Humanities at UNE

Ever wondered if a PhD is for you? 🤔

For film and screen enthusiast Rebekah Brammer, a PhD has enabled her to follow her passion, change career direction, and find like-minded friends and colleagues.

Having dabbled in an interest in film and TV for decades, jumping into academic conferences as an ‘independent researcher’ helped her make the switch from a teaching career.

“I was terrified when I attended the first conference. I was scared of snobbiness and people going, ‘oh, she has no PhD’, but actually it was the opposite. People were very, very kind and lovely, and it led to some great things. I met a professor of cinema studies in the US who has become a wonderful mentor.”

After her second conference, organised by UNE’s Pop Culture Network (PopCRN), conference organisers Associate Professor Jo Coghlan and Dr Lisa Hackett from UNE Sociology invited her to undertake a PhD.

“It was something I hadn’t really considered at this stage of life, but it has really continued to open more doors. And the first two years have flown by!”

Now, she’s preparing to “introduce Tasmanian Gothic Noir to the world” at an international conference in the UK, and visit the British Film Institute archive BFI – “I was really surprised to find there are documents there related to Tasmanian films that I’m going to see and handle!”

For her PhD , she’s putting together a history and description of a century of Tasmania’s film and TV outputs, with a special interest in the ‘Tasmanian Gothic Noir’ genre.

A PhD can be just the perfect fit!

Read Rebekah's story at the link in comments.

Image: locations Rebekah has visited used in Tasmanian TV dramas The Kettering Incident, The Gloaming and Deadloch.

One Health isn’t just a buzzword – it’s how we stop the next big health crisis before it starts.

From hospital wards to farms, food systems and waterways, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is spreading across the interconnected worlds of humans, animals and the environment.

UNE researcher Associate Professor Md Shahidul (Shahid) Islam is helping map that risk – from AI-powered AMR surveillance to revealing just how common multidrug‑resistant bacteria are in everyday foods.

🔗 Find full story in the comments.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Marty Branagan, peace activist and lecturer, whose book 'The Cultural Dimensions of Peacebuilding' has been recognised as “one of the most influential peacebuilding and peacekeeping books for 2024-2025.”

This commendation, from the International L.N. Tolstoy Peace Prize Foundation and Russian Historical Society, led to an invitation to speak (online) at the XII Red Square Book Festival in Moscow.

“In an age of global turbulence, your voice reminds us that words are not helpless,” the organisers had written in praise of the book.

Marty decided engaging with Russia to press a message of peace was too good an opportunity to miss.

“Some have this view that the world is going down the gurgler,” says Marty, “but I wanted to remind the audience that we don’t have to wait for governments or the United Nations. We can find solutions closer to home, in our everyday life, and build peace from the ground up – through our cultures, our language, our education systems, our journalism and even our parenting.

“Every drop of mindful, compassionate action makes a ripple of change towards a global culture of peace.”

Read the full story at the link in the comments.

Just looking out for our Type B students💚

If you're still scrambling to find a T2 elective, visit the link in the comments to see everything on offer🔗

The transformative power of confronting difficult histories was in focus at the 2026 Myall Creek Symposium at University of New England, AU .

While the event, held on 5 June, commemorated a dark day in history, guest speakers and panellists explored how truth-telling, deep listening and shared commitment can help communities towards healing, justice and reconciliation for future generations.

The symposium featured keynote speaker, Mr Tony McAvoy SC, Australia's first Indigenous Senior Counsel, and a Wirdi man from Central Queensland.

"Once you engage in the truth and put down the burden of secrecy, you are freed in the sense that you can walk together with First Nations people and really this country can become what it ought to be," he said.

Contributors included:

📍Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson, Founder/Patron/Elder and Lead Facilitator of We Al-li – an organisation dedicated to the Culturally Informed Trauma Integrated Healing Approach
📍Children’s lawyer Karen Conte
📍Fiona Lovelock (Aboriginal Client & Community Support Officer in the NSW Local Court)
📍Dr Sujata Allen (Armajun Aboriginal Health Service, Armidale)

.. and many others from across UNE.

Thank you to Dr Julie Collins (Faculty of HASSE), Dr Andrew Lawson (School of Law), Tess Cullen (Oorala Aboriginal Centre), Associate Professor Peter Smith and Traci Travers (Faculty of Health and Medicine) and the Armidale Friends of Myall Creek Memorial, for their creative input in facilitating and organising this wonderful and important event.

Enrolling in your units doesn’t have to be a chore, when you have some fascinating electives to choose from!

We have many options across the humanities, arts and social sciences you will want to know about, that will help you better understand how societies function and how to navigate the modern world.

Don’t miss out on learning something you will love – check out our suggestions here (and check the Handbook on the UNE website for many more!)

You can enrol into units until 29 June. And if you need any help, please contact our students team on 1800 818 865.

The past has something to teach the future.

For decades, Grace Proctor - long-serving librarian of the Royal Society of NSW - cared for one of Australia's most significant collections of scientific literature.

Before her death, Grace made arrangements - including leaving one-quarter of her estate to UNE - to help secure the future of these rare scientific works, journals and manuscripts.

Now, through UNE's Recollect system, we are bringing these collections into the digital age, making them discoverable and accessible for generations to come.

The full story, via the link in comments.

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Every gift helps create opportunities for UNE students, researchers and communities. Support the area that matters to you most with a tax-deductible gift by 30 June - link in comments.

"Maybe it will help lift the rhetorical bar in Australia a bit higher; our politicians need all the poetry help they can get!"

Stepping in line with many countries in the world, Australia is set to appoint its first Poet Laureate in October - only thirty years behind New Zealand!

With many different variations of a Poet Laureate around the world, there is plenty of inspiration for Australia to draw upon. But is it what Australia needs?

We asked some of UNE’s humanities academics their thoughts:

✍️"Poems are an accessible, memorable and lively way to commemorate national events ... US President John F. Kennedy had Robert Frost, then Poet Laureate, speak at his inauguration, which positioned Kennedy as a leader who valued the intellectual and artistic culture of his country." Dr Lili Pâquet, UNE Writing (also quoted above).

✍️“Poetry can demonstrate the state’s ‘soft power’, which is the ability to achieve preferred outcomes in international relations through attraction and persuasion. Having a Poet Laureate would be an excellent highlight of Australia’s soft power and national characteristics" - Dr Xiang Gao, UNE Political and International Studies.

UNE Professor of History David Andrew Roberts looks to convict and poet Michael Massey Robinson for a few lessons in what not to do:

✍️“Massey understood poetry could be socially and politically useful, and dangerous. He was transported as a convict for threatening to publish libellous verse.”

But, Professor Roberts says Massey could also be a positive role model in some aspects:

✍️“Massey’s poems articulated a fragile sense of collective identity in early Sydney – he was the first person to really popularise the term ‘Australia’. The Australian identity he captured was about exile, suffering, adversity, perseverance and redemption ... A modern Laureate would need to know that his/her poetry has a civic role in speaking to a national identity, whatever that is.”

Who would you like to see as Australia's Poet Laureate?

"𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵; 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 '𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯' 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.”

The University of New England, AU is proud to host the Myall Creek Memorial Symposium this Friday, 5 June 2026 at Oorala Aboriginal Centre UNE, all are welcome.

Truth-telling and reconciliation will be the focus of the symposium, which will precede the annual memorial event at Myall Creek near Bingara, remembering the 28 Wirrayaraay men, women and children who were killed at the site in 1838 in an unprovoked attack.

The Myall Creek massacre remains a pivotal moment in Australian legal history, as the first time perpetrators of a frontier massacre were successfully prosecuted and executed in a colonial court.
This year’s symposium, "Walking the talk together to build a better future", will feature barrister Tony McAvoy SC as keynote speaker. With a career spanning 40 years in native title, human rights, and treaty, Tony will discuss how the Myall Creek legacy continues to shape Australian law.

Find out more and register at the link in the comments