GRANTS

ARC Discovery Projects (DP26)

Four ARC Discovery Projects led be Faculty of Arts academics were successful in the latest round, totalling over $2 million in funding.

Professor Kristian Ruming (School of Communication, Society and Culture) has received $540,304 in funding for his project ‘Student housing in (a time of) crisis: interrogating student housing supply’. This project aims to critically analyse the current and future delivery of purpose-built student housing. By mapping funding, development and management activity at a national level and undertaking case studies, the project aims to generate theoretical and applied knowledge about the objectives of university and private providers, as well as the opportunities and challenges for future supply.

Dr Pierrick Bourrat (School of Humanities), together with colleagues from the University of Sydney, Catholic University of Louvain and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, have received $600,146 in funding for their project ‘Health, Biological Fitness and Environmental Diversity’. Health is often impaired when evolved biological mechanisms interact with modern environments. But the idea that an ‘ancestral’ lifestyle will maximise health has been rightly derided as ‘paleofantasy’. This team includes leaders of fields that have taken a more productive approach to the impacts of diverse environments on biological fitness and on health: nutritional ecology and the evolutionary anthropology of altitude adaptation. Making explicit the ways in which these fields define reference environments and assess biological fitness will facilitate research on other health impacts of environmental diversity.

Dr Regina Fabry and Dr Emily Hughes (School of Humanities), together with colleagues from the University of Wollongong and Cardiff University, UK, have received $292,294 in funding for their project ‘Grief at the Margins: Conceptualising the Diversity of Loss’. Grief is a fundamental human experience, yet varies significantly between individuals and cultures. Philosophical research has focused on the universality of grief, neglecting its diversity. Addressing this gap, this project aims to characterise the diversity and variability of grief experiences, generating new knowledge about marginalised groups who, due to intersecting forms of discrimination and disadvantage, are at particular risk of prolonged and complicated forms of grief.

Professor Tiffany Jones, Associate Professor Penny Van Bergen, Dr Emma Burns and Professor Deborah Youdell (School of Education), together with Professor Kay Bussey (School of Psychological Sciences), have received $663,830 in funding for their project ‘How our gender and sexuality euphorias predict our identity development’. This project aims to discover how gender and sexuality identity (GSI) euphorias (positive affect e.g. happiness) predict lifespan GSI development. It creates the first interdisciplinary bio-social-cognitive model of people's lifespan GSI development and fluidity within ecological systems, via mixed methods. Meeting gaps in male-and-youth-centred, deficit-based models; new GSI development models enrich professional approaches towards intervention benefits centring wellbeing.

Professor Tanya Evans (School of Humanities), Associate Professor Doron Goldbarsht (Macquarie Law School) and Dr Kurt Sengul (School of Communication, Society and Culture) are also Chief Investigators on successful applications led by ANU and the University of Canberra.

2025 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers (MUFIR) Success

Dr Venessa Possum, from the Centre of Critical Indigenous Studies, has been successful in the 2025 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers (MUFIR) scheme.

Dr Possum’s project, ‘Gamarada – Dharug Intermediary Practices: A Legacy of Intercultural Relational Archives (Country, Kinship, Memory and Institutional Records)’, aims to investigate lesser-known Indigenous intermediary practices that facilitate communication and understanding between cultural groups, focusing on shared histories and relationality between the Dharug and Irish peoples. Searching Irish and UK archives for records of Dharug and Irish diaspora will unearth hidden stories and important insights into Indigenous relationality and migration. This work is significant as it supports truth telling, preserves Dharug cultural values and reimagines archives to connect land, memory and material collections with written records.

2026 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers (MUFIR) Success

Ms Taylor-Jai Mcalister, from the School of Humanities, has been successful in the 2026 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers (MUFIR) scheme for the project ‘Decolonizing Indigenous Identity: Reimagining Aboriginal Identity Beyond Colonial Definitions’. This project develops an alternative framework for determining Aboriginal identity that centres Aboriginal epistemologies while satisfying practical institutional needs. Building on Ms Mcalister’s doctoral research, which demonstrated how the government-imposed three-pronged definition of Aboriginality perpetuates colonial control through interconnected criteria, this project moves beyond critique to create practical solutions. This work addresses a persistent colonial legacy—the state's power to define Aboriginal identity—while supporting Indigenous self-determination through culturally appropriate verification processes.

AWARDS

Prime Minister’s Literary Awards

Dr Geraldine Fela, from the School of Humanities, has won a prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award for her book ‘Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis.’ The award recognises outstanding literary achievement and contribution to Australian history. Dr Fela’s book was chosen from a highly competitive shortlist in the Australian history category for its originality, depth of research and powerful storytelling.

Critical Care documents the pivotal, yet often overlooked, role of nurses during Australia’s HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on interviews with more than 30 nurses and people living with HIV, the book highlights the activism, advocacy and care work that nurses and their unions undertook amid widespread stigma and political inaction. Read more.

2025 Women in Digital Awards

Professor Niloufer Selvadurai, from the Macquarie Law School, was named a finalist in the 2025 Women in Digital Awards. Professor Selvadurai was nominated in the 2025 Data Leader of the Year category, which recognises distinctive business leaders who have built a revolutionary data-centric program while guiding teams to outstanding achievement.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Professor Julian Droogan, Head of the School of International Studies, has been appointed to the Sydney Peace Foundation Board. Established in 1998, The Foundation advocates for “peace with justice” and inspires individuals and communities to build a more peaceful and equitable world. It supports change-makers and leaders to further their work, provides a platform to generate government, media and public awareness and hosts Australia’s international prize for peace.

In his role, Professor Droogan will contribute his expertise in countering violent extremism, political violence and contemporary security challenges to support the Foundation’s work in addressing structural inequalities and deep injustices.