The issues facing returned service men and women will be explored in a powerful new play presented by artists and researchers from Griffith University at the Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BEMAC)in June.
Based on interviews with ex-servicemen and their families, the cast features ex-military personnel, as well as professional actors.
“The Return is a visceral and raw portrayal of the ongoing trauma experienced by many of former military personnel,’’ said writer and director Linda Hassall. As the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, Dr Hassall knows only too well the difficulties experienced by former service personnel and their families.
“When my Dad came home, he was really damaged. His behaviour was bad, the drinking was bad and he couldn’t sustain a relationship. So, I feel really close to the subject matter,” she said.
Griffith University Chair in Applied Theatre Professor Michael Balfour said the production was the result of a three-year research project.
“What I wanted to draw attention to was that although the wars’ in Afghanistan and Iraq are over, for many, another kind of war is only beginning.
“The impact on relationships is one of the key themes that the performance tackles. A lot of the emotional conflict tends to be hidden behind closed doors, with the play we’re trying to show you those things that people aren’t talking about or are too afraid to discuss.
“For service personnel and their families it’s a chance to look at a performance and ask them is this your story? It’s also motivation for people to seek help.”
Key military and veteran support organisations have been part of the two-year creative development process, providing feedback throughout and ensuring that the play is an authentic representation of the issues. Proceeds of the play will be donated to local veteran support organisations.
Interviews with cast and production team on request.
WHAT: The Return (World Premiere)
WHEN: June 25 7.30pm, June 26 2.30pm & 7.30pm
WHERE: BEMAC Theatre, 102 Main Street Kangaroo Point
MEDIA CONTACT:Deborah Marshall 0413 156 601, [email protected]
Based upon the significance and contribution of her PhD thesis to the field and in meeting the exact requirements to beawarded a PhD, recently conferred Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing (WOW) Higher Degree Research member, Dr Katrina Radford,was awarded ‘Academic Excellence’ for exemplary performance following the unanimous opinion of her thesis examiners. We spent five minutes with Katrina to learn a little more about her research into employees’ intentions to stay and leave the Australian aged care sector.
Dr Katrina Radford and Associate Professor Kate Shacklock, celebrate the submission of Katrina’s thesis.
What inspired your thesis topic/ area of research?
I started working in aged care as a young 21 year old graduate and was amazed at the lack of younger people in this sector. The job itself was always interesting and diverse, yet the reputation of the sector was poor as an employment choice so I wanted to research why people stayed and left the sector in general.
What did your literature review reveal?
My literature review revealed a significant need for aged care workers in the future, and that there were factors other than pay that contributed to influencing employees’ intentions to stay and leave, such as workplace conditions, support, job satisfaction, and job embeddedness. While many organisations are doing what they can to support employees on a tight budget, there was no clear understanding of what factors influenced employees’ intentions to stay and leave, which was the gap my research began to address for the sector.
What didn’t you know then, and what do you know now as a result of your research?
Before my thesis, I failed to understand just how important support from both supervisors and the organisation as a whole was to employee retention and turnover. However, afterwards I am much more aware of the importance of support. Additionally, my research highlighted that while aged care employees are amongst the lowest paid workers in health care, pay was not a major influence in their intentions to stay and leave. This was a surprising finding of my research. In doing so, it also highlighted that there are many ways an organisation can influence the retention and turnover of its employees, which is comforting in a sector such as the aged care sector, which is characterised by funding shortfalls.
Where or for whom, will your research make an impact?
I am hoping my research will impact the sector by improving the knowledge around the importance of workplace conditions, support and culture in understanding why employees’ stay and leave the sector.
Where to from here?
I do hope to extend my findings by obtaining a grant to investigate further the factors that influence employees’ intentions to stay and leave, as I am passionate about the factors influencing retention and turnover.
Katrina will be considered in nextyear’s selection for the Chancellor’s Medals for 2014 – Griffith University’s award for excellence in a PhD thesis.
Katrina’s thesis supervisor’s are WOW‘s Associate Professor Kate Shacklockand the School of Applied Psychology’s Associate Professor Graham Bradley.
Story contributors: Katrina Radford; GBS HDR Outlook Newsletter (May 2014)
Young Australian filmmakers will be out in force at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, after 10 student productions from the Griffith Film School were selected for screening in the Short Film Corner.
Each film will be screened in the Cannes Court Metrage; an initiative within the festival designed to encourage emerging talent, featuring more than 2,000 registered films from more than 90 countries worldwide.
This Festival marks the fifth year that Griffith Film School has been invited to participate and according to Professor Herman Van Eyken, it is the opportunity for the next generation of filmmakers to make industry connections that may launch a coveted international career.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to be in Cannes, surrounded by the world’s best in the industry — it’s an experience every young filmmaker aspires to,” he says.
“The quality of this year’s student films is such that they deserve to be shown on the world stage and I believe they will actively reveal the depth of talent coming out of Australia.”
The Griffith Film School delegation is being led by one of Australia’s leading producers Trish Lake, who is mentoring the 15 students through their Cannes journey.
Under her guidance, the students are meeting with leaders in the industry from the likes of Fox Searchlight (US); Hanway Films, Acme Films, Bankside Films and Protagonist Pictures (UK); Greiner Films Boutique and Global Screen (Germany); and Greenlight Productions (Finland).
“A host of other events, meetings and workshops are also scheduled throughout the Festival along with the screenings to ensure the students benefit to the fullest extent from this amazing experience,” he says.
“The ambition and initiative shown by these young filmmakers is something that will put them in good stead as they look to forge their professional lives after graduation.
“At this time in their lives, it will be a fantastic learning experience to see their work on screen during one of the world’s most celebrated festivals and speak first hand with the people who lead the industry worldwide.”
Master of Screen Production candidate Amanda Dettrick, who touched down in France with the delegation last week to promote her film Die Violine, has already attended the premiere of Mr Turner and the “uber-glam” opening night of Grace of Monaco.
“I’ve been so lucky already to have met with distributors and sales agents and to have attended a co-production workshop for the French Film commission,” she says.
“They are incredibly well set up and it’s been really encouraging to see how supportive they are of us newbies — it’s such a positive experience.”
The student films selected for this year’s Cannes Court Metrage include undergraduate and postgraduate work from animation and live action, as follows:
- Home
- Jackrabbit
- The F-Word
- One Step Ahead
- Sailboats
- Ouroboros
- Die Violine
- The Skin Factory
- Monument
- Squats
View the trailers here and/or register to attend the Brisbane screening of the films.
To meet entry criteria, this will be the first time each of the 10 films has been presented internationally.
The films will be screened on Thursday 22 May, 1.30pm on the Palais F.
The 67th Cannes Film Festival runs from 14 — 25 May.
Griffith Film School is the largest film school in the country by enrolment and has strong industry ties both throughout Australia and internationally.
Media Contact: Lauren Marino, 0418 799 544, [email protected]
After winning the local stage of the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Sydney late last year, a formidable Griffith Business School team recently contested the Asia Pacific regional final in Singapore.
As a global educational initiative, the CFA Challenge promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of financial analysts, through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.
GBS students John Fan (team captain), Andrew L’Estrelle, Euan Orsini and Jason Rayment had already proven themselves against the best young business minds in Australia, and the regional final would allow them to show their wares once more in international company.
As expected, it was a very intense environment for the Griffith team in Singapore, surrounded by the best of the best in the Asia Pacific, confirmed Griffith University Academic Adviser, Dr Alexandr Akimov.
Among the 19 teams assembled representing their CFA societies, was an impressive team from University of Philippines, Diliman that would eventually go on to claim regional and global honours; becoming the first university to ever claim the trophy twice.
The Griffith team was unlucky to face the eventual winners in the first round of the regional format, performing exceptionally well to claim the spoils in the report score and finishing on-par in their overall presentation.
The University of Philippines were succinct and comprehensive in the all-important Q+A session, showing exceptional confidence and smoothness in their response delivery which propelled them through to the ultimate prize.
Dr Akimov commented that, “With the timing of the regional final our team had to put in a lot of work to refresh their data, but overall in just our second year of CFA Challenge competition I was extremely proud of the effort.”
Griffith Business School will look to make it third time lucky in the prestigious CFA Research Challenge with plans underway to establish another formidable team, in order to continue momentum in the competition.
The experience and exposure to the regional and global formats is sure to hold Griffith University in good stead with moves afoot to maintain the expert involvement of Ken Howard from Morgan’s as the team’s industry mentor.
Dr Akimov commented that support from an industry mentor is crucial to challenges of this kind. “Ken’s excellent contribution helped the team to get so far in this year’s competition and his continued involvement would be a huge bonus,” added Dr Akimov.
The objective of each team is to produce an initiation-of-coverage report on their assigned stock with a buy, sell, or hold recommendation and may they then be asked to present and defend their thesis to a panel of industry veterans.
The CFA brand has global recognition and for the entire team a winning item in the CV will place them in good company for any future equity research related job throughout the world.
GBS team captain John Fan has just completed his PhD thesis on momentum investing and commodity futures markets. His teammates Andrew, Euan and Jason are Bachelor of Commerce students at Griffith’s Gold Coast campus.
Griffith Business School’s new Dean (Academic) Professor Linda Trenberth commended Alexandr, Ken and the team for such a meritorious result and for all their hard work in helping to put Griffith on the global map. “We look forward to taking the big prize next year!”, said the Dean.
Griffith University’s Eskitis Institute will be the gateway for European scientists to access potential building blocks for new drugs and other products sourced from compounds created by Australian chemistry researchers.
In return, Australian researchers will also be able to draw on the chemical libraries of Europe after the signing of an historic Memorandum of Understanding hosted by the Australian Ambassador to Belgium, in Brussels.
The signatories are;
- Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA), a Federal Government funding agency for strategic infrastructure for medical research
- EU-OPENSCREEN, a European Research Infrastructure Initiative of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology and
- Compounds Australia – the national compound collection housed at Griffith’s Eskitis Institute on the Nathan Campus
Director of the Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery, Professor Ronald J Quinn AM said research collaborations are vital in the search for new drugs to fight disease.
“Research needs to become more collaborative and multidisciplinary to succeed and we will get more value from Australian compounds if more exploration is being done,” Professor Quinn said.
“Australian chemists will be able to have their compounds investigated by European scientists who are looking at things in different ways, and Australian biologists will have access to European compounds. The more people who are investigating the better.”
Coordinator of the EU-OPENSCREEN consortium, Dr. Ronald Frank from Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie in Berlin Germany, is also enthusiastic about the exchange with Compounds Australia.
“This brings us a big step forward in joining forces with other continents to advance our understanding of how chemicals affect molecular mechanisms of complex biological processes,” Dr Frank said.
“We now can combine the rich chemistry knowledge of Europe and Australia in our compound collections to promote the availability of safe and efficacious chemical products for unmet needs in medicine, nutrition, agriculture, and environment.”
CEO of Therapeutic Innovation Australia, Dr Stewart Hay, said the Eskitis Institute and EU-OPENSCREEN commitment to share compounds will improve the probability of an important discovery.
“This collaboration between drug discovery researchers in Europe and Australia could potentially be the critical step leading to the discovery of our next blockbuster drug,” Dr Hay said.
Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics, in collaboration with Sugar Research Australia, has been awarded a $1.1 million research grant to assist the Australian sugar industry.
The Institute for Glycomics, based on Griffith’s Gold Coast campus, is one of only six facilities in the world dedicated to the study of glycans and carbohydrates (sugars) and how they behave in terms of disease prevention and cure.
While this new project may seem a world away from drug discovery, General Manager of the Institute, Dr Chris Davis is thrilled by the collaboration.
“We are delighted that we can use the tools we’ve developed for discovering new drugs based on sugars for cancer and infectious diseases, and apply them to help further develop technologies for the Australian sugar industry,” Dr Davis said.
Principal Investigator and Director of the Institute for Glycomics, Professor Mark von Itzstein is also looking forward to the research project.
“Here at the Institute for Glycomics, we are very focused on translating our discovery science and know-how into real benefits for industry and ultimately the community.
“In this project we are applying our expertise in glycoscience to assist the sugar industry manage aspects of raw sugar quality.”
SRA’s research investments are funded by the statutory Sugarcane Levy and contributions from the Commonwealth and State governments.
Half a century after millions of city dwellers were ordered to the countryside, some officials are once again being armed with spades and sent out to the villages of the western regions of China to try to win over the locals.
Dr Michael Clarke from the Griffith Asia Institute is quoted in the following article in the Wall Street Journal. Click here to read the full article
By Dr Donna McDonald, School of Human Services and Social Work
Tuesday’s Budget is, of course, predictably dreadful and we’ve all got our own pithy analyses.
Hockey’s budget is the child of a melancholic hound-dog in the spirit of “We’ll all be rooned” said Hanrahan, “before the year is out”, and the cold meanness of Ebenezer Scrooge (but without any prospects of redemption). The Federal Budget is merely an accountant’s cash-flow sheet: squaring the columns of cash-in on one side and cash-out neatly on the other side. You can almost hear the scratching of the blue biro and see the spill of whiteout in the school-boyish anxiety to achieve this.
It is not an economic budget set to a national vision in the spirit of Hawke (remember the Accord? the social wage?), or Keating (oh, for the Placido Domingo of Aussie politics to come back!) or even Howard (lame though his “vision” for “a comfortable Australia” was, at least it was a vision, even if clouded and myopic).
Hockey has no vision. Just the inane frenzied pursuit of a balanced cheque book.
However, many Australians – including serious commentators – think Hockey is on the money. They are buying into his narrative of squaring away the debt like a fussy housekeeper.
This is because we all are constricted in our understanding of the changes taking place in 21st century economics – particularly the economics of democratic capitalism. We are still puzzling over the gaps between the various 20th century philosophical approaches to the economy and our present lived experiences.
So, this is why I’m taking the time to share this Guardian article byJohn Quigginwith you … discussing the “massive moral failure” of the Budget and introducingThomas Piketty,with his entirely radically new approach to understanding wealth, income, economics and democratic capitalism.
The Guardian
We need new tools for understanding the impoverishment of the imaginations of our present crop of politicians – they are in thrall to out-dated ideas. In a way, they are victims too (but I’m not advocating charity towards them).
I hope you enjoy reading the article: it’s worth taking the time (about 5 to 7 minutes; more if you click on the Piketty link), and I predict we’ll all be hearing a lot more about Piketty’s work (and the responses to it) in the coming years.
“‘Citizenship at work’ is a set of minimum conditions around work that are related to security… ‘Industrial citizenship’ [has] for Canada historically, offered a meta-narrative of rights at work.Social rights such as healthcare, employment insurance, pensions, family allowances; gender equality;…labour law and public policies about work; and the success of work systems [consequently affecting] human rights”, explains Gregor, are the phenomena bound up with ‘citizenship’.
New contexts around employment, however, are influenced by globalisation; reconfigured organisational forms; a weakening in collective bargaining; an erosion of the social state; and an increasing gap around the models of work and the institutional frameworks set up to support them which have combined to significantly change our notion of ‘citizenship’. What part then does ‘citizenship’ play in the narrative around industrial relations?
Professor Gregor Murray (image courtesy of University of Montreal)
Professor Murray(pictured left), notes, as a paradigm that considers both workers’ rights, institutional governance and both parties’ participation, ‘citizenship’ is useful in contemporary applications to describe and measure what is happening in the workplace to prompt labour market action and to facilitate coherent social transformations. He suggests we look at:
- Areas which are contested — consider how we want to think about people’s lives at work: is a respect of human capacity, dignity, gender equality, fundamental human rights etc. part of the discussion?
- Interactions between the different spheres of the work/ life process — family responsibilities, mobile labour markets, the transnational division of labour, identifying the ‘value chain’ both locally and internationally, linking identities, the meaning of work, the environmental sustainability of work, and the ability to stimulate human agency and human capacity; and
- The processes employed by the actors involved — the negotiated and experimental nature of contemporary ‘citizenship at work’.
“You want to study the struggles where they’re happening, and study the organisational forms”, saysGregor. While contexts do make a difference, he believes we can “make a set of rules that act as a barometer when applied to different [workplace] contexts.”
Parental concerns regarding accessing effective education programs for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were raised with the Queensland Government by Griffith University’s Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE), recently.
ACE student, Bernadette Beasley arranged for herself and Centre researcher Dr Amanda Webster to meet with Minister of Education, Training and Employment, Honourable John-Paul Langbroek, MP.
Dr Webster said the Minister spent over an hour discussing future options with the group.
“The Minister is very interested in the Autism Centre of Excellence’s on-going research and our project in Far North Queensland developing a whole school approach for students with ASD,” she said.
“He is also interested in the current AutismCooperative Research Centre (CRC) initiative.”
The Autism CRC initiative will help researchers at Griffith University lead a national eight-year study of children and adults with autism to study developmental progress of children with autism, including outcomes of interventions.
The research will focus on transitions at different stages; from early childhood, primary and secondary school and into the workforce.
Also attending the meeting with the Minister was a parent of a child with ASD who had difficulty finding an appropriate school program for her son, Ms Nicole Vellar, father of three children with ASD and ACE Masters student, Todd Whitehead and AEIOU CEO and father of a son with ASD, Dr James Morton.
“We were very pleased with the amount of time the Minister spent with us and really appreciate his willingness to spend the time exploring options for students with ASD and their families.” Dr Webster said.
Find out more about the Autism Centre of Excellence.
