Academic focus zones for 2025
News 11 DecemberThe 2025 Academic Timeline interactions and focus zones are now available to help prioritise the planning and delivery of learning and teaching. Sync the focus zones to your Outlook calendar now.
29 September 2021
Share
Running from 3-9 October, Sustainability Week: Modern slavery impacts will feature a number of online and in-person events for both staff and students that focus on the impacts of modern slavery, climate change, ethical investment, sustainable travel and more.
Our Sustainability Week activities reflect both the importance of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’. Both these documents call for all of us to work together to care for our common home and encourage us all to act on the urgent needs facing the world – including caring for the environment, fighting poverty and hunger, reducing inequalities, fostering peace and justice, and creating sustainable communities.
While COVID-19 lockdowns mean face-to-face events are not possible on all campuses, there are still many ways you can participate online. Explore the below list of events and resources, get involved – and encourage our students to do the same.
Ensuring investments are sustainable is a major focus for major organisations and individual investors. Join a discussion with expert panellists to understand why this is so important, the Catholic theological imperative for sustainable investments, what superannuation companies are doing to help, and the role your superannuation plays in the broader picture of finance and climate change.
Panellists
Stephanie Collins – Associate Professor, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at ACU. Her current research aims to conceptualise organisations as wrongdoers, with an application to climate change. Stephanie’s recently published book is Group Duties: Their Existence and Their Implications for Individuals.
Sally Neaves – Integral Ecology Animator and Mission Ministry Resource Coordinator for the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea. For many years, Sally has worked in ecology ministry settings facilitating holistic education, spirituality and advocacy programs.
Sybil Dixon – UniSuper Governance and Sustainability Manager. Since joining UniSuper’s Investment Department in 2008, Sybil has been undertaking environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and analysis and, since 2015, leading the development of UniSuper’s Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). She is the Company Secretary for the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) and a lead investor for CA100+.
Dr Ben Neville – Associate Professor Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne.
Details
When: Friday 8 October, 1–2pm (AEDT)
Where: Teams Live event
You don’t need to register to attend this session – simply add the above link to your calendar and follow the link to the Teams Live event on the day.
Adults and children both globally and locally are affected by many forms of slavery, even in today’s world. Inspired by Pope Francis’s observation in the Laudato Si' that, “we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to social degradation”, this panel will explore interconnections between the social, historical and cultural realities of our lives.
Join our expert panellists in a discussion of three themes: intergenerational harm of past practices on Aboriginal peoples, lack of support for families, and social inequities throughout Australia’s history.
Panellists
Professor Jim Nyland – Associate Vice-Chancellor QLD, ACU, and Chair, Engagement Australia. Professor Nyland is dedicated to the process of applying a magnifying glass to concerns about the environment, alongside the interconnected social, cultural and economic areas of our lives.
Dr Jon Piccini – Historian, School of Arts (Qld), ACU. Jon believes in the capacity of critical historical scholarship to destabilise received wisdom.
Professor Daryl Higgins – Director, Institute of Child Protection Studies, ACU. Professor Higgins’s research focuses on public health approaches to protecting children and child-safe organisational strategies. As a registered psychologist, Professor Higgins has been researching child abuse impacts and prevention, family violence and family functioning for over 25 years.
Linc Yow Yeh – Linc Yow Yeh is a proud Aboriginal South Sea Islander Murri man from Queensland and of Bayali/Goreng Goreng/Gunja heritage. He spent the last 16 years working and living in Wurundjeri country, Melbourne, and is Coordinator of Jim-Baa-Yer, the ACU Indigenous Higher Education Unit. He is passionate about working with and learning from Indigenous students with different study and career aspirations.
Details
When: Wednesday 6 October 1pm-2pm (AEDT) / 12pm-1pm (AEST)
Where: Teams Live event
You don’t need to register to attend this session – simply add the above link to your calendar and follow the link to the Teams Live event on the day.
To commemorate Sustainability Week ‘Modern slavery impacts’, the ACU Library has compiled a comprehensive list of books, films, resources and databases for you to explore.
Explore Sustainability Week resources list
Skip the emissions, travel sustainably, and save the planet – all before lunch.
Join ACU Sport and the Properties and Facilities team for a zero-waste-to-landfill vegetarian Ride to Uni breakfast.
Details
When: Thursday 14 October from 9am
Where: The Track, Brisbane Campus
Don’t forget to look out for other sustainability news, events, updates and initiatives in the Sustainability@ACU Workplace group.
For the first time, students will be able to participate in a range of Sustainability Week events online and on-campus (where possible).
View a detailed schedule of events on the Student Portal.
The 2025 Academic Timeline interactions and focus zones are now available to help prioritise the planning and delivery of learning and teaching. Sync the focus zones to your Outlook calendar now.
ACU's Co-Lab proudly announces Kyla Tucker as the winner of the $1,000 ACU Co-Lab Business Idea Pitch Award 2024, following careful evaluation by a panel of ACU judges.
ACU will move to the new EBSCOhost user interface on 4 February 2025. Find out what you need to do to prepare.
Please note the digests from Academic Board meetings 06/2024 held on 14 November 2024 and via circular resolution from 15-19 November 2024.
The 2024 Showcase of Teaching and Learning brought staff and students together to share innovations and collaborations from across the university. An online edition will be hosted in early 2025.
It has been a big year, and we understand that the festive season can be a different experience for each of us. Access a new resource from our employee assistance program, designed to help you prepare...
Limited services will be available via Service Central on 12 and 13 December, while the Service Central team attend a staff conference. The Service Central phone line and live chat will not be availab...
A message from Vice President Fr Anthony Casamento csma: Ok, let’s not kid ourselves. If you are like me, December can feel like chaos. Yet, amid this chaos, the Church gives us the Season of Advent -...
Associate Professor Grant Duthie from the SPRINT Research Centre and Professor Jo Ingold from the Peter Faber Business School have won a prestigious government grant that will see them work with the b...
Let’s reflect on our inclusive practices during International Day of People with Disability.
ACU’s Peter Faber Business School has earned accreditation from AACSB, the US-based organisation that accredits business schools worldwide.
A message from the Provost, Professor Julie Cogin: As we approach the end of the year it’s fitting to look back and reflect on everything we’ve achieved over the past 12 months.
Find out the end-of-year deadlines and operating hours for a range of staff and student services within Corporate Services including Service Central, People & Capability and Student Administration.
The popular medicines database MIMS Online is upgrading to a new platform and changing its name to eMIMSelite.
16 Days is a global campaign observed annually from November 25 to December 10 and serves as a critical reminder of the pervasive and often invisible violence that affects millions of people. Watch a ...
Include an additional survey item in the Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey for units that are offered in ACU Online Term 4 (202476).
With the end of the year approaching, it's time to ensure a smooth closure of the university’s 2024 accounting books and financial year-end work. Check the finance end-of-year deadlines for 2024.
ACU’s Graduation and Protocol team has been recognized at the 2024 Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM) Awards for Excellence for their innovative Reader Module project.
A message from the Executive Dean of Health Sciences Professor Suzanne Chambers: The Faculty of Health Sciences research space has seen colleagues come together in a spirit of shared learning and conn...
Role of Chair training is now available through the ACU Staff Learning Hub.
Visit Service Central to access Corporate Services.