Queensland Conservatorium graduate Georgie Hopson was handpicked for her latest role by the grand dame of musical theatre, Julie Andrews.
When Georgie met Julie
The Bachelor of Musical Theatre alumnus was chosen from hundreds of young hopefuls to join the cast of Opera Australia’s My Fair Lady, directed by Dame Julie Andrews.
“I did my first audition for the show with Julie Andrews – definitely one of the highlights of my career to date,” she said.
“It was nerve-wracking, but she was so warm and supportive that she just instantly put me at ease.
“It was hands down, my best audition experience ever.”
Coming full circle
The talented triple-threat performer is one of the ensemble cast and also an understudy for the lead role of Eliza.
The role has brought the Toowoomba-born performer full circle: it was a role in her high school production of My Fair Lady that inspired her to pursue musical theatre and led her
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Improving human rights for people with disabilities
What happens when service provision for people with disabilities does not live up to expectations and people are left feeling vulnerable or exposed in their own living environment?
This is just one of the discussion topics on the agenda at next week’s Human Rights Forum – a collaboration between Griffith University and Queensland Advocacy Incorporated – where people with disabilities and their families and carers, will share knowledge and experiences around the six priority areas of the National Disability Strategy 2010-2020.
Madonna Nicoll is a committee member for the social advocacy organisation Speaking Up for You, and will be one of the presenters at this week’s forum at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Having spent many years in an institutional setting and in-home supported living environments due to her confinement to a wheelchair, Ms Nicoll will be talking about some of the harmful experiences that occur among people with disabilities in these
Griffith CFA Challenge team finishes top three in Asia
A team of Griffith Business School finance students managed a distinguished top three finish in the Asia-Pacific regional round of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Research Challenge in Bangkok.
The five member team – Elias Greil, Rhyan Nash, Lisa Rawlings, Ruby Sethi and Riven Zhang – presented a strong case to the judges who marked them highly as they argued their business case on a sell recommendation for their chosen ASX-listed company.
Best of the Aussie teams
Griffith finished the highest of the three Australian universities, Monash and Curtin, which competed at the Asia-Pacific Round Challenge.
Dr John Fan, a lecturer at the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics is the faculty adviser and was extremely proud of the team’s achievement.
“There were 25 or so teams involved from around the region and to finish as high as we did was pretty exciting.
“We argued our case methodically and expertly and I know the judges, who are all leading asset fund managers,
Griffith filmmakers capture stories of forgotten women
A powerful new documentary by Griffith Film School alumnus Guy Mansfield tells the stories of the “forgotten women” living with advanced breast cancer.
The documentary follows women who attend the Advanced Breast Cancer Group (ABCG) – a support group for women across Queensland with advanced breast cancer, an illness for which there is still no cure.
Post Pink features candid interviews with six women and their children, partners and parents. It was shot over six months and provides an honest account of their experiences, from dealing with the diagnosis to living with a terminal disease.
A cathartic experience
Guy Mansfield, who undertook a Masters in Screen Production at GFS, said the shoot was “an amazing experience”.
“I didn’t know how each woman would react to the ‘straight to the bone’ questions I was asking,” he said.
“What we managed to get was beyond my expectations – I was absolutely stunned by how they opened up on camera about love,
CommBank recruits promising Griffith University student before graduation
Sitting for final exams right before finishing a degree can be a very stressful time. But for Griffith University’s Alexander MacInnes, it was made a little bit easier by an unexpected job offer from Commonwealth Bank.
A student heavily involved in extracurricular activities, Alex had submitted his resume to the bank hoping to secure an internship when he finished his Commerce degree in Finance.
But although optimistic about his chances, he didn’t hear anything for about a year and a half and put it out of his mind. Then he got a phone call.
“It had been ages and all of a sudden I got a phone call saying an actual position was available, and I should apply,” he said.
“I met with the executive manager and he explained the role and got to know me and from then we enjoyed a really good rapport. He told me then he wanted to put
Robots: threat or friends?
Technology superstars like Bill Gates and Elon Musk have described Artificial Intelligence as “humanity’s biggest existential threat” with the potential to “destroy us all”.
But Griffith University’s senior lecturer in ICT, Dr David Tuffley, doesn’t think we need to worry.
“The reality of it is if you can your head straight with this whole idea then there’s plenty of opportunities for people to do great things,” he said.
“Some countries like Japan are already getting quite dependent on robots to do all sorts of things.
“In the west we’re coming along pretty fast with that because there are lots of jobs that people don’t want to do. They’re either dirty, remote, or poorly paid, or for whatever reason they’re hard to get people to do, and these are the jobs robots are moving into.”
Dr Tuffley will share his insights into our future living with smart machines at a main stage event at World Science Festival
The Nathan Dash to get hearts racing
Take your marks. Get set. Go.
That command will ring out around Campus Heart next week as the Nathan Dash is run and won on Tuesday, March 28
Open to staff and students, the 660m sprint goes through the centre of campus, starting at the Campus Heart travelling along the Johnson path, through the underpass to The Hub circling down past the Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue and returning back down the Johnson path to finish where it began.
The Nathan Dash 2014
Griffith Sport Marketing Coordinator Lana Mastop said the event continues to grow after being brought back in 2014 after an eight year hiatus.
“It promotes the fantastic fitness culture at Griffith that is nurtured by the University’s many sporting facilities.
“We’re confident the event will attract a combination of highly trained competitors and those just looking for a fun way to participate with their colleagues and peers.”
The Nathan Dash will offer the winning participant
Law Futures research – finding solutions to 21st century problems
Griffith University launched the Law Futures Centre at South Bank campus on Wednesday, March 22.
Acting Director and international lawyer Professor Don Anton says the centre’s researchers are already responding to 21st century challenges to law and legal institutions.
“Griffith Law School is placed in the top 50 law schools in the world and research in law is a key strength of the University,’’ he said.
“The centre will continue to leverage off these strengths and expand our research presence nationally and internationally. It will undertake interdisciplinary research responsive to domestic and global change.”
Two of the current nine Australian Research Council Future Fellows in law, Professor Elena Marchetti and Associate Professor Susan Harris-Rimmer, feature in the line-up of the Centre’s staff from Griffith Law School – with other academics from law, environmental sciences, international relations, business, health, criminology and humanities.
The centre’s four research programs focus on solving legal problems posed in the areas of:
Law,
STEM award recognises Indigenous maths education
Dr Chris Matthews and Dr Kaye Price at the Indigenous STEM Professional Award ceremony. Photo: Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum
Dr Chris Matthews from Griffith’s School of Environment has won the inaugural Indigenous STEM Professional Award presented by CSIRO and BHP Billiton Foundation this week.
The award recognises his work in engaging Indigenous students in science and mathematics. He brings maths to life by creating stories with characters that add, subtract or divide as well as teaching maths through dance and story.
Dr Matthews, a Noonuccal man, completed his PhD in applied mathematics at Griffith University.
Growing up, he says he always knew he had a talent for maths, but hid away from the teachers until high school where he discovered a love of computing.
“I saw the connection between computing and maths and when I did algebra it finally made sense to me,’’ he said.
As Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance and
Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Australian universities
The act of harassment and bullying is a very real and serious concern in workplaces across the country, and according to a study by members of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing, the same can be said of staff members at Australian universities.
In 2011, Professor Glenda Strachan helped conduct a survey of permanent and fixed-term staff across 19 Australian universities. She found that from the over 22,000 responses, one-quarter of them had experienced harassment or bullying at work in the previous five years, with the women academic staff being the highest rates.
“Thirty five per cent of women academic staff said they had experienced an instance of harassment or bullying in the previous five years in their workplace,” said Professor Strachan.
“Women were more likely to report this than men, by about a ten per cent difference.”
About 40 per cent of those who reported their harassment said they had taken or