Griffith University

The Arts, Education and Law Group Alumni Awards aim to recognise the outstanding achievements and successes of our alumni. The recipients of the awards will be honoured at our awards night later in 2012. There are eight Alumnus of the Year Award recipients, one for each AEL element in the Group.

• Griffith Law School 
• Queensland College of Art
• Griffith Film School
• Queensland Conservatorium of Music
• School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
• School of Education and Professional Studies
• School of Humanities
• School of Languages and Linguistics

There will be one overall Alumnus of the Year Award selected from these eight recipients. One Young Alumnus of the Year Award will also be selected, recognising our young alumni making significant contributions and success in their chosen industry/profession.

In preparation for the upcoming Emerging Scholars Colloquium: The Passion for Socio-Legal Research at the end of the month, we have posted the opening lecture that Professor Alison Young delivered at the ESQ: Law as Sight and Sound in 2010.

The Law as Sight and Sound: A Cultural Legal Colloquium saw graduate research work presented by Dr Kieran Tranter, Mr Tim Peters, Mr Robbie Sykes, Ms Jing-Yueh Hsu and Ms Merran Lawler. The topics ranged from a queer reading of the Freedom Furniture catalogue; John Rawls and Jimi Hendrix; theology and jurisprudence in Star Wars and Batman; Law, Technology and Science fiction to the emergence of a distinct popular legal culture in China.

In the video, Professor Young discusses her work both past and present and how she reads the aesthetics of the screen, photography and street art. She is both instructive and thought-provoking. This lecture is a must-watch for any cultural legal theorist.

Griffith University law student Chris Eigeland, co-founder of The School Bag program was interviewed on 612 ABC Local Radio about the expansion of the program into the Asia-Pacific, particularly East Timor.

"Spurred on by overwhelming success in Haiti last year – where over 14,000 kits of school supplies were delivered to local children - The Schoolbag last night launched its expansion into East Timor.

The aim is to give students living in disaster or conflict-stricken areas the opportunity to further their education by providing them with basic school supplies. 

Chris says the experience in Haiti has provided great insight that will now assist the organisation to reach their goal of delivering more than 10,000 schoolbags to children in East Timor this year." -- From Griffith News

"Queensland’s highest-achieving female law students were honoured this week as the Women Lawyers Association of Queensland (WLAQ) announced the recipients of the prestigious Una Prentice Award.

The accolades, presented by the Honourable Justice Debra Mullins at a ceremony hosted by The College of Law Queensland on 24 April, recognised the excellence of women in Queensland’s law schools in the past year.

The six recipients of the 2012 WLAQ Una Prentice Award were Freya Sorensen from Griffith University, Elizabeth Mathews from the University of Queensland, Danielle McCarthy from Queensland University of Technology, Lisa Butson from James Cook University, Katherine Mansted from Bond University and Rosemary Wilkins from the University of Southern Queensland." -- from Lawyers Weekly