HDR students showcase

Join us for the Northern Institute & Faculty of Arts and Society HDR seminar. Find out what our students are researching as they discuss their current projects and practice public speaking skills.

Program

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Adrian Harris (online)
Arts-Based Research and the Samoan Research Method
Our increasing intercultural relations have presented us with complex challenges but have also provided unique opportunities which this project openly explored. Celebrated Samoan poet, artist and educator, Mrs Momoe Malietoa von Reiche, invited me, an Australian artist-researcher, to assist her in illustrating a book on Samoa’s tala le vavau (ancient stories, or more commonly referred to as 'legends'), and to research this process. Grounded within a Samoan context, and guided by Momoe, the research asked how creative practice might emerge when exploring intercultural illustrative practice in Samoa. To address this question, the inquiry utilised a combination of practice-based research and the popular Pacific research method, Talanoa. Although not yet complete, preliminary findings of the project demonstrate the value creative practices hold in intercultural relations, how practice and research may be reconceived within a Samoan context while promoting Samoan values and knowledge systems, and how contemporary illustrative practice may be used to address mechanisms that diminish the retention of Samoa's unique cultural heritage. 

About: Adrian Harris is a PhD candidate in the CDU Faculty of Arts and Society. He is a practising artist with a background in graphic design, clinical and community-based art therapy, disability advocacy and education. His current research interests are focused on collaborative arts-based practices within intercultural contexts. Adrian holds a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) from the University of Newcastle, a Master of Social Work from James Cook University and a Master of Creative Arts Therapy from RMIT University.

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Alexander Hatzikalimnios (online)
Is there an explicit “Right to Work” in Australia? Did the response to the Covid-19 pandemic impact this right?
The emergence of the covid pandemic began knocking on Australia’s doors in early 2020, with the Australian Government deciding to shut down borders, restrict movement, close down businesses and lockdown its citizens in their homes for substantial periods of time in the name of public health. A by-product of the covid pandemic was the rapid production of a vaccine that was offered as the solution for Australians who were sitting in their second lock-down in mid-late 2021. The Australian Government stated that choosing to get vaccinated against covid should remain voluntary and free, with the Prime Minister at the time (Scott Morrison) emphasising that employers need consider whether they were to adopt such policies in the workplace. As there is no enshrined right to work in Australia, this research will work to formulate a response to this gap in Australia’s legislature. This will be achieved by analysing common law and legislation surrounding work rights during the covid pandemic in an attempt to formulate what the right to work could look like in Australia. The research will address methods that could help ensure that Australian citizens have their rights to work maintained and protected when future emergencies arise. This research will attempt to define the right to work in Australia and provide commentary on how this right was impacted during the covid pandemic with the intention to determine how it could be protected in future emergencies. 

About: Alex is currently completing his PhD in CDU’s Faculty of Arts and Society, researching how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the right to work in Australia. Alex is an admitted lawyer in NSW and is currently working as a lecturer while completing his studies. 

Alex has worked in several areas, including in-house, corporate, commercial, property, human rights, and criminal and immigration law. Alex is passionate about teaching and helping the future generation of Australian professionals.

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Johnny Howard (in-person)
Translingual and transcultural support for humanitarian entrants
The primary objective of this project is to understand how the experiences and voices of humanitarian entrants are heard throughout their lived transnational, cross-border movements and resettlement experiences amidst their translanguaging practices. Furthermore, it seeks to understand how translanguaging as a resource translates into increased belongingness and well-being.  Without preconceived notions of national boundaries, the use of multiple languages becomes a socially constructed practice. A practice that benefits the user to consolidate and build their identities through sense-making while efficiently using the language ecology to fulfil one’s communication needs. Translanguaging allows users to authentically express their multifaceted identities, reflecting the complexity of their true selves. The diasporic experiences and cultural identities of different HE’s will be explored as part of building these understandings. As the principal researcher I will observe, in a range of contexts, the language use within a community to better understand the emic perspectives of that group, one that is reflexive and sensitive to the complex nature of the setting. 

Through this enquiry, the project will help inform settlement discourse, policy, and practice in the face of increasingly complex societies where access and competition for emblematic and cultural resources are key to local integration

About: Jonathan Howard is a PhD candidate at Charles Darwin University. He has completed his Masters of Applied Linguistics through Melbourne University and is now completing his thesis in Translanguaging practices with humanitarian entrants. Jonathan has worked in a range of language-mediated services, including providing pathways for humanitarian entrants to settle in Australia through the AMEP program and resettlement organisations. He is also a high school teacher and has worked on a number of programs that assist in bridging the educational gap for school leavers to get into university. 

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Stephen Enciso (in-person)
The Philosophy of Truth-Telling
The Uluru Statement called for truth-telling. At first glance, truth-telling might seem like a straightforward activity, but it is actually philosophically complicated. What does it mean to tell the truth? Whose truth gets to be told? What happens when there are conflicting truths? Are some truths better left unsaid? These and other questions I hope to explore in my PhD project. I will outline my initial thoughts in this presentation and invite the audience to brainstorm with me. After all, truth-telling will be a collective, participatory affair. 

About: Stephen Enciso is undertaking a PhD in Philosophy and is interested in moral and political philosophy. He currently works with the Faculty of Arts and Society as a Research and Teaching Associate and with Dr Kellie Pollard at the Northern Institute on the ARC research project Indigenist Archaeology: New Ways of Knowing the Past and Present.

Registration

This event has already happened - find the recording in the "Past seminars and recordings" section on the Seminars page.

Getting there

Northern Institute's Savanna Room
CDU Casuarina Campus, Yellow 1, Level 2, Room 48
Google Maps Location or How to get to Savanna Room.