Positivity, partnerships and progress

A message from Executive Dean of Law and Business Professor Andrew O’Neil:

Following a very busy first half of the year, in July most Faculty of Law and Business (FLB) colleagues are having some well-earned downtime from teaching, with the opportunity to take stock of research projects and progress in service and engagement.

Recognition of FLB’s high-quality education was evident from the strong employability outcomes in the 2022 Graduate Outcome Survey (GOS) – Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) metrics and the continuing robust demand for ACU’s Law, Criminology, Business and IT courses.

One of the most enjoyable parts of being Executive Dean is welcoming new colleagues to ACU.

I’m excited to share that the Faculty will welcome Professor Joy Parkinson as Associate Dean (Research and Enterprise) in coming weeks. Professor Parkinson joins us from CSIRO and has worked with industry and government partners, including Health and Wellbeing Qld, Diabetes Qld, Stroke Foundation, OzHarvest, and Healthdirect Australia. She has published her work in a range of high impact journals and is the recipient of more than $2.1 million in competitive grant income. We look forward to Professor Parkinson working closely with colleagues in the Faculty and across the university to drive ACU’s research and enterprise agenda.

Earlier this month we also greeted the arrival of some outstanding colleagues to our Business School, whom I very much look forward to working with: Brisbane-based Dr Marzena Baker, Senior Lecturer in Human Resources Management (HRM); Sydney-based Dr Bhaskar Purohit, Lecturer in HRM; and Melbourne-based Dr Jak Kakhkharov, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance. Keep an eye out for them around your campus and say hello to make them feel welcome. 

A round of applause for research

On the subject of research, I am delighted to congratulate Professor Patrick Keyzer, Dr Dina Afrianty, Dr Mark Hamilton, Linc Yow Yeh and Rayna Smith for being awarded, in partnership with Indonesian colleagues, funding from KONESKI for Project RESTORASI, which will conduct research on the use of restorative justice techniques to address climate change harm. KONESKI is Australia and Indonesia’s flagship program in Indonesia’s knowledge and innovation sector and aims to foster partnerships between Indonesian and Australian knowledge institutions to increase the use of knowledge-based solutions for inclusive and sustainable policies and innovation.

Finally, in June, the Faculty awarded the following Early Career Researcher Grant Scheme outcomes after a competitive process:

• Empirically testing the Social Advocacy Model (Dr Alex Campbell)
  
  
• Lack of Engagement of Australian Women’s Advocacy Groups in Proceedings before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): What’s the Issue? (Dr Sevda Clark and Dr Perla Guarneros- Sanchez)
  
  
• Troubled Kids or Troublemakers? Exploring Police Officers’ Perceptions and Experiences of Young People Who Steal Cars and Joyride (Dr Shannon Dodd)
  
  
• Evaluation of First Responder De-escalation and Communication Training for Crisis Situations (Dr Matthew Morgan)
  
  
• A Pilot Project to Review the Current Status of Land Tenure in Selected Countries in the Pacific to Understand Whether International Law Can Provide a Framework for Incorporating Sustainable Development (Dr Anne Pickering)
  
  
• Social Housing Tenants and Human Rights: An Exploration of the Function and Utility of Australian Human Right Charters (Dr Bill Swannie)