Innovation in practice
News 24 JulyA message from Executive Dean of Health Sciences Professor Suzanne Chambers: Winter has so far been a season of future-thinking and action for the Faculty of Health Sciences.
17 May 2023
Share
A message from Executive Dean of Theology and Philosophy Professor Dermot Nestor: Purpose is what defines a Catholic university and galvanises the people who work within it.
פְּרָאִ֨ים בַּֽמִּדְבָּ֗ר יָצְא֣וּ בְּ֭פָעֳלָם
Job 24:5
April, declared TS Elliot, is the cruellest month. Though it heralds new beginnings (especially in the northern hemisphere), those beginnings inevitably revive and renew the very patterns that have passed: pain, failure and sorrow. Blossoming lilacs provide a superficial pallor, a veiling patina behind which resides real and uncompromising spiritual and social decay. Yet while mechanisation and technological advancement may have foreshadowed the degradation of human dignity and possibility, the emphasis of The Wasteland is ultimately on fecundity and future, not monotony and malaise.
April witnessed a significant milestone in my own life, a half-century of emergence, of experience, and of emotion. It marked the loss of family for faculty colleagues and heralded the departure of colleagues across the faculties and organisational units of ACU. We mourn loss. We celebrate contribution. We affirm legacy. We sustain ourselves with the consolations of memory yet torment ourselves with the fantasies of imagination. We search for ourselves, and for connection.
As an institution we face familiar challenges. We are also confronted by new frames, emergent frontiers and yet unknown futures. The seeming inexorability of Nietzsche’s eternal return haunts us, clouding trajectories and obscuring strategies. The prospect of always beginning incites fear. Equally, it provokes fortitude. This is the challenge that Elliot affirms and which The Wasteland confronts: the quest for redemption in the midst of emotional, spiritual, ecological, and even intellectual demise. To prosecute this diagnosis and to interrogate potential remedies, Elliot had recourse to an expansive body of literature and myth. Amidst that diversity and within the seeming chaos of his own society, the poet’s prose attempts order. It suggests unity, centred on the underlying collectivity of the human condition.
Orientation towards and an abiding concern for the human is what defines the work of ACU. It grounds our mission, informs our research and learning designs and determines our strategic outlook. That human is in part the isolated, tragic and flawed creature of myth. It is also one defined by interdependency, and by hope. It is a humanity centered on and in search of relationships, with natural objects, not artificial things. It is a humanity defined by a quest for meaning, sustained by a determination that it must always be for someone, and something.
Purpose is what The Wasteland mourns. Purpose is what defines a Catholic university. Purpose is what galvanises the people who work within it. Purpose is what makes it all worthwhile.
A message from Executive Dean of Health Sciences Professor Suzanne Chambers: Winter has so far been a season of future-thinking and action for the Faculty of Health Sciences.
From Monday 22 July to Friday 9 August, Service Central will be available for extended hours to support staff.
A message from Vice President Father Anthony Casamento csma: From 5 – 9 August we will celebrate Mission Week across our campuses. This is an opportunity for us to come together as a community to cele...
Are you going to be a grandparent soon? Did you know ACU offers personal leave for staff to care for their child or grandchild after birth or adoption?
Discover the learning and career development opportunities that are available online, including the brand-new leadership development program, 'The Edge Series'.
Join ASCILITE and become a member of one of Australasia’s most vibrant professional technology enhanced learning communities, with more than 2200 members from tertiary institutions across Australia an...
Phones will be removed from all classrooms over the mid-semester break, from 23 September to 27 September.
Include an additional survey item in the Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey for units that are offered in Professional Term 5 (202455).
Australia’s first five-time diving Olympian, a Kiwi gymnast and the woman who taught actor Chris Hemsworth to row will be among 15 ACU students and alumni to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Para...
A message from acting Executive Dean of Theology and Philosophy Associate Professor Richard Colledge: Recently, the faculty has hosted opportunities for reflection on the possibilities for reconcilia...
Are you on your parenthood journey? A practical guide is now available to support staff, and their supervisors, through the stages of becoming a parent and transitioning back to work.
Embark on an exhilarating journey into the mysterious world of enrolments. Register to attend an enrolment information session for Semester 2, 2024.
Join upcoming online workshops in preparation for Semester 2. Secure your spot today to learn how you can utilise Canvas and its features to enhance your teaching practices.
A limitless professional horizon awaits ACU students after its three IT programs were awarded certification by the nation’s most trustworthy player in the tech sector, the Australian Computer Society.
Following evaluation and voting by a panel of ACU judges, Co-Lab is delighted to announce Thomas Clark and Xavier Chalkley as the winners of the $1000 prize for the ACU Co-Lab Social Enterprise Pitch ...
ACU Library staff will participate in professional development activities on Thursday 18 July. While away from their usual posts, they'll be working together across three locations to plan our future ...
Applications for 2024 Teaching Development Grants, Citations and Awards are open. Explore guidelines and resources to enhance your teaching project’s impact or gain recognition for your contributions.
As we sit in this small window of the winter break gearing up for Semester 2, it's important to recognise that not everyone experiences this period as downtime. For many, workloads and busy lifestyles...
This week is NAIDOC Week, an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
ACU staff who are also members with UniSuper can now access free expert medical advice and services to support their health and wellbeing through MetLife 360Health.
Visit Service Central to access Corporate Services.