With NAIDOC week upon us, three of Griffith’s most prominent indigenous students share their personal stories.
Griffith PhD candidate Arabella Douglas’ research explores how behaviourial economics and social impact investing (SII) can improve investment decision making with greatest social impact on Aboriginal wellbeing.
A member of the Yugambeh Nation from the Gold Coast, Arabella credits her extensive education opportunities to her ancestors and the incredible women in her veins.
Arabella Douglas
“I was extremely lucky in that my great grandmother – Jane Currie’s family were all churchgoers and very entwined with community missionaries who allowed the local Indigenous people to balance their culture and values with their own Christian ones,” says Arabella.
“Jane was one of eight children and was my role model. Despite the hardships of the time – no shoes on at times to even wear to church and not having been formally taught any English – she managed to teach herself to read by reading the Bible. This
Category: Griffith University Feed
Of What Use is Legal Expertise?
By Dr Edward Mussawir
Senior Lecturer
Griffith Law School
Please note that this blog posts explores themes and subject matter that some audience members may find confronting.
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Legal scholars today tend to be shaped in the mould of public intellectuals. Even if their research doesn’t necessarily generate ‘news’ as such, the expectation that their expertise should be directed to the heart of certain matters of public interest, certain ‘real world’ problems, certain shared societal challenges, is almost universal. A scholar who can neither make their own work newsworthy nor comment, from the point of view of their expertise, on matters that are in the public interest, faces a sort of existential crisis.
The stakes here are not trivial. One can wonder whether legal scholarship in general retains any use in legal expertise itself and whether either are capable of preserving a set of
Robotic surgery giving hope to prostate cancer patients
In a world first trial, Queensland researchers have found that robotic-assisted prostatectomy is providing equal outcomes for urinary and erectile function to open prostatectomy.
Published in The Lancet Oncology, the study, led by researchers at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland, and funded by Cancer Council Queensland, found that the advanced robotic technology also offered a safer and minimally invasive option for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Rapid adoption
Robot-assisted surgery for prostate cancer has been rapidly adopted by health professionals and is now the most widely utilised surgical approach for prostatectomy.
Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Urologist Dr Nigel Dunglison said the study examined surgery outcomes for around 300 Australian men over a two-year period.
“To date, very little research has been done comparing long-term outcomes of robotic-assisted prostatectomy and open prostatectomy,” Dr Dunglison said.
“Our study showed similar results for urinary and erectile function from both the robot-assisted and open surgical patient groups after 12 weeks, and these remained equal at six, 12 and 24 months.
“Many patients experience long-term complications post-surgery, including reduced urinary and bowel control, erectile dysfunction and elevated psychological distress.
“As technology, surgery,
Timber buildings set to reach new heights
Griffith University researchers are putting timber to the test to see if tall wooden buildings are the way forward for our cities.
Associate Professor Benoit Gilbert from Griffith’s School of Engineering and Built Environment is part of the team testing engineered solid wood products, such as Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL), Glue laminated timber (Glulam) and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and their capabilities in collapse resistance.
Reaching timber building heights of five to six storeys has been made possible thanks to products such as these. Australian examples of mid-rise timber buildings include International House Sydney at Barangaroo and the world’s tallest mass timber office building on King St in Brisbane, which is currently under construction.
Associate Professor Gilbert said recent changes in legislation has prompted the rise in popularity for mid-rise buildings internationally.
“Timber has many functional, aesthetic and environmental benefits: it’s a renewable, durable and environmentally sustainable building material,” Associate Professor Gilbert said.
“Using timber
Study sheds light on origins of ancient populations
Long-held and debated theories into the origins of populations within the South East Asia regions have been proven to be inconsistent with the genetic data available, a new study has found.
Griffith University researchers Professor David Lambert and Dr Sally Wasef from the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution were part of the international team behind the results published in Science, which included collaborators from the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen.
For more than 100 years, scientists were divided over two theories on the origins of the ancient peoples that populated South East Asia.
One group believes the farming practises developed by the Hoabinhian hunter-gatherers who populated South East Asia from 44,000 years ago was an indigenous development, while the other suggests that southward migrating farmers from what is now China replaced the indigenous people and gave rise to the present-day diversity in South East Asia.
Professor Lambert and Dr Wasef, who focused on studying the
Griffith reaps more than $1.1 million in federal funding for 2019 New Colombo Plan projects
Griffith University has received $1,196,250 in funding from the Federal Government as part of the New Colombo Plan 2019 Mobility Round.
From January next year, 224 Griffith students will undertake 20 projects across 14 countries around the Asia-Pacific.
Griffith’s projects – which include four collaborations as part of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) consortium – will see students from the university working in Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
“Griffith has a long and proud history of engaging in the Asia-Pacific,” Professor Sarah Todd, Vice President (Global) said.
“The 2019 New Colombo Plan mobility projects provides opportunities for Australian students studying a diverse range of academic programs to travel and experience the Asia-Pacific region.
“Exchanges like these are a perfect chance for our students to gain new perspectives, broaden their worldviews and relationships, and ensure they leave
Australian law set to tackle orphanage trafficking in travel company supply chains
By Kate van Doore
Orphanage volunteering is generally viewed as a positive contribution to developing nations. However, child protection advocates have long reported the harm it causes children; including how demand for orphanage volunteering leads to children being trafficked into orphanages for profit.
Yesterday, the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, the Honourable Alex Hawke MP, introduced the Modern Slavery Bill to the Australian federal parliament. The introduction of the Bill followed strong recommendations of the Inquiry into whether Australia should have a Modern Slavery Act held in 2017. One of the major issues considered throughout the Inquiry and its final report, Hidden in Plain Sight, was orphanage trafficking.
Orphanage trafficking occurs when children are recruited into orphanages for the purpose of exploitation and profit. The demand for orphanage trafficking is often driven by vast amounts of funding that flows to orphanages, and profit made from orphanage tourism, where people pay or donate to
How 70,000 years of human interaction have shaped an icon of wild nature
The critically endangered orangutan – one of humankind’s closest living relatives – has become a symbol of wild nature’s vulnerability in the face of human actions and an icon of rainforest conservation.
New research published in the journal Science Advances, led by Dr Stephanie Spehar at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and includes Dr Julien Louys from Griffith University’s Australian Research Center for Human Evolution, indicates this view overlooks how humans, over thousands of years, fundamentally shaped the orangutan known today.
Ignoring this obscures understanding of orangutans and impacts conservation efforts, said lead author Stephanie Spehar, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
An orangutan tooth fossil. Credit: Gilbert Price
“It was often assumed that environmental factors like changes in fruit availability were responsible for most features of modern-day orangutans, such as the fact that they usually live at low densities and have a restricted geographic distribution,” Dr Spehar said.
“However, the
Griffith earns top-50 result in Times Higher Education Asia-Pacific rankings
Griffith University has again been ranked as one of the region’s elite institutions, earning a top-50 placing in the Times Higher Education Asia-Pacific University Rankings 2018.
The Asia-Pacific rankings – which were first introduced in 2017 – consider the research and teaching efforts of more than 250 leading universities from the region, with Griffith consolidating its position at 43rd in 2018.
“We are pleased to see Griffith once again take a place among the top 50 leading universities in the Asia-Pacific region,” Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Ned Pankhurst said.
“This result reflects Griffith’s ongoing dedication to engaging in innovative, impactful research across the University’s comprehensive range of disciplines, while delivering world-standard education opportunities and outcomes for our students.”
Griffith’s recent research achievements include its involvement in shaping Queensland’s new Climate Change Adaptation Plan, finding ways to turn food waste from the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games into super-dynamic compost, investigating the genetic causes
Griffith visiting academic in Gold Coast Marathon
Emma Hagqvist will be flying the flag for Griffith this week as she gets set to run this year’s annual Gold Coast Marathon on July 1.
The Swedish national is currently a visiting research fellow from the Mid Sweden University in Ostersund. She is working with Griffith’s Hopkins Centre and is studying working environments and the effect they have on our health from a gender perspective.
Emma has been living on the Gold Coast for just three months with her partner and young child, and saw the Marathon as a good opportunity to prove her fitness and promote the university at the same time.
Currently running up to 60 kilometres per week in her training for the event, Emma says that although she loves running, cross-country skiing is her preferred sport back in her native Sweden.
“In Sweden cross-country is really popular, and probably not as hard on the body as running. But I am