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New research by Dr Marion McCutcheon, Associate Professor Scott Brook, and Professor Stuart Cunningham FAHA maps the relationship between formal qualifications and employment in Australia’s creative industries, revealing a far more coherent and dynamic picture than is reflected in the unexamined view that these skills are inherent, unteachable or do not lead to employment.
The Australian Academy of the Humanities argues that Australia’s graduates need more than technical knowledge. Universities must equip students with the critical thinking, communication, ethical reasoning, cultural understanding and adaptability needed to thrive in changing careers, strengthen Australia’s sovereign capability and contribute to a resilient society.
New research by Dr Marion McCutcheon, Associate Professor Scott Brook, and Professor Stuart Cunningham FAHA maps the relationship between formal qualifications and employment in Australia’s creative industries, revealing a far more coherent and dynamic picture than is reflected in the unexamined view that these skills are inherent, unteachable or do not lead to employment.
For the most part, researchers studying Australian history use English language sources. In his latest research project, Professor Adrian Vickers FAHA illuminates the vast quantity of historical sources in languages other than English — providing a more nuanced and richer picture of Australia’s past.
Trust in Australian media continues to decline. Professor Wanning Sun FAHA explores how geopolitics, migration and multicultural perspectives shape trust in news, and why these factors must be part of any effort to rebuild public confidence in the media.
Professor Debbie Bargallie FAHA, a descendant of the Kamilaroi and Wonnarua Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales and of the Punjab Langrial Muslim Jat clan, is a critical race scholar whose research interrogates links between employment, race, identity, and power, with a particular focus on institutional contexts.
Australia’s cultural and creative industries contribute $67.4 billion in economic activity and employ more than 591,000 people. No other country can produce Australian culture. But the policy settings, education pipeline, and governance structures that nurture and sustain Australian culture are under real pressure.
The successful projects range from inclusive arts for children with disabilities, to the truth-telling history of the Goldfields region of Western Australia.
Imagination and creativity, and the culture and arts that we associate with them, are often treated as luxuries. Yet, if we want to build a better future and respond to contemporary challenges, harnessing imagination should be treated as a first principle, argues Professor Katie Barclay FAHA, a historian of emotion, imagination, and human flourishing.
Professor Caillan Davenport FAHA explains why the stories ordinary Romans told about their leaders are more than entertaining anecdotes. His 2026 book Behind Caesar’s Back explores over 700 years of gossip, jokes, taunts, graffiti and rumour revealing that they are rich sources that help us understand Roman political culture and the lives of the people that circulated these juicy tales.
Governess and accountant for Parramatta graziers, John and Elizabeth Macarthur, Penelope Lucas left precious little written in her own hand about her own life. Alan Atkinson FAHA considers the challenges of writing the biography of an essentially silent historical figure. The result is an experiment in historical method, using insights from other disciplines in an attempt to understand the way his subject understood and managed her world.