exploring Human–Animal Relations in Selected South Indian Fiction
This research project examines selected South Indian novels through the lens of postcolonial ecocriticism and the concept of animal colonialism. Despite the elucidation of colonial power, resistance, and identity of individuals, postcolonial literature has also integrated nonhuman life into systems of governance and ecological control, thereby creating novel dimensions to human-animal relationships. Even with the flourishing studies of postcolonial ecocriticism and animal studies, the multispecies postcolonial literary contexts from a regional spectrum, especially from South Indian fiction, remain largely unexplored. Western literary animal studies theory draws on the discourses of Locke, Derrida, Baudrillard, Berger, and others to comprehend human-animal relations and their ideological consequences for current anthropocentrism. Literary animal studies in India definitely draws ideas from the western concept of Human-Animal Studies, but has its roots in the pre-colonial ages of Sanskrit writings and Buddhist narratives that valued animal consciousness and non-injury/Ahimsa. Primarily employing qualitative methodology and particularly a close reading analysis of Poonachi by Perumal Murugan, Adam by S. Hareesh, The Tusk Did that Damage by Tania James, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy and Government Brahmana by Aravind Malagatti, this research investigates how the remnants of colonialism shape multispecies identity in the postcolonial present of South India. Ultimately, the project aims to position the role of humanities in general and South Indian fiction in particular within the global academia for discussing the ongoing environmental precarity and climate change.
Joelle Hajal, School of Business - The Economic Burden of Foodborne Disease: A Systematic Review of Cost Frameworks and Economic Perspectives in High‑Income Countries
Background and Objectives: Foodborne diseases pose a public health challenge, generating substantial socioeconomic impacts on health‑care systems, individuals, businesses and governments. The analysis of the economic burden of foodborne diseases is often focused on direct costs and hence, the study aimed to systematically review different aspects of the economic burden of foodborne disease in high-income countries.
Methods: Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, EconLit, CINAHL, Scopus, Business Source Complete, SocINDEX, APA PsycInfo and Web of Science) and grey literature were searched to March 2025. No restrictions were placed on study design. Two reviewers independently screened all records and extracted data on methodological characteristics, foodborne disease details and economic characteristics. Study quality was assessed using a fourteen‑item tool. A narrative synthesis summarised findings across three dimensions: cost domains (direct medical, direct non‑medical, indirect and intangible), specific cost components within each domain, and the economic perspectives adopted.
Results: Ninety studies from 21 countries were included, most from North America and Europe, with the United States contributing nearly half. Direct medical costs were reported in 90% of studies, while direct non‑medical, indirect and intangible costs were less consistently captured (76%, 41% and 37%). Hospital care, outpatient visits and medication costs were the most frequently reported components, whereas public health response costs, household out‑of‑pocket expenses and industry losses were often omitted. Most studies adopted a societal perspective (76%).
Conclusion: Foodborne disease imposes a substantial yet consistently underestimated economic burden in high‑income countries, as studies typically report narrow, medically focused costs and rarely capture the full societal impact.
Methods: Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, EconLit, CINAHL, Scopus, Business Source Complete, SocINDEX, APA PsycInfo and Web of Science) and grey literature were searched to March 2025. No restrictions were placed on study design. Two reviewers independently screened all records and extracted data on methodological characteristics, foodborne disease details and economic characteristics. Study quality was assessed using a fourteen‑item tool. A narrative synthesis summarised findings across three dimensions: cost domains (direct medical, direct non‑medical, indirect and intangible), specific cost components within each domain, and the economic perspectives adopted.
Results: Ninety studies from 21 countries were included, most from North America and Europe, with the United States contributing nearly half. Direct medical costs were reported in 90% of studies, while direct non‑medical, indirect and intangible costs were less consistently captured (76%, 41% and 37%). Hospital care, outpatient visits and medication costs were the most frequently reported components, whereas public health response costs, household out‑of‑pocket expenses and industry losses were often omitted. Most studies adopted a societal perspective (76%).
Conclusion: Foodborne disease imposes a substantial yet consistently underestimated economic burden in high‑income countries, as studies typically report narrow, medically focused costs and rarely capture the full societal impact.
Huong Ho, School of Arts - A developmental portrait of acquiring Vietnamese as a second language
Vietnamese is recognised as a community language in several countries including Australia, and taught in university programmes worldwide (Tran, 2018; Phan & Sakach, 2026). Nevertheless, the acquisition of Vietnamese as a second language remains underexplored within theories of language processing. This study addresses that gap by investigating how Vietnamese L2 learners acquire structures in the language, within the framework of the Lexical Mapping Hypothesis (Pienemann et al., 2005; Bettoni & Di Biase, 2015) and Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998). Longitudinal data were elicited from adult learners of Vietnamese as a second language over three to nine months, using speaking tasks designed to prompt varied sentence types. Results show a consistent developmental pattern across learners, who initially rely on default mapping, assigning the most prominent thematic role, the agent, to subject function, before progressing through default mapping with an additional argument and finally to non-default mapping, where the least prominent thematic role functions as subject. These findings may inform the teaching of Vietnamese to Vietnamese second language learners. As Vietnamese is an Austroasiatic language, they may also contribute to the typological validity of the Lexical Mapping Hypothesis and Processability Theory, which are supported across several other language families (Kawaguchi et al., 2023).
Orion Wan, School of Arts - The Dynamics of Learner Agency and Teacher’s Translanguaging Practices in Chinese as a Foreign Language Classrooms
This study investigates how learner agency is dynamically enacted and developed through teacher’s translanguaging practices in an introductory Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) classroom at an Australian university. Drawing on a multilingual ecological perspective, translanguaging theory, and Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), it examines the reciprocal relationship between teacher’s translanguaging practices and learner agency in teacher-student classroom interactions over one semester. Although previous studies have examined learner agency and translanguaging separately, limited research has explored how teacher’s translanguaging practices create affordances for learner agency, how learner agency responds to these practices, and how teachers subsequently adapt their translanguaging practices over time in CFL classrooms. A longitudinal multiple-case study design will be employed. Data will be collected through classroom video recordings, semi-structured interviews incorporating stimulated recall, teacher reflective logbooks, and supplementary contextual data such as classroom artefacts and classroom field notes. The study employs multimodal interaction analysis using ELAN to examine micro-level interactional processes, complemented by NVivo-assisted thematic analysis to trace learners’ developmental trajectories.This study is expected to demonstrate that learner agency and teacher’s translanguaging practices are dynamically co-constructed through ongoing classroom interactions, providing new insights into the reciprocal development of teaching practices and learner agency in Australian CFL classrooms.
Chloe Robach, School of Education - An exploration into the lived experiences of same-sex headed families: Examining how young people and their parents/caregivers navigate the Australian secondary school system
This thesis explores the lived experiences of same-sex headed families (SSHF) as they navigate secondary schooling in Australia. While current literature in the field explores diverse and vital perspectives including parents, teachers, and medical professionals, there is currently limited data that introduces young people’s voices in this important academic conversation. Semi-structured interviews with two participant groups: same-sex parents and young people (aged 16-26) raised in SSHF, will elevate the voices of those who are central to much political and academic investigation. This research utilises feminist and queer theory frameworks and draws on a poststructuralist lens with specific focus on core principals such as subjectivity, power, surveillance and discourse. This work explores a critical intersection of worlds between education and identity by investigating the role of family structure and correlations to lived experience within the institution of the school. This thesis is a work in progress and is currently at the data collection stage.
Wasfi Al-Share - From Technical Alerts to Meaningful Insights: A Behaviour-Driven Framework for Cybersecurity Risk Interpretation in High School BYOD Environments
Many schools have Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies; as such, they produce massive amounts of cybersecurity-related data. These technologies may be able to provide early warnings about possible risks, but many times educators or school personnel do not have the technological knowledge to properly evaluate security-related data or make decisions based on that evaluation. To address this issue, the current research is attempting to convert technical data regarding cybersecurity threats into behavioural-based explanations for use by educators.
Using Sensemaking Theory as the basis for the research, the investigation employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. The initial phase of the investigation was to determine how educators understand and respond to cybersecurity breaches occurring in BYOD settings. The findings from this initial phase will be used to develop a behaviourally oriented framework that utilises a large language model (LLM) to translate technical cybersecurity alerts into understandable language for educators. Once developed, the new framework would be tested using educators to assess their usability and feasibility in supporting educators' decision-making processes when it comes to managing cyber-risk in schools.
Through providing a methodological integration of views from fields including cybersecurity, education, and artificial intelligence (AI), this research provides evidence towards improving communication between technical data-generating systems and non-technical stakeholders. This research seeks to support educators responding to students' potential cybersecurity risks and increase educators' engagement in managing cyber-risks in schools.
Using Sensemaking Theory as the basis for the research, the investigation employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. The initial phase of the investigation was to determine how educators understand and respond to cybersecurity breaches occurring in BYOD settings. The findings from this initial phase will be used to develop a behaviourally oriented framework that utilises a large language model (LLM) to translate technical cybersecurity alerts into understandable language for educators. Once developed, the new framework would be tested using educators to assess their usability and feasibility in supporting educators' decision-making processes when it comes to managing cyber-risk in schools.
Through providing a methodological integration of views from fields including cybersecurity, education, and artificial intelligence (AI), this research provides evidence towards improving communication between technical data-generating systems and non-technical stakeholders. This research seeks to support educators responding to students' potential cybersecurity risks and increase educators' engagement in managing cyber-risks in schools.
Jing Li - International HDR Students’ Critical Engagement with GenAI in Intercultural Written Communication
This study explores how international Higher Degree Research students from non-English-speaking backgrounds critically engage with generative AI when composing emails to their supervisors at an Australian university. It focuses on how students negotiate linguistic accuracy and intercultural appropriateness, particularly when deciding whether to accept, reject, or modify AI-generated suggestions.
The study draws on students’ original email drafts, GenAI-generated revisions, and final emails, together with semi-structured interviews. By examining textual changes alongside students’ reflections, the research investigates how students evaluate GenAI output, make communicative decisions, and retain control over the meanings, voices, and relationships constructed through their emails.
Beyond viewing GenAI simply as a language-correction tool, this study conceptualises it as a mediational resource through which multilingual doctoral researchers navigate the linguistic, cultural, and relational demands of everyday supervisory communication.
It also considers how GenAI-supported writing may shape students’ linguistic confidence, intercultural awareness, and sense of writing agency. Data analysis is currently underway, and the presentation will discuss the study’s analytical approach and emerging observations. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how multilingual HDR students exercise judgement, preserve their communicative intentions, and negotiate linguistic and intercultural appropriateness in AI-mediated academic communication.
The study draws on students’ original email drafts, GenAI-generated revisions, and final emails, together with semi-structured interviews. By examining textual changes alongside students’ reflections, the research investigates how students evaluate GenAI output, make communicative decisions, and retain control over the meanings, voices, and relationships constructed through their emails.
Beyond viewing GenAI simply as a language-correction tool, this study conceptualises it as a mediational resource through which multilingual doctoral researchers navigate the linguistic, cultural, and relational demands of everyday supervisory communication.
It also considers how GenAI-supported writing may shape students’ linguistic confidence, intercultural awareness, and sense of writing agency. Data analysis is currently underway, and the presentation will discuss the study’s analytical approach and emerging observations. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how multilingual HDR students exercise judgement, preserve their communicative intentions, and negotiate linguistic and intercultural appropriateness in AI-mediated academic communication.
Lillian Tame, Institute for Culture and Society - 'My body is not a start point, end point kind of thing': exploring the embodiments and expressions of nonbinary and genderqueer Australians
The everyday lives of trans people have become the subject of social, cultural, and political debates across Australia and internationally. As trans and gender diverse bodies are increasingly vilified and demonised, there is a need to understand how trans and nonbinary people experience their social worlds in and through their bodies. However, much of the current literature on nonbinary bodies is medicalised and centres pathologising discourse, or subsumes nonbinary people under the broader trans umbrella. By bringing together trans and nonbinary research, the anthropology of the body, and digital media studies, this project adopts an interdisciplinary approach to explore nonbinary bodies and embodiments. Using interviews and a creative, digital method termed social media photo elicitation, this research seeks to gain deeper visual and tangible insights into how nonbinary people feel, live through, and experience their bodies. This presentation will explore emerging findings on how bodies become sites to negotiate and express gender and other bodily identities, and how embodied feelings and experiences unfold across space and time. This work interrogates normative, medicalised assumptions of trans bodies and presents nonbinary as individualised and expansive, opening up potentialities for a range of genderqueer embodiments, experiences, and expressions.
Wenjing Liu, School of Arts - Translating Material Cultural Reference in Qing- Dynasty Literature across Genres
The project adopts a descriptive methodological framework to explore how material cultural references in three major Qing-dynasty classics, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Peach Blossom Fan, and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, are adapted or retained in English Translation. Representing the novel, drama, and short story respectively, these works form a cross-genre comparative corpus that includes translations produced by both Chinese and non-Chinese translations. Grounded in Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), the study applies comparative textual analysis to four observable operational strategies, namely simplification, explicitation, standardisation, and omission. It examines recurrent translation patterns in the treatment of material cultural references and considers whether these patterns vary according to genre-specific conventions. The project also integrates cross-genre textual analysis with a limited supplementary comparison of AI translation as a non-normative comparative baseline. By applying a consistent descriptive framework across three literary genres, the study seeks to contributes Descriptive Translation Studies by extending the analysis of operational norms beyond individual texts or genres and providing a cross-genre basis for examining shared translation tendencies and possible genre- specific variation in translation patterns.
Hugo Borbilas, School of Arts - Beneath the Stars: How Religion is Represented in Australian Literature
This project examines the role that religion has played in the history and development of Australian literature, with a thesis consisting of two notions. Firstly, although many would consider Australia to be a largely secular society (a dynamic which is itself an influence upon Australia’s literature), religious and spiritual beliefs have always played a role in its self-conceptualisation. This includes the spirituality of the First Nations, the Christian beliefs in which colonising nations sought their mandate to do so, and the many religions which exist in the multicultural Australia of today. All of these traditions have produced literature.
Secondly, religion seems to be increasingly discussed in relation to Australian identity (particularly in Western Sydney and other ethnically-diverse geographical areas), and so it is useful to analyse how Australian literature has been influenced by religion (or secularity) as different groups come into conflict with the secular, settler-colonial mainstream. The inference will likely be that contemporary Australia (and its literature) is not as secular as it may appear from an Anglo-Celtic perspective.
This project consists of an exegetical component and a creative writing component, and will be presented using the outline of the former and excerpts from the latter.
Secondly, religion seems to be increasingly discussed in relation to Australian identity (particularly in Western Sydney and other ethnically-diverse geographical areas), and so it is useful to analyse how Australian literature has been influenced by religion (or secularity) as different groups come into conflict with the secular, settler-colonial mainstream. The inference will likely be that contemporary Australia (and its literature) is not as secular as it may appear from an Anglo-Celtic perspective.
This project consists of an exegetical component and a creative writing component, and will be presented using the outline of the former and excerpts from the latter.
Peipei Sun, School of Business - Artificial Intelligence as an Enabler of R&D Persistence Following Innovation Failure
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how firms interpret and respond to unfavorable outcomes in technological innovation. Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm and organizational learning perspective, this study conceptualizes innovation failure as negative performance feedback that may induce firms to retrench subsequent R&D investment. We examine whether AI enables firms to sustain their commitment to R&D following innovation failure. Using a panel of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2024, we find that innovation failure is associated with lower subsequent R&D investment intensity, whereas AI significantly attenuates this negative relationship. Additional analyses provide evidence consistent with three enabling channels: AI facilitates the integration of failure-related knowledge, supports more informed risk reassessment, and alleviates financing constraints. The enabling effect of AI on post-failure R&D persistence is stronger in firms led by CEOs with an information technology background, in non-state-owned enterprises, and in firms operating under greater environmental uncertainty. These findings suggest that AI does not merely promote innovation directly; it also strengthens firms’ capacity to process negative feedback, adapt their R&D strategies, and maintain innovation-related resource commitments following innovation failure.
Jenny Whalan, School of Arts - Who Needs an Audience? Reconceptualising Successful Performance in an Inclusive Music Workshop for Students with Unique Learning Needs
This presentation sits at the intersection of music therapy, music education, and inclusive/specialist education — disciplines that rarely overlap when it comes to what counts as "successful performance." Conventionally, performative music events are judged against a live audience's response; in specialist education settings, this assumption can itself become a quiet barrier to participation for students with Unique Learning Needs operating before questions of access or ability are even reached.
Drawing on focus group data and researcher observation from a music therapy performative workshop delivered within a specialist education setting, this presentation examines what staff attitudes toward the workshop reveal about understandings of successful performance for this population — and what happens when music education's performance norms meet music therapy's person-centred framing of "success."
The presentation argues for reconceptualising "successful performance" for students with Unique Learning Needs : Event success need not depend on a live audience, and video/photographic documentation can itself function as the performance's realisation —providing a reframe with implications across music education, allied health, and inclusive education practice.
Drawing on focus group data and researcher observation from a music therapy performative workshop delivered within a specialist education setting, this presentation examines what staff attitudes toward the workshop reveal about understandings of successful performance for this population — and what happens when music education's performance norms meet music therapy's person-centred framing of "success."
The presentation argues for reconceptualising "successful performance" for students with Unique Learning Needs : Event success need not depend on a live audience, and video/photographic documentation can itself function as the performance's realisation —providing a reframe with implications across music education, allied health, and inclusive education practice.
Joanne Dunca - Early childhood teachers as leaders: Leadership perceptions and practices of early childhood teachers as centre directors in council-based early childhood services
Leadership is a crucial enabling factor in achieving high-quality programs in early childhood education and care (Douglass, 2019; Heikinnen et al., 2024; Movahedazarhouligh et al., 2022). Effective leadership in early childhood settings can foster positive workplace culture (Thorpe et al., 2020), sustain the workforce (Downey et al., 2024; Garret & Gibbs, 2025) and promote educator wellbeing (Ciuciu, 2023). Early childhood teachers are highly likely to take on these demanding leadership roles and responsibilities as Centre Directors in early childhood settings, but they feel overwhelmed and unprepared (Sims et al., 2015) resulting to burnout and exiting the profession (Heikka et al., 2021).
This qualitative research aims to respond to the lack of studies focused on leadership in early childhood education by answering how leadership is perceived and experienced by early childhood teachers as centre directors in council-based services. Semi-structured interviews with council-based centre directors followed by thematic analysis will be conducted to find out what are their leadership enablers, barriers and support needs and how their leadership practices align with or differ from leadership models promoted in early childhood policy and literature.
This qualitative research aims to respond to the lack of studies focused on leadership in early childhood education by answering how leadership is perceived and experienced by early childhood teachers as centre directors in council-based services. Semi-structured interviews with council-based centre directors followed by thematic analysis will be conducted to find out what are their leadership enablers, barriers and support needs and how their leadership practices align with or differ from leadership models promoted in early childhood policy and literature.
Josh Honeyman, School of Arts - The Reflective Art Studio: AI Image Generation and Handmade Practice.
This presentation situates AI image generation within a lineage of contested visual media, where AI arrives as the latest episode in a longer history of visual technologies that disturb ideas of authorship, creativity, and material practice.
As with the camera in the nineteenth century, AI image generators are frequently positioned as inauthentic, soulless, and disruptive to established artistic practice. Yet historical precedents suggest that such technologies do not eliminate creativity but instead reconfigure how it operates.
I place AI image generators within a reflective practice‑led trajectory that moves from analogue photomontage and early Photoshop compositing to a contemporary workflow combining AI outputs, motion graphics, and large‑scale drawing. Margaret Boden’s (2003) model of combinational, exploratory, and transformational creativity is used to examine how creative agency can manifest in human or non-human processes. Rather than erasing creativity, AI introduces a fast, opaque point at which combinatory and exploratory operations are carried out by the AI itself; while the conditions for transformative work are possible in the subsequent, slower phases of human creative practice. Donald Schön’s (1992) concept of reflection‑in‑action and reflection‑on‑action are critical for examining how creativity occurs across the stages of the workflow. While AI processes appear to displace reflection, it simultaneously generates novel images that can then be re-engaged through critical reflective and materially grounded studio practices.
My own studio process follows a gradient of creative control, where I move from AI-generated image variations to layered digital composites, motion graphic sequences, and finally, large-scale handmade gestural drawings. The minimal authorship at the point of AI generation increases to partial control in digital manipulation and culminates in studio-based, intuitive mark-making. This creative practice allows for critical reflection, material knowledge, and temporal duration as counterpoints to the loss of agency that occurs when using AI.
This presentation argues that AI image generators need not be disruptive, autonomous creative agents, but useful components within a broader system of distributed creativity. Rather than signaling the erosion of artistic authorship, AI can be situated within a historical pattern in which new technologies are initially rejected before being absorbed and transformed. Within this context, the handmade artefact remains central, functioning as the site where technologically mediated images are critically reworked, embodied, and made meaningful through human reflection and material engagement.
As with the camera in the nineteenth century, AI image generators are frequently positioned as inauthentic, soulless, and disruptive to established artistic practice. Yet historical precedents suggest that such technologies do not eliminate creativity but instead reconfigure how it operates.
I place AI image generators within a reflective practice‑led trajectory that moves from analogue photomontage and early Photoshop compositing to a contemporary workflow combining AI outputs, motion graphics, and large‑scale drawing. Margaret Boden’s (2003) model of combinational, exploratory, and transformational creativity is used to examine how creative agency can manifest in human or non-human processes. Rather than erasing creativity, AI introduces a fast, opaque point at which combinatory and exploratory operations are carried out by the AI itself; while the conditions for transformative work are possible in the subsequent, slower phases of human creative practice. Donald Schön’s (1992) concept of reflection‑in‑action and reflection‑on‑action are critical for examining how creativity occurs across the stages of the workflow. While AI processes appear to displace reflection, it simultaneously generates novel images that can then be re-engaged through critical reflective and materially grounded studio practices.
My own studio process follows a gradient of creative control, where I move from AI-generated image variations to layered digital composites, motion graphic sequences, and finally, large-scale handmade gestural drawings. The minimal authorship at the point of AI generation increases to partial control in digital manipulation and culminates in studio-based, intuitive mark-making. This creative practice allows for critical reflection, material knowledge, and temporal duration as counterpoints to the loss of agency that occurs when using AI.
This presentation argues that AI image generators need not be disruptive, autonomous creative agents, but useful components within a broader system of distributed creativity. Rather than signaling the erosion of artistic authorship, AI can be situated within a historical pattern in which new technologies are initially rejected before being absorbed and transformed. Within this context, the handmade artefact remains central, functioning as the site where technologically mediated images are critically reworked, embodied, and made meaningful through human reflection and material engagement.
Zainab Dhafer A Alshehri - Intercultural Communication Anxiety: Examining Multiple Perspectives of Saudi Women EFL Students Under the Microscope
Many Saudi women EFL students experience anxiety when communicating with international teachers, limiting their participation in classroom interaction and language learning. Previous research has often examined linguistic, sociocultural, and psychological factors separately. This study argues that these factors are closely interconnected and should be understood within broader intercultural power relations. It also considers how power distance may influence teacher–student interactions in intercultural classrooms. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and stimulated recall interviews. The data were analysed using NVivo and ELAN. The findings show that students' anxiety cannot be explained simply by limited vocabulary, unfamiliar English accents, or fear of negative evaluation. Instead, these experiences are intertwined with students' psychological responses and intercultural interactions within a context where unequal power relations and the dominant position of English influence classroom communication. The findings suggest that intercultural communication anxiety is not merely an individual issue or a lack of personal confidence but reflects broader linguistic, institutional, and interpersonal conditions that shape students' opportunities to participate. This study contributes to a more holistic understanding of intercultural communication anxiety. It highlights the importance of creating more equitable classroom practices that support meaningful participation and communication between Saudi women EFL students and international teachers.
Pushpa Coulton - Enabling Quality Practices in Early Childhood Education and Care: A Theory of Practice Architectures Analysis
In Australia, the National Quality Framework (NQF) positions quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as central to children’s learning and wellbeing, yet educators’ capacity to enact quality practices is often constrained by systemic conditions. This study examines the misalignment between policy expectations for intentional, relational and reflective practice and the structural, process and relational conditions shaping educators’ work. Research identifies tensions between policy discourses of quality and educators’ professional realities and autonomy (Hunkin, 2018; Irvine et al., 2023). This misalignment reflects the gap between expectations for high-quality practice and educators’ actual capacity to enact these expectations within existing staffing, workload, time and documentation conditions. Guided by the Theory of Practice Architectures (TPA), the study analyses how cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements shape educators’ sayings, doings and relatings, enabling or constraining everyday practice (Gibbs et al., 2022; Cooke & Francisco, 2020). Using an integrated mixed-methods design, the project comprises a scoping review, a critical policy analysis, and a workplace study in council-managed ECEC settings to identify enabling conditions and generate context-specific recommendations for aligning practice with regulatory expectations.
Sushmita Dawadi, School of Social Sciences - Researching women with disabilities in the global South: Research method and approaches
Disability narratives rooted in Northern philosophy often fail to portray the nuances of Southern contexts, particularly those of disabled women whose realities are defined through intersectional identities. Understanding gendered Southern disability through the lived experiences of women ex-combatants in post-conflict Nepal thus requires an approach that listens, respects, and interprets the complexities of their experience. In my research, considering their marginalisation, my research designed methodology that enabled research participants to express themselves as bodies of differences and provided an opportunity to explore the complexity and nuances of their intersectional identities.
Drawing on life-story inquiry method to collect and interpret their narratives, reflective thematic analysis that is often equated with the study of subjectivity, allowed to uncover the lived realities of disabled women, having a background of direct connection to the armed conflict in Nepal. Considering the vulnerability of this research population due to direct connection to the armed conflict, adoption of trauma-informed method, adaption and reflection provided an opportunity to ensure meaningful inclusion, manage biases and to reduce potential risk of re-traumatisation in participants.
Drawing on life-story inquiry method to collect and interpret their narratives, reflective thematic analysis that is often equated with the study of subjectivity, allowed to uncover the lived realities of disabled women, having a background of direct connection to the armed conflict in Nepal. Considering the vulnerability of this research population due to direct connection to the armed conflict, adoption of trauma-informed method, adaption and reflection provided an opportunity to ensure meaningful inclusion, manage biases and to reduce potential risk of re-traumatisation in participants.
Poonkulali Govintharajah - When Two Worlds Meet: Understanding Mental Health Across Generations in the Australian Sri Lankan Tamil Community
Mental health is not understood in the same way by every community. Within long-established Australian Sri Lankan Tamil families, different generations have grown up in different cultural, historical and social worlds, each shaping how distress is recognised, spoken about and responded to. This presentation explores how an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on community psychology and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory helped make sense of these different experiences. Using in-depth interviews with intergenerational family members, staff and volunteers from NGO’s, focus groups of community members and intergenerational families, the study explores how understandings of psychological distress developed within families, community and the broader Australian context. Rather than revealing a simple difference in mental health literacy between generations, the findings suggest that each generation utilised different frameworks for understanding and responding to psychological distress, shaped by war, migration, culture, and community experiences. This presentation reflects on how bringing together different theories and perspectives provided a richer understanding of these findings. It argues that interdisciplinary approaches can help researchers move beyond deficit-based explanations and towards culturally responsive ways of understanding mental health in diverse communities.
Jennifer Don - Approaching the Platonic Dialogues through a 'Theatrical Imagining'
Scholarly interpretations of Plato's dialogues are traditionally undertaken with a focus on the arguments presented. My inquiry pushes against this orthodoxy by giving primacy to the dramatic elements that 'characterise' dialogue and distinguish it from other literary forms. I interrogate what these dramatic elements bring to the table in 'opening up' an interpretation of the Platonic dialogues. My project endeavours to challenge the long held scholarly notion that the dialogues stop short of being theatrical by defining the theatrical from a practising theatrical perspective and extending on the dramatic to include what constitutes the theatricality of the dialogues. I draw on my thirty five years experience as a theatre director to inform my approach to the dialogues by undertaking what I call a 'theatrical imagining'. My overall project explores the intersection between theatre and philosophy, looking at the parallels between the scholarly and the theatrical interpretative process and mission, and suggest that the dialogue form itself is central to such an argument. I have chosen Plato's Phaedrus in order to particularly examine the work of image in mounting an argument for Plato's theatricality, and perform what I call a 'theatrical imagining' of this dialogue. I argue that the Platonic dialogues are driven by the interrelationship between speech (logos) and action (ergon) as the unique Socratic philosophical pursuit, and that a focus on the dramatic/theatrical significance of the dialogues allows this connection to be more fully realised.
Shuyu Si, School of Business - Supply-chain Spillover Effect of Executive ESG-linked Compensation
Executive ESG-linked Compensation plays as a corporate governance tool by incorporating long-term sustainability objectives into executive incentives. A growing body of literature has examined this phenomenon and its impacts. However, most existing studies focus primarily on the internal firm-level effects of ESG compensation, with limited attention to its external spillover effects on stakeholders beyond the focal firm, particularly in the supply chain context. This study shows that the adoption of ESG compensation by focal firms can generate spillover effects to upstream suppliers.
This study conducts an empirical analysis using a lead-lag regression model with U.S.-listed firms as focal firms and their domestic and global customers identified.
The findings show that suppliers respond to their supply chain partners’ implementation of ESG-linked executive compensation through both enhanced ESG reporting and improved ESG Performance. By comparing disclosure-based versus practice-based spillover outcomes, this research further assesses the external spillover of ESG decoupling within supply chain networks.
This study contributes to the literature on ESG decoupling by shedding light on how such ESG incentive-based compensation mechanisms can foster reducing ESG risk throughout the value chain. In addition, this study offers practical policy implications for addressing corporate ESG decoupling.
This study conducts an empirical analysis using a lead-lag regression model with U.S.-listed firms as focal firms and their domestic and global customers identified.
The findings show that suppliers respond to their supply chain partners’ implementation of ESG-linked executive compensation through both enhanced ESG reporting and improved ESG Performance. By comparing disclosure-based versus practice-based spillover outcomes, this research further assesses the external spillover of ESG decoupling within supply chain networks.
This study contributes to the literature on ESG decoupling by shedding light on how such ESG incentive-based compensation mechanisms can foster reducing ESG risk throughout the value chain. In addition, this study offers practical policy implications for addressing corporate ESG decoupling.
Tandeep Brar
Culturally and linguistically responsive practices of educators in Australian early childhood and care settings
Culturally and linguistically responsive practices of educators in Australian early childhood and care settings
This research will explore how educators in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings understand, implement and resource Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy (CLRP). Conducted within Kids’ Early Learning Services across the Blacktown Local Government Area in Western Sydney, the study will investigate how educators’ knowledge of CLRP influences their pedagogical practices and supports engagement with culturally and linguistically diverse children and families
CLRP is an asset-based approach that recognises children’s cultural knowledge, lived experiences and home languages as valuable resources for learning and development. While the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 identifies cultural responsiveness as a core pedagogical practice but ignoring linguistic responsiveness and the National Quality Standard requires services to respect and value cultural and linguistic diversity, there is limited guidance provided regarding the practical implementation of CLRP in early childhood settings. Drawing on the researcher’s extensive experience in multicultural ECEC contexts and existing literature highlighting the strong relationship between language, culture and identity, this study will examine educators’ understanding of CLRP, how culturally and linguistically responsive practices are represented within Australian policy frameworks, and the knowledge and resources educators require to implement these practices effectively. The findings aim to inform professional learning, strengthen culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy and support more inclusive environments that recognise and celebrate diverse cultural and linguistic identities of young children and their families.
CLRP is an asset-based approach that recognises children’s cultural knowledge, lived experiences and home languages as valuable resources for learning and development. While the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 identifies cultural responsiveness as a core pedagogical practice but ignoring linguistic responsiveness and the National Quality Standard requires services to respect and value cultural and linguistic diversity, there is limited guidance provided regarding the practical implementation of CLRP in early childhood settings. Drawing on the researcher’s extensive experience in multicultural ECEC contexts and existing literature highlighting the strong relationship between language, culture and identity, this study will examine educators’ understanding of CLRP, how culturally and linguistically responsive practices are represented within Australian policy frameworks, and the knowledge and resources educators require to implement these practices effectively. The findings aim to inform professional learning, strengthen culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy and support more inclusive environments that recognise and celebrate diverse cultural and linguistic identities of young children and their families.
Sonia Reyes - Educators’ perception of small group learning
This study investigates early childhood educators’ perceptions of small group learning (SGL) in long day care settings. Prompted by practice-based observations and emerging evidence that intentionally planned small groups enhance children’s engagement, participation, confidence, and cooperation, the research examines how educators conceptualise and enact SGL in their daily practice. It addresses gaps in the literature relating to classroom organisation, educator decision-making, group size, and the practical constraints that shape SGL in early childhood education and care. Using a qualitative design with semi‑structured interviews and guided by Bacchi’s “What is the Problem Represented to be?” framework, the study also explores how policy influences understandings of pedagogy, quality, and grouping practices. Combined with a scoping review and policy analysis, the research provides a contextually grounded account of SGL and its role in supporting effective teaching and learning in long day care environments.
GROUP PRESENTATION – MEDIA LITERACY - Alex Wharton, Institute for Culture and Society; Daisy De Windt, School of Arts; Batool Aljafri, School of Arts - Navigating Information Ecosystems: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Media Literacy
This panel brings together three HDR researchers from SABEL and the Institute for Culture and Society to explore the multifaceted landscape of media literacy and its intersections with related disciplines.
As digital information ecosystems grow increasingly complex, leading to a range of real-world challenges, understanding how audiences consume and interpret media demands research that boldly crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Our panel showcases how blending distinct approaches— including cultural studies, education, health promotion, psychology, and sociology—can help address contemporary media challenges. Alex focuses on the micro-social level, exploring family-based practices to understand how digital resilience is cultivated within the home. Daisy is investigating health misinformation in Australia: taking a media literacy approach combined with evidence from health promotion and psychology. Batool is blends digital sociology and how youth navigate mis/disinformation on emerging technologies, specifically GenAI chatbots.
Together, these diverse projects demonstrate how integrating varied qualitative methods, cultural theories, and lived worlds opens vital new conversations and insights into how media literacy can empower us in our fractured digital age. How do you see media literacy intersecting with your own work as an HDR – both personally and professionally in your research?
As digital information ecosystems grow increasingly complex, leading to a range of real-world challenges, understanding how audiences consume and interpret media demands research that boldly crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Our panel showcases how blending distinct approaches— including cultural studies, education, health promotion, psychology, and sociology—can help address contemporary media challenges. Alex focuses on the micro-social level, exploring family-based practices to understand how digital resilience is cultivated within the home. Daisy is investigating health misinformation in Australia: taking a media literacy approach combined with evidence from health promotion and psychology. Batool is blends digital sociology and how youth navigate mis/disinformation on emerging technologies, specifically GenAI chatbots.
Together, these diverse projects demonstrate how integrating varied qualitative methods, cultural theories, and lived worlds opens vital new conversations and insights into how media literacy can empower us in our fractured digital age. How do you see media literacy intersecting with your own work as an HDR – both personally and professionally in your research?
Daisy De Windt, School of Arts - Health Misinformation in Australia: A Mixed-Methods Multidisciplinary Research Project
Health misinformation is an old problem with new avenues for reach. Today we live in bespoke and overcrowded online information environments that can leave us overwhelmed, confused and vulnerable to being misled. Evidence suggests that health misinformation is leading to real-world negative consequences such as reducing the impact of public health campaigns, people substituting untested remedies for evidence-based treatments, and driving the purchase of products that falsely claim health benefits. This PhD project is investigating health misinformation in Australia to better understand how Australian adults find information related to their health, and what information they trust and why. Employing a mixed-methods design, this project will invite two groups of participants to take part: health service users and healthcare providers. This presentation will share the project’s study design and its theoretical underpinnings which originate from the disciplines of media studies, psychology, and the health sciences. The intention of this project is to contribute towards the design of tools and resources to help Australians effectively navigate online information environments to source reliable information to inform optimal healthcare decisions.
Alex Wharton, Institute for Culture and Society - Navigating New Worlds Together: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Family Media Literacy
This presentation explores how families in regional New South Wales integrate digital media into their daily routines, advancing a practice-based framework of "digital flourishing." Aligning with the conference theme of Interdisciplinary Perspectives, this research blends methods, theories, and worlds to understand media literacy beyond traditional disciplinary silos. Drawing on an ethnographic, multiphase qualitative methodology, the study crosses boundaries by combining semi-structured interviews, observational home visits, and participatory intergenerational workshops.
By bridging the sociology of the family, media and cultural studies, and educational theory, this research analyses the complex, interconnected ecosystem of the modern home. Engaging eight families across two regional sites, the findings reveal that media use is deeply relational, seamlessly blending the digital and physical worlds. Rather than viewing media through a purely restrictive or deficit-based lens, the digital flourishing framework empowers families to critically and intentionally utilize media to maximise wellbeing and foster connection. By merging academic inquiry with the lived realities of regional households, this research highlights the necessity of contextualised, cross-disciplinary approaches to media literacy education, opening new conversations on how families can thrive in an interconnected landscape.
By bridging the sociology of the family, media and cultural studies, and educational theory, this research analyses the complex, interconnected ecosystem of the modern home. Engaging eight families across two regional sites, the findings reveal that media use is deeply relational, seamlessly blending the digital and physical worlds. Rather than viewing media through a purely restrictive or deficit-based lens, the digital flourishing framework empowers families to critically and intentionally utilize media to maximise wellbeing and foster connection. By merging academic inquiry with the lived realities of regional households, this research highlights the necessity of contextualised, cross-disciplinary approaches to media literacy education, opening new conversations on how families can thrive in an interconnected landscape.
Suzanne Hauser, Writing and Society - Being Real about the Fictional Past: The Deployment of Archival Material in Contemporary Australian Historical Fiction
This paper will speak to the conference theme of blending worlds. In the endeavour to produce complete and compelling narratives set in convincing, authentic feeling past worlds, authors of historical fiction must bring the creative processes of storytelling to the events of the past as they can be understood from the accessible remnants. Those remnants – archives, artefacts, memories – are inherently incomplete and subjective. What is at stake is the truth-telling of history and the readers’ willingness to engage with a fictional narrative. This paper investigates how excerpts from archival documents – quotations of text and visual reproductions – presented directly to the reader, give visceral authority to the fictional depiction of a past world, while simultaneously foregrounding the gaps within archives and inviting their scrutiny. By building a fictional narrative incorporating excerpts from public archives, my research asks, is it possible to immerse the reader in the wrenching personal and social destruction of the First World War, creating a past world that is true to the experiences of the people who lived in it, while being honest and forthright about the limitations of the evidence my narrative (and Australian cultural memory) relies on?
Meryem Maide Agalday, School of Arts - Instıtutıonal Analysıs of Dıgıtal Humanıtıes Centers: A Vısualızatıon Study
Digital humanities centres are institutional drivers of digital transformation in the humanities and social sciences. Beyond providing technical support, they foster interdisciplinary research, offer methodological guidance, develop digital projects, deliver training, and enable new forms of knowledge production. Their expertise supports work in digital archives, text mining, geographic information systems, network analysis, data visualisation, artificial intelligence, open science, and digital cultural heritage. However, centres vary considerably in institutional structure, research priorities, educational provision, infrastructure, collaboration, public engagement, ethics, inclusion, and sustainability.
This qualitative comparative study examines actively operating digital humanities centres worldwide. Centres, laboratories, institutes, hubs, and related infrastructures will be identified through official institutional websites and recognised international directories. A purposive sample will ensure geographical and institutional diversity. Data will be collected through digital document analysis of websites, annual reports, project pages, training programmes, publications, staff profiles, and strategic documents. Themes will be coded as documented, not identified in the reviewed sources, or unclear. Where documented, operational forms such as workshops, degree programmes, consultancy, digitisation services, and community partnerships will be described without ranking. Binary institutional profiles, overlaid visualisations, a presence absence heatmap, and an operational form matrix will support cross case comparison and reveal recurring models, shared functions, distinctive practices, and regional variations.
This qualitative comparative study examines actively operating digital humanities centres worldwide. Centres, laboratories, institutes, hubs, and related infrastructures will be identified through official institutional websites and recognised international directories. A purposive sample will ensure geographical and institutional diversity. Data will be collected through digital document analysis of websites, annual reports, project pages, training programmes, publications, staff profiles, and strategic documents. Themes will be coded as documented, not identified in the reviewed sources, or unclear. Where documented, operational forms such as workshops, degree programmes, consultancy, digitisation services, and community partnerships will be described without ranking. Binary institutional profiles, overlaid visualisations, a presence absence heatmap, and an operational form matrix will support cross case comparison and reveal recurring models, shared functions, distinctive practices, and regional variations.
Banu Umapathy - Enhancing Educators’ Professional Capacity to Manage Children’s Challenging Behaviours Through Virtual Communities of Practice in Early Childhood Settings
Early childhood educators play a pivotal role in supporting children who exhibit challenging behaviours. However, many report limited confidence, self-efficacy, and ongoing professional support. Although professional development is widely available, it is often delivered through one-off workshops with limited opportunities for sustained learning, collaboration, and reflection. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs) offer a promising model by fostering ongoing peer learning, shared problem-solving, and reflective dialogue; however, limited evidence exists regarding the implementation of VCoPs within ECEC settings.
This study explores how participation in a VCoP strengthens educators’ self-efficacy, confidence, and professional capacity to respond effectively to children’s challenging behaviours.
This qualitative study, situated within an interpretivist paradigm, investigates the experiences of twelve early childhood educators participating in a VCoP. Guided by Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Wenger’s Communities of Practice framework, the study adopts a longitudinal diary–interview design. Educators will participate in six monthly VCoP sessions, supported by reflective audio diaries and entry and exit semi-structured interviews. Data will be analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.
The study aims to provide empirical evidence on how sustained, collaborative professional learning enhances educators’ confidence, reflective practice, and behaviour guidance strategies, informing contextually relevant professional development and policy improvements.
This study explores how participation in a VCoP strengthens educators’ self-efficacy, confidence, and professional capacity to respond effectively to children’s challenging behaviours.
This qualitative study, situated within an interpretivist paradigm, investigates the experiences of twelve early childhood educators participating in a VCoP. Guided by Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Wenger’s Communities of Practice framework, the study adopts a longitudinal diary–interview design. Educators will participate in six monthly VCoP sessions, supported by reflective audio diaries and entry and exit semi-structured interviews. Data will be analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.
The study aims to provide empirical evidence on how sustained, collaborative professional learning enhances educators’ confidence, reflective practice, and behaviour guidance strategies, informing contextually relevant professional development and policy improvements.
Vidyawati, School of Business - Technology‑Enabled Circular Economy Practices for Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Processed Food Supply Chains
Food loss and waste (FLW) remain a critical environmental sustainability challenge. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 1.3 billion tonnes is lost or wasted annually, the World Bank reports the value of the wasted food value is around USD 1 trillion annually. About 30-40 % of such food waste occurs across supply chains. FLW contributes to resource depletion, greenhouse gas emissions and inefficiencies across production, processing and distribution stages of the supply chain. Circular economy (CE) practices offer strong potential to reduce these impacts through valorisation, reuse and closed-loop resource flows; however, adoption remains fragmented due to weak digital infrastructure and limited coordination across supply chain actors. Despite growing interest in circular economy practices and digitalisation within processed food supply chains (PFSC), their integrated application in processed food systems, particularly in developing economies remains limited. Digital technologies such as IoT‑based monitoring, blockchain‑enabled traceability, and AI‑driven analytics strengthen circular practices by improving real‑time visibility of material flows, enabling early detection of quality deterioration, and supporting efficient valorisation of by‑products. These tools enhance coordination across stages and make closed‑loop resource use more feasible within processed food supply chains. Preliminary insights from literature indicate fragmented CE adoption, and technological immaturity as major constraints. Therefore, this research investigates how advanced technologies enable CE practices to reduce FLW and enhance environmental sustainability within PFSCs. The study draws on the Resource-Based View and Contingency Theory to explain how firms develop technological and organisational capabilities to respond to sustainability pressures. The research context of this study is North India, a major hub for grain milling, dairy, packaged foods and ready-to-eat products. Using a qualitative multiple case study design, data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with supply chain actors. Subsequently, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) will be used to examine interdependencies and relationships among CE barriers and enablers. The expected outcomes include an empirical research-based understanding of environmental FLW challenges, technology-enabled CE practices and a hierarchy CE barrier. The study aims to develop actionable insights for designing circular, low‑waste processed food supply chains. It aims to contributes theory by integrating the RBV & contingency theories and to provide practical guidance for designing more circular, resource-efficient and sustainable processed food supply chains.
Daisy De Windt, School of Arts - Health Misinformation in Australia: A Mixed-Methods Multidisciplinary Research Project
Health misinformation is an old problem with new avenues for reach. Today we live in bespoke and overcrowded online information environments that can leave us overwhelmed, confused and vulnerable to being misled. Evidence suggests that health misinformation is leading to real-world negative consequences such as reducing the impact of public health campaigns, people substituting untested remedies for evidence-based treatments, and driving the purchase of products that falsely claim health benefits. This PhD project is investigating health misinformation in Australia to better understand how Australian adults find information related to their health, and what information they trust and why. Employing a mixed-methods design, this project will invite two groups of participants to take part: health service users and healthcare providers. This presentation will share the project’s study design and its theoretical underpinnings which originate from the disciplines of media studies, psychology, and the health sciences. The intention of this project is to contribute towards the design of tools and resources to help Australians effectively navigate online information environments to source reliable information to inform optimal healthcare decisions.
Batool Aljafri, School of Arts - Navigating Information Ecosystems: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Media Literacy
This panel brings together three HDR researchers from SABEL and the Institute for Culture and Society to explore the multifaceted landscape of media literacy and its intersections with related disciplines.
As digital information ecosystems grow increasingly complex, leading to a range of real-world challenges, understanding how audiences consume and interpret media demands research that boldly crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Our panel showcases how blending distinct approaches— including cultural studies, education, health promotion, psychology, and sociology—can help address contemporary media challenges. Alex focuses on the micro-social level, exploring family-based practices to understand how digital resilience is cultivated within the home. Daisy is investigating health misinformation in Australia: taking a media literacy approach combined with evidence from health promotion and psychology. Batool is blends digital sociology and how youth navigate mis/disinformation on emerging technologies, specifically GenAI chatbots.
Together, these diverse projects demonstrate how integrating varied qualitative methods, cultural theories, and lived worlds opens vital new conversations and insights into how media literacy can empower us in our fractured digital age. How do you see media literacy intersecting with your own work as an HDR – both personally and professionally in your research?
As digital information ecosystems grow increasingly complex, leading to a range of real-world challenges, understanding how audiences consume and interpret media demands research that boldly crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Our panel showcases how blending distinct approaches— including cultural studies, education, health promotion, psychology, and sociology—can help address contemporary media challenges. Alex focuses on the micro-social level, exploring family-based practices to understand how digital resilience is cultivated within the home. Daisy is investigating health misinformation in Australia: taking a media literacy approach combined with evidence from health promotion and psychology. Batool is blends digital sociology and how youth navigate mis/disinformation on emerging technologies, specifically GenAI chatbots.
Together, these diverse projects demonstrate how integrating varied qualitative methods, cultural theories, and lived worlds opens vital new conversations and insights into how media literacy can empower us in our fractured digital age. How do you see media literacy intersecting with your own work as an HDR – both personally and professionally in your research?
Sanam Taimoor, School of Business - Linking longitudinal and administrative datasets to examine the long-term impacts of maternal diabetes on children in Australia
Maternal diabetes during pregnancy affects an estimated 14–15% of pregnancies worldwide and is linked to a wide range of adverse outcomes for exposed children, from immediate neonatal complications to longer-term metabolic, developmental, and educational effects. Yet existing research typically examines these outcomes in isolation, within a single discipline, over short follow-up periods. The aim of this project is to examine the long-term health, developmental, educational and healthcare cost outcomes of children exposed to maternal diabetes in utero.
The study will use the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), linked with Medicare (MBS and PBS) and NAPLAN datasets. This project combines survey and administrative data across three domains, health, education, and healthcare utilisation. These datasets are rarely studied together within a single research program.
The methodological approach brings together longitudinal cohort analysis, epidemiology, health economics and educational research. Regression-based models will account for relevant maternal, child, household and socioeconomic characteristics, while sensitivity analyses will examine exposure classification, missing data, attrition and data-linkage coverage.
By integrating survey and administrative datasets, the project illustrates how data linkage can move research beyond isolated outcomes and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the long-term consequences and service implications of maternal diabetes.
The study will use the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), linked with Medicare (MBS and PBS) and NAPLAN datasets. This project combines survey and administrative data across three domains, health, education, and healthcare utilisation. These datasets are rarely studied together within a single research program.
The methodological approach brings together longitudinal cohort analysis, epidemiology, health economics and educational research. Regression-based models will account for relevant maternal, child, household and socioeconomic characteristics, while sensitivity analyses will examine exposure classification, missing data, attrition and data-linkage coverage.
By integrating survey and administrative datasets, the project illustrates how data linkage can move research beyond isolated outcomes and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the long-term consequences and service implications of maternal diabetes.
David Prah, School of Education - Adult discourses regarding school based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in Ghana.
Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) has become a highly contested policy field in Ghana, where debates extend beyond curriculum content to questions of morality, cultural authenticity, religious authority, and postcolonial identity.
Drawing on feminist poststructuralism and postcolonial theory, this qualitative study examines how teachers, parents, religious leaders, politicians, and traditional authorities discursively construct meanings of school-based CSE. Rather than treating stakeholder attitudes as fixed opinions, the study analyses how competing discourses produce understandings of sexuality, childhood, citizenship, and legitimate knowledge.
Findings demonstrate that stakeholders rarely engage directly with the official curriculum; instead, their understandings are mediated through religious doctrine, media narratives, political debate, and public moral discourse. CSE is discursively constructed as a Western moral project threatening Ghanaian cultural values, heteronormative family structures, and national identity. These constructions operate as technologies of moral regulation, shaping curriculum interpretation through processes of inclusion, exclusion, silence, and pedagogical negotiation.
Resistance is directed less towards sexuality education itself than towards meanings attached to CSE within broader postcolonial struggles over epistemic authority, cultural sovereignty, and moral citizenship. By conceptualising curriculum as a context of discursive negotiation rather than policy implementation, the study advances curriculum scholarship while providing practical insights for culturally responsive CSE implementation in socially contested contexts.
Drawing on feminist poststructuralism and postcolonial theory, this qualitative study examines how teachers, parents, religious leaders, politicians, and traditional authorities discursively construct meanings of school-based CSE. Rather than treating stakeholder attitudes as fixed opinions, the study analyses how competing discourses produce understandings of sexuality, childhood, citizenship, and legitimate knowledge.
Findings demonstrate that stakeholders rarely engage directly with the official curriculum; instead, their understandings are mediated through religious doctrine, media narratives, political debate, and public moral discourse. CSE is discursively constructed as a Western moral project threatening Ghanaian cultural values, heteronormative family structures, and national identity. These constructions operate as technologies of moral regulation, shaping curriculum interpretation through processes of inclusion, exclusion, silence, and pedagogical negotiation.
Resistance is directed less towards sexuality education itself than towards meanings attached to CSE within broader postcolonial struggles over epistemic authority, cultural sovereignty, and moral citizenship. By conceptualising curriculum as a context of discursive negotiation rather than policy implementation, the study advances curriculum scholarship while providing practical insights for culturally responsive CSE implementation in socially contested contexts.
Ying Liu, School of Arts
This study explores the relationship between quantum entanglement and musical creativity through the artistic theme of The Other Shore, a concept derived from Buddhist philosophy that symbolizes awakening, transcendence, and the dissolution of duality. Drawing on perspectives from quantum theory, music aesthetics, and contemporary composition, the research examines how the principles of interconnectedness and non-separability can inspire new approaches to artistic creation.
Rather than proposing a direct physical correspondence between quantum phenomena and music, the study employs quantum entanglement as a conceptual framework for understanding the relational nature of musical experience. In this context, sound, silence, performer, listener, and environment are viewed as interconnected elements whose meanings emerge through dynamic interaction. The Other Shore serves as a creative metaphor for a transformative state in which conventional boundaries between self and other, presence and absence, are transcended.
Through the analysis of contemporary compositional and interdisciplinary artistic practices, the research demonstrates how entanglement-inspired thinking can inform musical structure, perception, and expression. The findings suggest that both quantum entanglement and the concept of The Other Shore emphasize relationality, wholeness, and the emergence of meaning from interconnected systems. This interdisciplinary perspective offers a valuable framework for reimagining music as a process of creative transformation and expanded awareness, contributing to ongoing dialogues between science, philosophy, visual art and music.
Rather than proposing a direct physical correspondence between quantum phenomena and music, the study employs quantum entanglement as a conceptual framework for understanding the relational nature of musical experience. In this context, sound, silence, performer, listener, and environment are viewed as interconnected elements whose meanings emerge through dynamic interaction. The Other Shore serves as a creative metaphor for a transformative state in which conventional boundaries between self and other, presence and absence, are transcended.
Through the analysis of contemporary compositional and interdisciplinary artistic practices, the research demonstrates how entanglement-inspired thinking can inform musical structure, perception, and expression. The findings suggest that both quantum entanglement and the concept of The Other Shore emphasize relationality, wholeness, and the emergence of meaning from interconnected systems. This interdisciplinary perspective offers a valuable framework for reimagining music as a process of creative transformation and expanded awareness, contributing to ongoing dialogues between science, philosophy, visual art and music.
Daniel Bonatti
This study examines the potential to integrate traditional Fijian house-building knowledge with contemporary cyclone-resilience standards for the Asia–Pacific region, proposing an innovative, culturally informed building code. It also investigates why existing regulations fail to protect built environments during extreme climatic events, particularly in small island developing states (SIDS). Employing a mixed-methods design—comprising literature review, policy analysis, and field case studies in seven Fijian villages affected by Tropical Cyclone Winston (2016)—and incorporating indigenous and participatory methodologies, the research finds that traditional bure and related vernacular dwellings demonstrate notable cyclone resilience when constructed using features such as magi-magi rope lashings, interlocking joints, steeply pitched roofs, and low openings. By contrast, some modern structures that nominally complied with building codes suffered significant damage owing to weak connections, limited community involvement, and inadequate maintenance. The findings suggest that systematically integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into design and standardization practices can substantially improve housing durability in cyclone-prone areas. This study addresses a critical gap by proposing a regional, culturally grounded building-code framework that enhances resilience through often-overlooked traditional knowledge systems.
Douglas Belton, Institute for Culture and Society -Reworlding the "Real World": Performative Systemic Action Design Research for Community-Led Food and Human Settlement Innovation
In managed democracies, the policy settings and capital required for just transitions will not arrive through the benevolence of progressive politicians or the industry interests that shape them. They arrive when new social imaginaries become popular enough to move the Overton window, make participatory and direct democratic pressure viable, and shift consumer and labor preferences toward eco-socially just products and practices. Higher degree researchers, organizers and artists are unusually well placed to create and proliferate those imaginaries.
This study works across Minneapolis/St. Paul and Western Sydney, proposing Systemic Action Design Research, a researcher-led adaptation of systemic action research (Burns, 2007) and systemic design (Sevaldson, 2011), encased in performative autoethnographic narration so that first-person reflexivity and rap-based poetic inquiry carry the account itself. Each site produced a different design artefact, an interactive three-dimensional agrihood model in Minneapolis and a governance gigamap in Western Sydney, and that divergence records how far a community proposition travelled in each setting. Findings remain iterative and largely procedural, documenting the methodological choices made and the reasoning behind them, alongside some declarative observations.
Attendees will hear original raps from a six-track mixtape, written to reach listeners of rap and poetry who rarely attend conventional "have your say" events.
This study works across Minneapolis/St. Paul and Western Sydney, proposing Systemic Action Design Research, a researcher-led adaptation of systemic action research (Burns, 2007) and systemic design (Sevaldson, 2011), encased in performative autoethnographic narration so that first-person reflexivity and rap-based poetic inquiry carry the account itself. Each site produced a different design artefact, an interactive three-dimensional agrihood model in Minneapolis and a governance gigamap in Western Sydney, and that divergence records how far a community proposition travelled in each setting. Findings remain iterative and largely procedural, documenting the methodological choices made and the reasoning behind them, alongside some declarative observations.
Attendees will hear original raps from a six-track mixtape, written to reach listeners of rap and poetry who rarely attend conventional "have your say" events.