With a healthy dose of humour and insightful observations, Jeff Bleich delivered a memorable keynote address to launch Griffith University’s annual Integrity20 event at the Queensland Conservatorium.
The former US Ambassador to Australia, whom former Prime Minister Paul Keating described as the best to have held the post, Mr Bleich spoke on issues from integrity, technology, social media fame, the growing distrust in news media as well as a key theme of this year’s event, spin versus truth.
“This is a serious threat. It is why a summit on integrity and how to restore it could not be more timely.”
Using US President Donald Tump as a metaphor for the disconnect between truth and fiction, Mr Bleich argued that President Trump’s notoriety and fame was all he needed to garner power and remain relevant.
“He’s figured out that fame can be a faster and simpler way of getting what you want than actually doing something
Category: Griffith University Feed
Murphy’s lore: fate, family and fortitude behind brothers’ banter
The good-natured ribbing that flits back and forth between Aaron and Jack Murphy is typical of brothers everywhere. However, there is depth behind the banter, as they know only too well how close they came to being just one, rather than two.
Both Griffith University graduates – Jack, 24, completed dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Business Management this year, while Aaron, 26, graduated in Exercise Science in 2016 – the brothers also have formidable sporting backgrounds honed while growing up in Tasmania.
Previously elite performers in surf lifesaving and kayaking, when Aaron and Jack chat about past competitions they palpably convey the fierce commitment that once drove their preparation and performance. Nevertheless, the event that resonates most is one unconnected with sport, but which would test them like nothing before.
Jack and Aaron in their dual kayaking competition days
Having moved to the Gold Coast in his late teens to train at the Northcliffe
Conservatorium alumni, students thrive in stunning Aida
With alumni Tahu Matheson wielding the baton and Sian Pendry in fine voice, the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University played a major part in a stunning open-air season of Verdi’s Aida on the Gold Coast in September.
Presented by Opera Australia, Griffith Opera on the Beach was held over six nights at Coolangatta Beach. Conservatorium students made up 80 per cent of the orchestra, not only providing a lush musical backdrop for the spectacular production, but giving them an invaluable opportunity to work alongside some of Australia’s best classical musicians.
Tahu Matheson studied a Bachelor of Music (Instrumental) at the Conservatorium, graduating in 1999. He completed a Master of Music in 2002. However, his musical education really began at the age of five, learning piano with his father, the renowned international conductor John Matheson.
Matheson has been a member of the music staff at Opera Australia since 2007, and has been a frequent accompanist for
Honours student awarded best poster at AIEC conference
An e-poster developed by a Griffith Business School Honours student and her supervisor took out the top prize at the 2017 Australian International Education Conference.
Rebecca Cozens presented her research “Global mobility: the key to student success?“ at the event in Hobart last week.
The theme of the conference was ‘Embracing Diversity’, with a program that featured world leading experts in the field.
After giving a remarkable 40-minute presentation, Rebecca was presented with the award for the best poster.
Co-authored with her supervisor, Dr Amanda Daly, the e-poster discussed the current research referencing the relationship between student retention and mobility. It gave consideration to the diversity in students’ socioeconomic and academic backgrounds, motivations, and learning behaviours, as well as the range of overseas experiences provided by institutions.
Domestic and international student retention continues to be a key priority among Australian universities, and indeed worldwide.
While many institutions have a focus on increasing degree completion rates, little
Where’s that bus? Wonder no longer
Ian Murnane never waits more than a minute for a bus.
In a world where public transport tends to get a bad rap, that’s no mean feat.
But it’s much more than good luck – Ian and fellow Griffith University graduate Ferguson McBryde developed the Android app ‘Where’s That Bus‘.
The app, which covers the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast, allows a user to see exactly where a bus is at any given time. It provides an ETA to within 30 seconds.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the desire to create Where’s The Bus came from the graduates’ own experiences.
“We were students on student budgets, so we relied on public transport, but we were never able to see when buses would arrive,” said Mr McBryde.
Mr Murnane soon realised the data they needed was already online and the app took shape.
“I started to get information like GPS coordinates out of the Google Packet,” he said. “Eventually we
QCA showcases graduate work
If you are looking for the “next big thing” on the local art scene, don’t miss the annual Queensland College of Art Showcase.
The QCA will open its doors to the public this month for a series of exhibitions featuring the work of graduating students.
The annual QCA Showcase will take over the South Bank and Gold Coast campuses, featuring the work of final-year students from Fine Art, Film, Animation, Games Design, Photography, Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art and Design and Digital Media.
Many of the works on display will be on sale, helping kick-start the careers of emerging artists.
Director of the QCA, Professor Derrick Cherrie, said the exhibitions were an opportunity for the community to see the talent being nurtured in their hometown.
“The QCA is Australia’s oldest and one of the country’s largest art academies and has produced some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists,” he said.
“The showcase exhibitions are an ideal way to see the many diverse and exciting art forms the QCA has on offer and the extraordinary
Griffith lecturer curates blockbuster show at GOMA
It’s been a big week for Queensland College of Art lecturer Dr Rosemary Hawker.
She has spent the past five years curating a blockbuster exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s work, which has just opened at GOMA to rave reviews.
“It’s been a mammoth undertaking which started back in 2012.
“It is on a very large scale and there are works from multiple collections in Europe and the US.
“It’s logistically very difficult and expensive to transport the works, so it has been an enormous challenge.
“Some works are just too large to travel – you are limited to the size of the doors of the jumbo jet and people are nervous about sending works so far.”
Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images is the first major exhibition of his work in Australia, after well-received shows at high profile galleries including MOMA in New York and the Tate Modern in London.
Gerhard Richter has been called the world’s greatest living
‘Inspirational’ eight from Griffith to carry Queen’s baton
Australian of the Year, Professor Emeritus Alan Mackay-Sim, heads a list of noteworthy Griffith University representatives who have been handed a prestigious Batonbearer role on the Australian leg of the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR).
The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) has announced the names of Australians selected to carry the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) Queen’s Baton following its arrival into the country on Christmas Eve (December 24).
Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Ian O’Connor AC, congratulated the eight from Griffith’s academic, student and alumni community who received the news on Wednesday.
Some Griffith University QBR Batonbearers are as follows:
Professor Emeritus Alan Mackay-Sim, 2017 Australian of the Year and world-leading spinal cord injury researcher
Professor Emeritus Colin Mackerras AO, foundation professor at Griffith’s School of Modern Asian Studies in 1974
Professor Mark von Izstein, Director of Griffith’s Institute for Glycomics and a world-leading scientist in the fight against diseases like childhood leukaemia,
Regionally speaking – cultural leadership and advocacy from ASEAN to Australia
Griffith Asia Institute Director, Professor Caitlin Byrne and Professor Ruth Bereson, Dean (Academic) Arts, Education and Law Group have recently been awarded a grant through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia-ASEAN Council for their project Regionally Speaking – cultural leadership and advocacy from ASEAN to Australia.
This project builds on a unique model of engagement and capacity building that will bring 15 arts practitioners (10 from the ASEAN region and 5 from across Australia) together for 5-day workshop to explore and interrogate what it means to be a cultural leader or advocate in the Asia-Pacific region today.
The workshop program will leverage Brisbane’s distinctive cultural expertise and landscape – particularly in visual, screen and performing arts as vehicles for engagement in the Asia-Pacific. It has been timed to coincide with the 2018 Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM), and participant’s will have the opportunity to part in inter-cultural dialogues and observe
GBS student receives recognition from Foreign Affairs minister
It’s not everyday you receive a glowing job reference from Australia’s Foreign Affairs minister.
Courtney Organ certainly wasn’t expecting it. She received a call from the New Colombo Plan alumni group while she was in the library studying for her final year at Griffith Business School.
After quickly making an exit, she was told that Julie Bishop had shared Courtney’s experience as part of her speech to the Tourism and Transport Forum Leadership Summit.
“Her internship was two months in a town in southern Japan where she worked for their tourism organisation, she designed their website, she worked on their marketing campaign and she said she learnt more about Japanese thinking, culture, lifestyle, way of life than she could have ever dreamed,” Ms Bishop told the audience.
“She was from Griffith University, she’s now back concluding her studies, and what a fabulous potential employee she will be.”
When Courtney recovered from her initial shock, she