Research
The College of Arts, Society, and Education fosters world-leading research that delivers foundational knowledge and real-world impact across a range of disciplinary fields. Based on our unique locations in Queensland and in Singapore, CASE researchers are focused on the societies and peoples of the tropics, working with partners to deliver globally informed and locally targeted insights to our communities.
We work closely with researchers across science, medicine, law, business, engineering, and other fields, interrogating challenges from interdisciplinary perspectives and discovering novel approaches that promote the creation and sharing of knowledge.
Our research guides and informs our educational practice across the range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees that are offered by the College, aiming to inspire our students and to create resilient and engaged citizens.
Our Themes
CASE research is clustered into three broad research themes. Although many of our researchers work across and beyond these topics, these themes highlight particular areas of strength and focus for the College.
Understanding and analysing the ongoing causes and consequences of racial, ethnic, gender, and other forms of inequality is critical to the values and mission of CASE’s scholars. Our regional location, proximate to rural areas and to indigenous communities, provides a base that allows us to make positive interventions into social justice through education, social work, and other disciplines.
Climate and environmental changes remain fundamentally human and social problems. Researchers across CASE deploy a wide variety of disciplinary expertise to understand the past and future relationship between humans and their environments. This includes research that seeks to understand our responses to climate change, the relationships between culture and environment, environmental justice, resilience, and environmental communication and education.
Although rich in both bio- and cultural diversity, the tropics remain a relatively understudied region. CASE’s focus on the tropics, including its environments and societies, allows our researchers to remain focused on the problems and challenges that affect our communities. Ultimately, we hope to deploy research that transforms the future of the tropics through education and policy.
Current research projects
Reimagining identity and belonging in Australia: A multidimensional model of justice for social change
Dr Hyacinth Udah, Professor Parlo Singh, Professor Lucy Jordan
A deep ethnography into the social organisational work of some exceptional non-white Australian social change leaders to develop a multidimensional model of social justice for policies and programs that improve social, economic, and wellbeing outcomes in communities across Australia.
Topomapper: Mapping the narrative of colonization in the urban geography of Townsville
Dr Bryan Smith
This project looks at how street naming in Townsville documents a history of colonial public memory, writing into every corner of the urban geography.
JCU NQ Social Worker Placement in General Practice Expansion
Dr Ines Zuchowski, Principle Investigator
To research the benefits and challenges of social work practice in General Practice [GP] clinics to develop evidence-based pathways and integrated care options. It builds on a pilot study showing the benefits of social work student placements in GP clinics.
Recent Publications
The College of Arts, Society and Education has a broad and varied research portfolio spanning the areas of Humanities, Anthropology, Archaeology, Creative Arts and Media, Social Work and Education. There is a strong research focus on the Tropics and the College is home to world-leading researchers.