Our projects
The Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research hosts a range of high-quality research projects with both national and international scope, and impact.
Current Australia Research Council projects
Beyond broadcasting: Community radio as a model community organisation
Dr Bridget Backhaus has been awarded $452,727 for her 2024 ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award project "Beyond broadcasting: Community radio as a model community organisation". This research aims to explore community radio as a model for successful, sustainable, and diverse community organisations. DE240100416 (2024-2027).
Applying digital archaeology to rock art placement
Dr Andrea Jalandoni has been awarded $437,774.00 for her project "Applying digital archaeology to rock art placement". This project aims to develop innovative digital archaeology techniques to allow for more data to be collected along with more sophisticated tools for analyses that leads to a more holistic interpretation of rock art. DE240100030 (2024-2027).
Momentarily immobile: the futures of backpacking and seasonal farm workers
Dr Kaya Barry has been awarded $444,548 for her 2022 ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award project “Momentarily immobile: the futures of backpacking and seasonal farm workers”. Kaya will examine the experiences of backpackers and seasonal migrants who live in communal hostel accommodation while doing farm work in regional Queensland. DE220100394 (2022-2025).
Download the Preliminary Report, January 2023: Turbulent Times; The State of Backpacking and Seasonal Farm Work in Australia
Download the translated versions of the Executive Summary: Bislama, Chinese, Fijian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Pijin, Tongan.
Colour change: Artistic/ritual responses to climate flux in Australasia
Dr Jillian Huntley has been awarded $468,027 for her 2022 ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award project "Colour change: Artistic/ritual responses to climate flux in Australasia." Jillian will seek to understand people’s use of art and ritual in the most climatically dynamic region on Earth. DE220100202 (2022-2025).
Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities through media engagement
Professor Susan Forde, Dr Heather Anderson, Professor Halim Rane and Dr Poppy de Souza were awarded $386,187 for their project ‘Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities through media engagement’. Expected outcomes include conceptual advances about media engagement and public connection for new and emerging migrant communities, and media's place in the assemblage of humanitarian settlement services. ARC-DP240103048 (2024-2027).
Cultivating digital music making in regional Australia
Professor Andrew Bennett, Professor Andrew Brown, Dr John Ferguson, Associate Professor Catherine Strong (RMIT) and Dr Benjamin Green have been awarded $284,851 for their project ‘Cultivating digital music making in regional Australia’. Knowledge outcomes will assist governments in optimising the delivery of creative services and resources in regional Australia. ARC-DP240100680 (2024-2027).
Engaging Outsiders in Sport: Transforming Sport Event Legacy Planning
Associate Professor Adele Pavlidis and Professor Simone Fullagar have been awarded $337,648.00 for their project ‘Engaging Outsiders in Sport: Transforming Sport Event Legacy Planning’. The project aims to investigate intersectional inequities in sport participation for girls, women and non-binary people in Queensland by working with them to envision legacies for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. ARC-DP230101022 (2023-2026)
Early art, culture and occupation along the northern route to Australia
Professor Maxime Aubert (Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research), Professor Adam Brumm (Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Sciences), Tim Maloney and Andrea Jalandoni (Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research) have been awarded $848,116 for the project titled, 'Early art, culture and occupation along the northern route to Australia'. (A/Prof Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University; Dr Rebecca Jones, Australian Museum; Mr Marlon Ririmasse, Indonesian National Research Center for Archaeology; Dr Pindi Setiawan, Bandung Institute of Technology). ARC-DP220100462 (2022-2027).
China’s Law-Based Governance Revolution under Xi Jinping
Professor Sue Trevaskes (Griffith Criminology Institute and Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research) has been awarded $228,000 for the project titled, 'China’s Law-Based Governance Revolution under Xi Jinping'. (A/Prof Delia Lin, The University of Melbourne; Prof Zhiyuan Guo, China University of Political Science and Law). ARC-DP220102749 (2022-2025).
The impact of immigrant theatre artists on Australian culture 1919–1949
Professor Julian Meyrick (Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and Creative Arts Research Institute) has been awarded $165,000 for the project titled, 'The impact of immigrant theatre artists on Australian culture 1919–1949'. ARC-DP220101460 (2022-2025).
The building blocks of meaning: a linguistic approach
Professor Cliff Goddard (Chief Investigator), Dr Zhengdao Ye (Chief Investigator), Mr David Bullock (Partner Investigator), Dr Ulla Vanhatalo (Partner Investigator). Project title: “The building blocks of meaning: a linguistic approach”. Total funding amount $342,761. ARC-DP210100658 (2021-2024).
Constructing robust climate proxies to explore human and primate evolution
Professor Tanya Smith (Chief Investigator), Professor Ian Williams (Chief Investigator), Dr Daniel Green (Partner Investigator). Project title: “Constructing robust climate proxies to explore human and primate evolution”. (Value $349,765). ARC-DP210101913 (2021-2023).
Investigating prehistoric human population growth
Human evolutionary biologist Professor Tanya Smith has been awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship worth $1,075,728 in 2020 to investigate prehistoric human population growth by analysing the teeth of ancient children. Her Future Fellowship project aims to investigate prehistoric human population growth by documenting nursing behaviour, developmental stress, and fine-scaled climate variation directly from the teeth of ancient children. ARC-FT200100390 (2021-2025)
Indigenous solutions to global challenges in the Pacific Islands
Dr Carol Farbotko has been awarded $679,721 for her fellowship project ‘Indigenous solutions to global challenges in the Pacific Islands’. This project proposes to analyse the efficacy and cultural value of new, pandemic-era Indigenous sustainable development initiatives in sustaining island communities. ARC-FT210100512 (2021-2025)
Art at a crossroads: Aboriginal responses to contact in Northern Australia
Sally K. May, Paul Tacon, Liam Brady, Daryl Wesley, Laura Rademaker, Andrea Jalandoni, Luke Taylor, Joakim Goldhahn. “Art at a crossroads: Aboriginal responses to contact in Northern Australia”. (Value $273,828). ARC-SR200200062 (2021-2023).
Reimagining Norfolk Island’s Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area
Sarah Baker and Zelmarie Cantillon. “Reimagining Norfolk Island’s Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area”. (Value $229,108). ARC-SR200200711 (2021-2023).
Fugitive Traces: Reconstructing Yulluna experiences of the frontier
Professor Lynley Wallis (Chief Investigator), Dr Billy Griffiths (Chief Investigator) Mr Nicholas Hadnutt (Partner Investigator) Ms Trina Jackson (Partner Investigator) Mr Vincent Wall (Partner Investigator). “Fugitive Traces: Reconstructing Yulluna experiences of the frontier”. ARC- SRI200200157 (2021-2023). (Value $263,414).
Aboriginal rock art and cultural heritage management in Cape York Peninsula
Lynley Wallis, Heather Burke, Jillian Huntley, Jonathan Osborn, Bryce Barker, Maxime Aubert, Tristen Jones, Nigel Spooner, Noelene Cole. “Aboriginal rock art and cultural heritage management in Cape York Peninsula”. (Value $1,342,000). ARC-LP190100194 (2020-2025).
Lynley Wallis Rock Art and Cultural Heritage in Cape York Peninsula
The Laura Sandstone Basin of Cape York Peninsula hosts one of the richest bodies of rock art in Australia and the world, documenting the life-ways of generations of Aboriginal Australians from their original settlement, through major environmental changes, to European invasion. This vast area, much of which is now jointly managed as National Parks by Traditional Owners, remains virtually unexplored archaeologically.
With a team of ten researchers from six universities working alongside six industry partners, this project will record the unique rock art and archaeology of Cape York Peninsula. This will provide a framework for sustainable management of this unique cultural heritage so it endures for future generations. Findings from the project may have profound implications for our understandings of the cultural behaviour and dispersal of the earliest modern humans to colonise Australia.
Digitising the deep past
Associate Professor Lynley Wallis will lead a team of interdisciplinary researchers on a large project under the University’s Spotlight initiative, titled “Digitising the deep past: Machine learning, rock art and Indigenous engagements with 21st century technology”.
The project aims to engage remote Aboriginal communities, especially children, in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) in order to develop and trial an innovative place-based, ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) compliant curriculum package featuring cross-cultural learning.
Languages Project – Communicating Public Messages
The Research Group on Communicating Public Messages is an innovative initiative of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. Its members are linguists who are researching ways to make public messages clearer, more accessible, and easier to translate into community languages.
New guidelines have been developed for clearer more accessible communication called the ‘minimal languages’ approach (also known as Clear, Explicit Translatable Language or CETL). This approach allows people to express important thoughts and messages in a simpler version of English which is easy to translate into other languages.