Murdoch University School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

11/09/2026

Join us for the 40th annual Melville Historical Society Murdoch Lecture at Melville Storylines Festival.

Professor Sandra Wilson will discuss how cartographic tools communicated vulnerability, victory, and the vision for a new regional order, Wednesday 16 September.

https://www.melvillecity.com.au/things-to-do/events/whats-on/murdoch-lecture-2026-mapping-the-second-world-war-in-asia

10/09/2026

Congratulations to our wonderful alum and academic tutor Dr. Stephen B. Platt, who has been shortlisted for Emerging Writer of the Year in the 2026 Premier's Book Awards.

His debut novel Inner Demons is an epic fantasy – which he wrote alongside his PhD exegesis.

“It was an exercise in preserving sanity whilst I was writing for my PhD – creative writing providing a much-needed change of pace from academic writing," Dr Platt said.

Dr Platt credits a stellar list of academic mentors for their contributions to helping him hone his craft - including Dr Melissa Merchant, Dr Jennifer de Reuck, Dr Martin Mhando and Dr Ken Kelso.

Inner Demons follows the journeys of dwarves, demons and orcs in a fantastical world, tying in beloved tropes like found family and a cozy, humorous fantasy atmosphere.

Well done, Dr Platt! We are so thrilled that you are part of our found family. And we can't wait to read your next one... (no pressure...)!

08/09/2026

It was wonderful to unite scholars from the fields of automation, labour studies, sociology and public policy at our Automation, Work and Public Policy Symposium last Friday.

Congratulations and huge thanks to Dr Lutfun Nahar Lata for bringing this event together!

Our speakers, Associate Professor Michael Gillan, Dr Nardine Alnemr, Professor Tu Phuong Nguyen, Professor Kanishka Jayasuriya, Dr Daniel Nicholson and Dr Sam Teague discussed how automation, AI and digital technologies are reshaping the world of work and importantly, what these transformations mean for workers, organisations, governments and democratic politics.

The discussions highlighted that automation is not simply a technological process. It is also a deeply social and political process, raising important questions about:

🔷 How are AI, algorithmic management and automation transforming employment relations, managerial control, workplace surveillance and skills?

🔷 What are the implications for labour rights, regulation, collective bargaining and worker representation?

🔷 What new forms of labour activism, organisation and resistance are emerging among platform and technology workers?

🔷 How are global production networks and the decomposition of work reshaping labour struggles across different contexts?

🔷 What are the implications of the growing power of tech capital for democracy, political contestation and public policy?

A particularly important theme was the need to look beyond the workplace itself and consider the broader social consequences of technological change including the often invisible labour that supports AI and digital infrastructures. The symposium also reinforced the importance of comparative and interdisciplinary research.

Many thanks to our speakers, colleagues and participants for such an engaging and thought provoking discussion and to everyone who helped make the symposium and the launch of the Labour, Technology and Public Policy Lab such a success. I am particularly excited about the conversations and collaborations that will grow from this initiative. This is only the beginning!

A big thank you to our Dean, Professor Dee O’Connor for her insightful opening remarks on work and technological innovation.

A huge thank you to Dr Sam Teague, Associate Professor Narelle Miragliotta, Dr Nardine Alnemr, Dr Jacob Broom, Dr Susannah Nichols and Dr Gwenaël Velge for your incredible support in making the symposium such a success!

Finally, many thanks to Craig Whitsed (PhD, SFHEA) and Dr Michelle Gander for joining us and sharing a few words about our Academy for Sustainable Work Futures. We look forward to officially launching the Academy in February 2027!

07/09/2026

We’re pleased to share Juncture, the Substack of the Western Australian Capitalism Studies Research Network! The Substack features research-led analysis of capitalism, political economy, labour, finance and their social and historical consequences.

In a provocative new essay, Dr Jacob Broom, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations here at HASS Murdoch University, asks: could democratising Australia’s superannuation system offer a pathway towards a more democratic economy?

In “Is Democratising Superannuation Funds the Path to Socialism?”, Dr Broom examines Australia’s $4.8 trillion superannuation system through debates around pension fund capitalism, worker ownership and democratic finance. He questions what might change if workers’ collective savings were understood not simply as individual retirement assets, but as collective capital whose investment priorities could themselves become subject to democratic decision-making.

The essay considers possibilities ranging from socially directed investment to deliberative investment committees, while confronting a central difficulty. How might democratised investment serve present and future community needs while continuing to provide secure retirement incomes?

Read this engaging piece and follow for further research and commentary from the Western Australian Capitalism Studies Research Network:

https://tjcd.substack.com/p/is-democratising-superannuation-funds

Image: The Yarn

07/09/2026

Please join us this Wednesday for the next Murdoch Philosophy Research Seminar, featuring PhD candidate Shayne Martyn.

"Other-Defence in Uncertain Cases"

When is it morally permissible to intervene in defence of another person when the circumstances are uncertain? Shayne’s research compares self-defence with other-defence, asking whether self-defenders may have an epistemic advantage when judging innocence, imminent harm and culpability.

He argues that self-defenders often have access to information that third-party defenders lack, including knowledge of their own mental states, contextual continuity and stronger grounds for assessing imminent harm. This epistemic asymmetry, he suggests, weighs against other-defence in uncertain cases.

Date: Wednesday 9 September
Time: 4pm
Location: Education and Humanities Building, Room 450.4.078
Murdoch University

All are warmly welcome, with drinks and further conversation afterwards at the Murdoch Guild Tavern.

The Murdoch Philosophy Research Seminars are held on most teaching-week Wednesdays and bring together guest speakers, researchers and students for presentations and discussion.

For details of future seminars and other philosophy-related events in WA, join the WA Philosophy mailing list: https://maillists.uwa.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/waphil

With thanks to Dr Tim Flanagan and Associate Professor Anne Schwenkenbecher for this fantastic initiative.

03/09/2026

The Automation, Work and Public Policy Symposium takes place this Friday, 4 September, bringing together researchers from Murdoch University, the The University of Western Australia VinUniversity to examine some of the most pressing questions around AI, automation, labour and public policy.

Dr Lutfun Nahar Lata, Senior Lecturer in Asian Cultures and Societies has been instrumental in bringing the event to fruition.

The program includes a panel on AI, the future of work and public policy, with Dr Lata, Associate Professor Michael Gillan, Dr Nardine Alnemr, moderated by Professor Kanishka Jayasuriya.

The symposium will also feature papers on labour precarity and industrial upgrading in Vietnam, workplace regulation in the context of automation, and the relationship between AI, work, power and care. The day will conclude with a planning session focused on Labour, Technology and Public Policy Lab activities.

Dr Lata will open the symposium with the Acknowledgement of Country, participate in the AI and future of work panel, chair the paper session, and co-moderate the closing planning session with Associate Professor Narelle MIRAGLIOTTA.

Friday 4 September 2026
9.30am–3pm
The Loft, Murdoch University

If you have not yet registered but would like to attend, please feel free to come along on the day.

Dr Lata and colleagues have also recently completed the Breaking the Glass Ceiling project, funded by the Anti-Racism Hallmark Research Initiative. The project report explores the experiences of racism faced by people of colour academics at the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and Charles Darwin University, and summarises the project’s key findings.

01/09/2026

A huge thank you to David Scholefield, College Engagement Partner, for bringing together a dynamic day of international engagement at Murdoch University yesterday! ❤️

The HASS senior leaders were delighted to warmly welcome the inaugural delegation of the Egypt–Australia Resource Industry Collaboration and Capacity Development Program, bringing together Murdoch University School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the School of Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry and Physics in partnership with Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and the Mineral Resources & Mining Industries Authority.

The day continued with a sold-out evening featuring one of Indonesia’s leading stand-up comedians, Pandji Pragiwaksono, followed by an outstanding conversation with Murdoch University’s Dr Ian Wilson.

A wonderful day of connection, collaboration and exchange, welcoming friends old and new to the Murdoch community.

With thanks to all involved, including DFAT Western Australia State Office, the Indo-Pacific Research Centre at Murdoch University, ACICIS, Indonesia Institute, and the Association of Indonesian Postgraduate Students and Scholars in Australia.

28/08/2026

Free Screening + Q&A: The Comfort Dogs of Uganda
Wednesday 16th September | 5:30-7:30pm
Kim E. Beazley Lecture Theatre, 351.1.001
Arrive from 5:30 for light catering. The film will begin at 6pm.
This event is 16+

In collaboration with the Global Security & Politics Collective and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Murdoch University invites students, staff, and members of the public to a free screening of The Comfort Dogs of Uganda and a following panel discussion.

The Comfort Dogs of Uganda follows the lives of Lucy, Francis, and Jennifer as they struggle with social stigma and severe PTSD. Alongside them are Sadik, Tommy and Ogen: rescued village dogs from The Comfort Dog Project (CDP) who themselves are overcoming abandonment and mistreatment. This film follows the unlikely and transformative bond that blooms as these fellow survivors learn to trust, to love, and to reclaim their lives once more.

Following the screening, hear reflections and ask questions during a live Q&A with three incredible panel members:
• Richard Wainwright, an NGO photographer and filmmaker and director of 'The Comfort Dogs of Uganda'.
• Francis Okello Oloya, psychologist, war trauma survivor, and manager of the Comfort Dog Project and Education Program of The BIG FIX Uganda.
• Professor Simon Adams, Academic Chair for Human Rights at Murdoch University and former President and CEO at the Centre for Victims of Torture.

This event is free but registration is required. Registration link in bio.
https://events.humanitix.com/comfortdogs

27/08/2026

Associate Professor Narelle Miragliotta’s latest insightful piece has been published in The Conversation Australia + NZ and republished by The Guardian

“One Nation is targeting a WA seat in Labor heartland. It could be a defining moment for Australian politics.”

With Western Australians heading to the polls for the Secret Harbour byelection on 29 August, Associate Professor Miragliotta examines why a contest in a traditionally safe Labor seat has assumed significance well beyond the electorate itself.

As she states, “it is remarkable that One Nation is even in contention”, with the result potentially carrying wider implications for Australia’s changing political landscape.

Drawing together the electoral history and demographics of Secret Harbour, the crowded field of candidates, shifting support for the major parties and the national rise of One Nation, the piece considers what the result might tell us about the “direction of travel of Australia’s party systems”.

Congratulations Associate Professor Miragliotta on this timely contribution to the national political conversation.

Read the full article in Guardian Australia:

The Secret Harbour byelection has the potential for an electoral upset, given the many characteristics conducive to a One Nation win

24/08/2026

This week in the Murdoch Philosophy Research Seminar Series, PhD candidate Edmund Hassell asks a deceptively simple question: What is propaganda?

The Problematic Term Propaganda
Edmund Hassell, PhD candidate
Wednesday 26 August | 4pm
Education and Humanities Building, 450.4.078
Murdoch University

Despite more than a century of scholarship, propaganda remains surprisingly difficult to define. Is it distinguished by its capacity to alter beliefs, motivate action, or maintain social control? What separates propaganda from advertising, public relations, education and other forms of persuasive communication? And must propaganda necessarily involve deception or manipulation?

Drawing on debates across philosophy, history and communications, Edmund’s research critically examines existing approaches to propaganda with the aim of developing a more satisfactory definition.

The Philosophy Research Seminar Series continues in September and October with:

9 September — Shayne Martyn
Other-Defence in Uncertain Cases

16 September — Henk van den Belt
Hegel’s Dialectics: Is There Method in the Madness?

23 September — Adam Henschke
An Existential Risk to Democracy? AI, Post-Reality Technologies, and Epistemic Secession

7 October — Ari Jerrems
The Afterlives of the Frontier: Theorising the Border from Port Hedland

14 October — Chloe Anastasia
Marranism and Modernity, Supersession and Secularism

21 October — Adam Holliday
The Problem of One and Many

Seminars are held on teaching-week Wednesdays at 4pm in 450.4.078 and feature engaging presentations, Q&A discussion, and further conversation at the campus tavern.

All welcome!