Issues and resources to support mental health and wellbeing will be the focus of a Griffith University symposium at South Bank on Tuesday, October 20.
Speakers include Queensland Mental Health Commissioner and Griffith alumnus, Dr Lesley van Schoubroeck and Griffith University Counselling Services Head, Lexie Money.
The event is part of Griffith’s national university Mental Health and Wellbeing Day with each campus holding a range of activities.
“Mental health is a significant issue in our community and especially so for university students,” said Griffith University Student Services Director, Dr Joanna Peters.
“University represents a stressful time for many students managing academic, financial and personal issues.
“The mental health of university students is recognised internationally as an important public health issue and research suggests that rates of mental illness are higher for university students than the general population.”
She said students were less likely to perform well at university when suffering from mental illness.
“Mental health issues and illness are often associated with lower educational achievement, decreased employment, lower incomes and lower standard of living.
“It is estimated that 45% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 will experience a mental health-related issue/issues in their lifetime, while 20% will experience symptoms of a mental health disorder each year.”
20th Century Fox’s cinematic reboot of Fantastic Four has failed to fire up enthusiasm from film critics and left audiences stone cold.
This fourth attempt by Fox to bring Marvel’s first family to the movie screen (which includes an unreleased Roger Croman film and two early 2000 films with Captain America: The First Avenger star Chris Evans playing Johnny Storm) was distinctly un-fantastic both in execution and performance.
Instead of a gritty revival, Josh Trank’s film now joins other notable superhero misfires including Catwoman (2004), Green Lantern (2011) and Fox’s own Daredevil (2003).
While Marvel’s Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy films prove that audiences are open to the weirder stuff within comic books on screen, Josh Trank had promised in an exclusive interview with website Collider, that his film would emphasise the “body horror” of being transformed into a superhero. While some of those elements are retained in the movie, Trank has since disavowed the film publically on Twitter.
So have audiences finally succumb to superhero fatigue, as some in the film industry predicted (and which I have been expecting since 2012)?The contrary would seem to be self-evident with the sheer quantity of superhero films scheduled and with recent reboots of Spider-Man and Man of Steel having performed well at the box office (despite a mixed response from critics and audiences).
The problem at the heart of Fantastic Four is that it struggles with its own origin story. Superhero films as works of genre elicit certain expectations from their audience, which anticipate thematic reference points–we know that Bruce Wayne’s parents are brutally slain, that Clark Kent is an alien refugee and that a single spider-bite transforms Peter Parker into Spider-Man.
However, the site of the Fantastic Four’s transformation has been recalibrated from exposure to cosmic radiation to a volatile green goo from an alternative dimension. The turn is still accidental, as many superhero origin stories are, but the long set-up gives little space for the more intriguing David Cronenberg-like body horror that Trank had promised.
This points to Fantastic Four’s attempt to ground its origin story in a much harder science-fiction than the traditional superhero fare. In fact, Fantastic Four feels decidedly anti-superhero in its treatment of the material. From the development of their containment suits, which are designed to control their powers, to the emphasis on building an inter-dimensional teleporter, the film feels more like the latest sci-fi flick (think Ender’s Game or Interstellar), than a traditional superhero film.
It is not as if these genres are mutually exclusive, and there are certainly overlaps with other traditional institutional tropes of the Marvel Universe, such as the government’s treating these superheroes as super weapons.
In fact, most of the fun of this film comes from scenes where the Fantastic Four use their power with or against the military. We see the Thing, a military codename for Ben Grimm who has transformed into an incredibly strong and near indestructible rock monster, singlehandedly take out an enemy compound. Reed Richards, who can disguise his face using his body’s elasticity, escapes an ambush by punching out multiple soldiers from a distance with his fast, flexible and extendable arms.
So, given how sci-fi heavy this film turned out to be, is there any space for a cultural legal reading of the film? While such a reading does not lie in the overt content of the film–the criminological themes (Batman or Daredevil fighting for vigilante justice against a law that fails to deliver) of much of the superhero genre being absent, not to mention a lack of courts, lawyers, judges or even police in the film–the mode of operation of the film, in terms of its speculative science-fiction does give rise to questions that can be understood as cultural legal.
While much of this is wish-fulfillment (who hasn’t wanted to be able to build a teleporter in their garage?), speculative fiction encompasses a reflection on the reality of the auteur or viewer, despite its engagement and creation of different worlds, novums and characters.
While Trank points to the ‘reality’ of the studio’s control over the final product arguing that they are responsible for the un-fantastic outcomes, the fantastic itself is still captured in the mode of envisioning that these films present to us. By envisioning worlds of advanced technology, inter-dimensional travel or alien life, we explore reflections of our own desires, dreams and understanding of our world.
It is in this sense that we can understand films of speculative fiction like Fantastic Four as essentially world-creating and which reflect, in many ways, the world-creating nature of the law.
From this perspective, the role of the jurist and artist overlap in the space of the imaginary.
Law operates not just through legal institutions and forms but exists in the cultural legal imaginary that gives it substance and allows it to be brought into existence.
The representations of popular culture, which we enjoy or criticise, play a significant role in the development of our cultural legal imaginary–including those that do not specifically depict legal institutions.
The normative aspects of legal analysis and legal interpretation are always about the enforcing of a particular vision of the world on the factual situation in which it engages. While the director, author or artist may only be creating representations of alternate worlds or potential futures, the lawyer or jurist in many respects brings such an alternate world into being.
This is not to understand the law as being able to unproblematically construct or create the world (a particularly ‘modern’ vision of the task of law itself), but in reading speculative fiction as an analogue of law’s world-creating function enables us to see the world as gifted and storied, not simply as constructed–both created and contingent.
This ‘un-fantastic’ rendering of Fantastic Four represents this mode of ‘modern’ reasoning. Professor Storm and his Baxter Institute are founded on the ideals of solving the problems of the previous generation.
The reason it is full of wunderkinds is because the older generations have already failed. Yet, what remains is a belief that technological and scientific progress will save the world from ecological and other problems (created by technological and scientific progress).
While Victor von Doom has to be convinced to return to the Baxter Institute, it is on the premise that they can achieve something that no one else can.
The promise of the alternative dimension to which they venture is not just a chance for exploration, but for its ability to be exploited in order to resolve our world’s energy crisis.
But the engagement of an alternate dimension causes significant problems: when one looks at the void of destruction, the temptation is further destruction and not necessarily salvation–particularly if your name is Victor von Doom.
However, Doom’s attempt to destroy our world is, in good comic book tradition, the evil that needs to be eviscerated and what brings together the other special young men and woman and solidifies the ‘team’ of this superhero narrative.
In this sense, Fantastic Four recognises the need for interdependence. Individualism (represented by Doom) leads to destructive tendencies, but collectively (the ‘fantastic four’), there is potential for a higher purpose. While this might sound somewhat clichéd and naïve (and is represented with a degree of self-reflexive irony in the film, which concludes on the question of the name ‘fantastic four’) it is a theme that needs exploring: how do we envisage a means of being together that is not about destruction?
This underlying question of Fantastic Four is represented problematically, in a film that is un-fantastic and uneven in its execution.
But it bears serious consideration: how do we envision a law that focuses on interdependence and relationality rather than individualism and self-destruction?
While this summer blockbuster struggles to consider such a question, we can only hope that the scheduled fifth instantiation of the Fantastic Four on screen might attempt to answer it.
Brisbane Roar FC and Griffith University today announced a significant partnership which will see the University closely aligned with the Roar men’s Hyundai A-League team.
The John Aloisi-coached Roar will make Griffith University their formal Hyundai A-League training facility in Brisbane.
The Roar Westfield W-League squad, coached by Belinda Wilson, will have an extended training base on the Gold Coast at Musgrave Football Club, which is supported by Griffith Student Guild.
Brisbane Roar FC interim chief executive David Pourre said the partnership with Griffith University would allow the Roar to utilise the elite sporting facilities at Griffith campuses and allow for further pathways for the development of young footballers across the region.
“Brisbane Roar is committed to expanded engagement across Queensland,” Pourre said.
From left, Brisbane Roar captain Matt McKay, Roar interim chief executive David Pourre, Griffith Sports College Manager Duncan Free OAM, and Brisbane Roar W-League captain Clare Polkinghorne
“This partnership with Griffith University will allow the Roar to not only connect regularly with the university’s students and staff but will also provide the club with opportunities to benefit from the University’s ground-breaking and renowned research,” Pourre said.
“Having our Westfield W-League team expand their training base to include the Gold Coast is an opportunity to develop pathways for young girls to see, be inspired and potentially participate in football.”
Griffith Deputy Vice Chancellor (Engagement) Professor Martin Betts said the partnership with Brisbane Roar would benefit students, staff and the broader community.
“Having an elite, professional team such as Brisbane Roar on campus is terrific and will also lead us to possible student internships, research and collaborations that will further enhance Griffith’s reputation as a leading sports University,” Professor Betts said.
“We are particularly excited about facilitating the Roar Women’s presence on the Gold Coast and congratulate Musgrave Football Club and the Griffith Student Guild for helping make that a reality.
“This sporting partnership follows Griffith becoming an official partner of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and being overall runners-up nationally in the recent University Games.”
Griffith Sports College General Manager Duncan Free OAM, a gold-medal Olympic rower, said having elite athletes in close proximity would lead to more opportunities.
“Already we are looking at a research project involving young women in professional sport. These are the sorts of possibilities that will arise and integrate Griffith’s research, student and academic pursuits with the most successful Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League teams in the game,” he said.
The partnership will see Brisbane Roar train at Griffith University fields, gym and pool at Nathan and Mt Gravatt.
Clare Polkinghorne – Roar captain and Griffith Masters in Criminology student.
The Roar Women will train at Musgrave, which recently hosted the Australian University Games and the Football Gold Coast’s junior grand finals.
The two squads have had temporary arrangements in place until now.
Musgrave GU Football Club president John Bills said hosting the Roar’s Westfield W-League team was already paying dividends for Gold Coast football.
“We have had our women (club) players and coaches come along and watch the Roar train already,” he said.
“The Roar are planning coaching clinics in the future as well so that will be fabulous for the progression of the women’s hub here at Musgrave.”
Ties between Brisbane Roar and Griffith University also extend beyond the sporting fields.
The Roar’s Westfield Matildas Tameka Butt and Clare Polkinghorne study at Griffith while the club’s Young Socceroo and Hyundai A-League striker Brandon Borrello is a Griffith Business student.
Almost 40% of workers in the construction industry are drinking large quantities of energy drinks, a new study shows.
Researchers from Griffith Business School also found that tradies and labourers with unhealthy on-site diets have very limited opportunity to change their eating habits for the better.
Extreme early morning starts, an intensely pressurised working environment and poor food choices are at the heart of the problem, the research findings reveal.
Workers were also generally unaware of the associated risk factors for chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease.
“The time pressures of the job mean that whatever is put in front of construction workers is what they’re going to eat,” Dr Rebecca Loudoun said. “They’re very active physically but the food they eat is nutritionally vacant or full of sugar.”
Dr Loudoun (pictured, left) led the research which was funded by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, under the Queensland Government Healthier. The study took place across six construction sites in Brisbane from February 2014 to May 2015 where the team interviewed and surveyed the attitudes and eating behaviour of site managers and construction workers.
“Many are skipping breakfast and replacing it with an energy drink,” she said. “This is often because of the very early start. Some workers were commuting from Caloundra to the north and Lennox Heads down south. They’re getting up for work at a time when their bodies do not want to eat breakfast.
“Energy drinks are marketed specifically to this group which is largely made up of young people who are time poor, cashed up and working physical jobs. They feel it’s what they need to get through the day.”
This raised concerns among site managers when researchers discussed the potential impact of high energy drinks on workers using heavy tools on a busy building site.
A key finding for Dr Loudoun is the need to stock on-site vending machines with healthy, nutritious alternatives to the standard vending machine fare.
“Healthy food needs to be put in front of them,” she said. “They loved the healthy food we gave them. They are not opposed to eating healthy food. They’re not opposed to changes on site. They just want a quick, satisfying meal and if that’s a healthy meal then great.
“However, the odds are against any workers who want to change their eating habits. This is a hard, transient industry, where directives are frantically coming from all directions.
“Managers need to be aware of the impact of their on-site decisions and strategies and learn to factor a healthy food environment into the architecture of the building site.
“There needs to be a much greater emphasis on nutrition, the importance of nutrition, and how a lack of nutrition affects those on site and what they do.
“The majority of workers we interviewed thought they were eating healthily, and were surprised to learn they were at risk.”
An ambitious new “Super Science” four-year research project, funded by a $2.54 million donation from a private charitable Trust, has been launched between Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics and Chris O’Brien Lifehouse cancer centre to fight cancer on a new frontier.
This collaboration brings together one of Australia’s largest academic cancer centres treating thousands of patients annually, with world-leading researchers from the Institute for Glycomics at the cutting edge of a new frontier in the fight against cancer — glycomics.
Through the partnership, tissue samples and comprehensive clinical metadata will be collected from Lifehouse’s cancer patients and sent to the Institute’s Gold Coast research facility for analysis using new cutting edge technology.
This major research collaboration will help find a cure for diseases such as breast, prostate, head and neck, and lung cancers and was announced last night at the Institute for Glycomics’ Annual Gala Dinner on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Institute Director Professor Mark von Itzstein said the program will allow researchers to identify new targets for early cancer diagnosis and enable novel cancer vaccine and drug discovery.
“This ambitious, big science initiative will generate an unprecedentedly rich knowledge base with the potential to transform the way we understand and treat the most insidious and poorly addressed cancers,” he said.
“Together, we seek to map the cancer glycome by characterising the changes that occur in the sugar molecules on the surface of cancer cells.
“Our ultimate goal is to establish a pathway to translate novel cancer biomarker discoveries into drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tools to improve the clinical outcomes of patients attending Lifehouse and beyond.”
The Institute for Glycomics drug discovery programs have already yielded major discoveries for metastatic cancers such as melanoma and blood cancers such as childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Lifehouse Director of Research Associate Professor Lisa Horvath said: “We’re really excited that this approach can now be expanded to finding new drugs to cure breast, prostate, head and neck, and lung cancers suffered by so many of our patients.
“This research will help us to unlock the way that cells signal to each other and therefore grow and mutate. Patients who come to us from New South Wales and across Australia will be able to contribute to research that is leading the world.
“Glycomics is a significant new direction for cancer research. The knowledge gained from glycomics will be as important for the discovery of new drugs, as that discovered in the field of genomics and proteomics during the last 30 years.
“This donation will significantly enhance the translational research capacity at Lifehouse through expanded biobanks and research databases that we run in conjunction with Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. It also enables Lifehouse clinical researchers to partner with Griffith’s glycomics scientists to identify innovative approaches to cancer treatment.”
The rise in popularity of action sports such as roller derby on women in China is the focus of a new study by Griffith University sociologist Dr Adele Pavlidis.
“Action sports are often used as tools for integration, empowerment and leadership development,’’ she says.
“Roller derby is growing in popularity throughout the world including China, a country where traditionally action sports have not been considered feminine.
“Our project aims to shed light on the complex relationship between globalisation, sport and gender.”
Over the past two years ex-patriot workers have brought roller derby to China from the US, UK and Australia. Roller derby leagues are now established in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Developed in the US in 2001, the sport has quickly spread globally with more than 900 leagues throughout the world and 35,000 participants, mostly female.
“This is partly because of the sports’ emphasis on creativity and music, as well as its competitiveness,’’ Dr Pavlidis said.
“These types of sports have been celebrated for the emancipatory potential for girls and women.”
Dr Adele Pavlidis.
Dr Pavlidis, the author of Sport, Gender and Power: the Rise of Roller Derby, is working in collaboration with Professor Jinxia Dong from Peking University (as part of a Collaborative Research Scheme betweenthe two universities).
She will travel to Beijing later this year to interview Chinese roller derby team members. Professor Dong will travel to Australia and interview Australian members of roller derby teams.
Results from the study are expected to be completed in 2017.
Griffith University journalism students had a firsthand taste of reporting on an international event at theGlobal Integrity Summitat South Bank this week.
The second and third-year students interviewed world-leading figures including Professor Gillian Triggs (Australian Human Rights Commission President), environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev, New York Times blogger, Andrew Revkin and Jesuit priest, Father Frank Brennan AO.
They then posted and tweeted their stories to the journalism students’ website The Source Newsand produced a 30-minute radio program.
For Shay Ledingham, interviewing Professor Gillian Triggs was an exciting, although somewhat nerve-racking experience.
“To be interviewing a person like Gillian was a privilege and working at the summit has given me a feel of what it’s really like to be a journalist,’’ she said.
Fellow student Tessa Fox interviewed a range of people including lawyers Carly Nyst andBrett Walker SC as well as Crikey founder Stephen Mayne.
“Covering the high-profile event was a fantastic opportunity and has given me confidence to begin my internship with Crikey next year,’’ she said.
Lecturer Faith Valencia said the summit gave students the opportunity to work in a functioning, multi-platform newsroom.
“They had to make approaches to people, act as ‘in the field reporters’ and find interesting stories, which wasn’t difficult considering the calibre of delegates,’’ Ms Valencia said.
“The summit has given them valuable industry experience to add to their knowledge base and assist in their future careers.”
Five-timeWalkley-award-winning journalist Tony Koch mentored the students throughout the summit and said the two-day event was just as valuable as a longer media internship.
“They’re getting interviews with international figures like Father Frank Brennan and Gillian Triggs, so this is enormously impressive,’’ Mr Koch said.
Their work experience at the Global Integrity Summit follows on from the students’ live reporting of the Queensland Rugby Union premier league season as part of their radio journalism studiesand on last year’s G20 Summit at South Bank.
Off-the-pace emissions standards in Australia are leaving the door open for car manufacturers and importers to ‘dump’ high-polluting new vehicles in Australia, a Griffith Business School researcher says.
The unforgiving focus the Volkswagen emissions scandal has brought on the motor manufacturing industry reveals a failure to impose current international standards in Australia, Dr Anna Mortimore explains.
“Australian air pollution and CO2 emissions standards lag well behind EU and US standards,” she says.
“While Australia does have air pollution standards, it has no regulatory CO2emission standards to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas from fossil fuels and its impact on climate change.”
In an article in The Conversation, Dr Mortimore (left) explains that from September 2015 all new vehicles sold in the EU must be Euro 6-compliant. Euro 6 limits bring overall emissions of diesel and petrol vehicles close to parity, provided that vehicles of both fuel types conform to standards in real-world driving conditions.
However, Australia’s current air pollutant standards are Euro 4, which were fully implemented by July 2010. Euro 5 standards will not apply until November 1, 2016 and Euro 6 will take effect from April/July 2017 and April/July 2018 for all models.
“Failure to impose the current international standards means importers of new vehicles can dump high-polluting Euro 4 compliant vehicles into Australia, vehicles which cannot be sold in their own country,” Dr Mortimore says.
“Clearly government intervention is required to upgrade the emission standards for air pollutants.”
Competitors and participants trekked 5km and 10km routes from Griffith’s Nathan campus through nearby Toohey Forest and back to base.
The feel-good factor was in evidence from an early hour with gym instructors and Kid Zumba on hand to help with warm routines and stretches.
A team of Griffith cheerleaders added to the atmosphere, and there was a pep in every step when the time to run arrived.
Australian sprinter, Griffith alumnus and event ambassador, Craig Burns, played the meet and greet role to perfection, and presented the awards at the end of the day.
Patrick Hagan was first across the finishing line in the 5km run with a time of 16:26, with Amy Riethmuller taking the honours in the women’s run with a time 23:23.
Patrick Nispel took out the 10km run in a time of 34:52, while Clare Geraghty was the first woman home in a time of 37:34.
A number of novelty awards were presented on the day, with Kodie Fuller collecting the prize for highest fundraiser for the nominated charity, the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.
Erica Leota (most Instagram likes), Georgia Herbert (best dressed) and Grace Mullins (best dressed) were other novelty award winners.
For Jos Lamb, a Griffith University staff member who has taken part in Bridge to Brisbane, Gold Coast Airport Marathon and Color Runs, the Nathan event was a standout.
“The track was brilliant, plenty of support staff, plenty of hydration stations and on race’s end, plenty of fruit and a mix of drinks.
“The start of the race with the cheerleaders spelling out ‘Go Griffith’ was a genius marketing strategy.”
First-time trail runner, Maria Blaine, confirmed herself an addict by the end of the fun. “Thank you so much to every volunteer at each bend or bottom of a hill. That was so encouraging,” she said.
Scott Wilson brought along his little boy for the run. “I’m especially wrapped that you allowed the inclusion of prams in the event. It allowed me to include my son in something the family enjoys heaps.
“Many thanks to all the other runners who were ready to high five him when he had his hand sticking out of the pram and for the encouragement of volunteers and event organisers.
“My son had a blast singing all the way through the event and joining in with the stage dancers.”
The seventh annual Thanksgiving Service will take place this Thursday (October 15), as Griffith University will honour the 43 people who have bequeathed their bodies to the Body Donation Program over the past 12 months.
This provides a total of 260 people named in the Book of Remembrance, who have bequeathed their bodies to Griffith for anatomy teaching and research, since the first in 2006.
The sound of Griffith student Miss Yasu Hamilton playing Highland Cathedral on the bagpipes will be one of the highlights at the Thanksgiving service in recognition of body donors.
Yasu says the occasion is not lost on her. “It is a fantastic privilege to be able to play the pipesat such an important occasion,” she says.
Griffith students have already reaped vital education benefits from the body donation program.
Honours research student from the School of Allied Health, Amy Harding has the honour of carrying the Book of Remembrance at the ceremony.
“It is a real privilege to be given this opportunity to pay my respects to the individuals who have so generously donated this greatest gift towards the furthering of medical education. The Book of Remembrance contains the names of those who have enhanced our learning through the years, providing future doctors with invaluable experience to assist us in the provision of improved medical care to the community.”
The service will start with a procession of students, academics and invited guests, led by Amy who will be carrying the Book of Remembrance. As part of the service, a minute’s silence will follow the reading of the donors’ names.
Popular music group ‘The Blenders’ will be providing the music during the formal proceedings.
Supporting education
Chair of Anatomy at Griffith, Professor Mark Forwood says the program supports theeducation of health students in disciplines such as medicine, medical science, pharmacy,physiotherapy, exercise science, dentistry and oral health.
“Body donations from the local community are vitally important so our health students can receivepractical training in human anatomy,” he says. “The generosity of body donors, our new state-of the-art anatomy facilities, and committed teachers ensure our students receive the very best preparation for their chosen careers.”
The Griffith Health Centre features some of the country’s most advanced anatomy facilities and includes an increased student capacity with three wet labs to cater for up to 300 students at one time; a ten table surgical skills laboratory and a 50 seat Anatomy and Pathology learning centre.
Over 1400 Griffith University first year students use the facility every year.
“We are very appreciative of the decisions made by these donors and the support shown by theirfamilies. This Thanksgiving Service is a public demonstration of that appreciation,” ProfessorForwood says.
For more information about Griffith’s Body Donation program, please phone 07 5552 7700 or email [email protected]
