Pursuit
Cutting-edge research and insightful commentary by world-leading experts
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Understanding the diversity of Australia’s LGBTQI+ community
To understand the issues that impact people within our LGBTQI+ community, many of us need to acknowledge our own position of privilege
Health & Medicine
The key barriers to meaningful aged care reform
A record funding commitment has been made to fix an aged care system that’s failing older Australians, but how far does the new Budget go?
Humanities
What you need to know about the status of Taiwan
Australia’s Prime Minister has been criticised for referring to “one country, two systems” in relation to Taiwan, which isn’t Australia’s policy. Now isn’t the time to send mixed signals
The maths and ethics of minimising COVID-19 deaths
A University of Melbourne experts says the government must factor in the maths and ethics of either flattening the curve or an eradication endgame for COVID-19.
Modelling the spread of COVID-19
Forecasting the spread of COVID-19 including undetected cases is difficult but important; a University of Melbourne scientist has an app to track the outlook.
Why do some people believe the Earth is flat?
Although science says the Earth is round, there are some people around who still think it's flat; two University of Melbourne experts look at why.
What if Melbourne was a giant Dungeons and Dragons game?
Biometric DnD – a digital tool developed by the University of Melbourne – takes Dungeons and Dragons character creation to the next level using AI and your face
What you need to know about the status of Taiwan
Australia should be wary of sending mixed policy signals over Taiwan as the status quo is better than other scenarios, says University of Melbourne expert
Understanding the diversity of Australia’s LGBTQI+ community
To understand the issues impacting our LGBTQI+ community, a University of Melbourne expert says many of us need to acknowledge our own position of privilege.
Animals, Food & You
Smaller plants show promise for future food crops
Researchers have bred smaller soybean plants with the same yield, raising the possibility that smaller crops could grow more food from less land in our changing climate
Health & Medicine
To improve Indigenous health, we must improve Indigenous housing
In order to see improvements in Indigenous health, we must improve Indigenous housing and that can only be done with Indigenous involvement and leadership
Eavesdrop on Experts
The other side of happiness
Social psychologist Brock Bastian explains how life’s painful and difficult experiences play a very important role in producing happiness
PodcastInside Business
It’s more than the money: Getting GPs to go to rural areas
While Australia’s Federal Budget promises more money to rural GPs, will the cash make a difference when it comes to getting and keeping doctors in remote Australia?
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COVID-19
Health & Wellbeing
Hope in the darkness
India’s second wave of COVID-19 is a humanitarian disaster but vaccines and tested measures, like limited lockdowns and social distancing, can turn the tide
Health & Medicine
An unexpected upside of COVID
For many with chronic illness, the shift to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic has given them more freedom and control over their lives
Health & Wellbeing
Victorian kids’ mental health hit hardest during 2020
The pandemic affected the mental health of young Victorian children more than those in other states during 2020, largely due to their state’s prolonged second lockdown, finds new survey
Humanities
Australia needs to embrace ‘Asianness’ as part of ‘Australianness’
COVID-19 has seen a surge of anti-Asian racism in Australia, but Australians need to update their national identity in line with the changing reality
Business & Economics
More Australians becoming wary of COVID-19 vaccines
New survey data suggests that in the last four months more Australians have become reluctant to have a COVID-19 vaccine, potentially jeopardising efforts to reach herd immunity
Environment
Design
State leadership on emissions reduction is crucial
Australia’s Victorian Government has set a reduced emissions target of between 45 and 50 per cent by 2030. However, a more co-ordinated effort is needed by the States and Federal Governments
Animals, Food & You
Protecting Australia’s citrus industry
Researchers have identified an Australian strain of fungus that causes citrus rot, calling for effective controls to protect the citrus industry
Design
Designing-in difference
Culturally inclusive urban design can help shape our everyday public spaces, encouraging a vibrant multicultural social fabric here in Melbourne
Design
City climate leadership a model for sustainability
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals give us a global blueprint, but our cities have a key role to play in transformative change
Science Matters
Watch Episode 2: Climate Conversations: Opposing views or rising tides
The Biden Administration’s strong climate leadership is reverberating around the world. Where does Australia now fit and what options do we have to reframe climate change policy?
Legal Affairs
Melbourne’s real-world impact on climate change
A new initiative bringing together multi-disciplinary climate change experts is focused on finding effective global solutions in Australia and beyond
Arts & Culture
Humanities
Dying apart, buried together
COVID-19 exposes some of Western culture’s deepest prejudices around death and human remains, ingrained by hundreds of years of past mass death events
Eavesdrop on Experts
The power of queer performance
Alyson Campbell will co-lead the Feral Queer Camp, hosting activities about what makes performance queer and how we might develop a network of queer thinkers
PodcastHumanities
The life stories of Gippsland lakes fishers
An oral history project is preserving the memories of the people who fished the Gippsland Lakes before commercial fishing was shutdown
Humanities
Shakespeare and lost plays
A new book explores the hundreds of plays known to Shakespeare’s original audiences that are now lost to us, and their value to early modern drama
Humanities
The truth behind a pirate legend
Benito de Soto was a ruthless and violent pirate, but his story has been re-written (and re-imagined) over 200 years to create his modern rebel reputation
Education
Humanities
Creativity and Crisis: Teaching Indonesian in Australian schools
Without Indonesian language skills and intercultural capability, Australians will struggle to navigate their relationship with one of Asia’s key players
Engineering & Technology
The importance of teaching boys about brilliant women
By normalising brilliant women to our daughters and our sons, we make room for those women. If we don’t, it becomes a real problem for successful women when those boys become men
Learning & Teaching
Getting racism out of the classroom
Schools are part of a system of colonial rule that is not easily overwritten; the education system and teachers must work to understand and challenge structural racism
Humanities
Australia’s future as a destination for international students
At the end of a challenging year, it’s time to take stock of the impacts COVID-19 will continue to have on Australia’s reputation as a destination for higher education
Learning & Teaching
Playing for participation
eSports has been touted as the future of sport in a post-COVID-19 world, but schools are uniquely placed to foster learning, collaboration and skills in gaming clubs
Humanities
Australia’s universities need to be free to engage globally
Legislation allowing the Minister for Foreign Affairs to veto universities’ international agreements puts the student, research and societal benefits of international cooperation at risk
Health & Medicine
Health & Wellbeing
What drives Intimate Partner Sexual Violence?
We need to bring together the sometimes unique factors behind Intimate Partner Sexual Violence if we are to better understand and counter it
Health & Wellbeing
Trust betrayed: Attacked from the inside out
Women are exposed to a particularly insidious and damaging trauma when sexually abused by an intimate partner, shattering trust and self-worth
Health & Wellbeing
What a friend experiencing abuse needs most is an ally
Women experiencing intimate partner violence often rely on their friends, but it can be difficult for friends to know how to respond
Health & Wellbeing
When love is blind
We need to better recognise it isn’t easy for a woman to accept the person they have invested their life in, their intimate partner, may be sexually abusing them
Health & Wellbeing
We need to talk about pornography
Research finds that women who’ve experienced intimate partner sexual violence believe pornography plays a role in their abuse
Politics & Society
Legal Affairs
Intimate partner sexual violence and the courts
Sexual assault by an intimate partner often goes unreported, and when it is, the legal system is daunting whether a woman is seeking justice or simply protection. We need a better way.
Legal Affairs
Five things we learned from the Biden Climate Summit
US President Joe Biden called on 40 world leaders to cut emissions during his Climate Summit - but what did we learn from the first virtual climate meeting of its kind?
Legal Affairs
Real action needed on Aboriginal deaths in custody
It’s 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody but families continue to lose loved ones amid high incarceration rates, making the need for effective action ever more urgent
Eavesdrop on Experts
Prevention and justice for sexual violence
Professor Bianca Fileborn is researching the different factors surrounding sexual violence – including place – and how we can better prevent it while providing new forms of justice for survivors
PodcastLegal Affairs
Returning water rights to Aboriginal people
Water justice is a critical issue for Indigenous Peoples, but there are legal and policy opportunities to hand back water rights to all First Nations and Traditional Owners
Humanities
One (wo)man’s trash...
How a Melbourne community’s mission to reduce waste is building a kinder and more sustainable society, enabled by social media
Sciences & Technology
Animals, Food & You
When money means a life or death choice for our dogs
New research finds many family pets are euthanised for economic reasons, when treatment is possible, but costs are too high
Science Matters
Male fertility ‘precariously close’ to climate change extinction limits
The loss of fertility in males as a result of climate change, particularly in the tropics, may be a better predictor of vulnerability to extinction
Engineering & Technology
New mobile sensor could transform testing for remote areas
Chemical engineers have developed a first-of-its-kind sensor that could boost low-cost medical and environmental diagnostic testing in developing and remote areas – all without the need for a lab
Science Matters
Laos jars are slowly revealing their secrets
New dating techniques find that Laos’ stone jars may be at least 3,000 years old, but the sites remained significant for rituals until just 700 years ago
Science Matters
The secret lives of farmed fish
A new study finds that monitoring the behaviour of farmed fish using tags can provide scientists with important information – but it can also create welfare issues
Business & Economics
Inside Business
The power of the Indigenous business sector
Each year, Indigenous businesses bring in at least $A4.9 billion; now first-of-its-kind research reveals the extent of the economic power and diversity of Australian Indigenous businesses
Business & Economics
Competition isn’t improving the aged care sector
A new study finds more competition isn’t associated with better quality of care or lower prices in aged care, prompting policy reform to address sources of market failures
Inside Business
Time to reform Australia’s unfair family support system
Family benefit payments aren’t fit for purpose with complex rules that make it hard for mothers to return to work and that penalise dual-earner families
Business & Economics
How businesses can head off social media storms
An analysis of almost half a million online complaints suggests businesses need to respond fast with empathy and/or explanations, but few do
Legal Affairs
Crown, Collingwood and the corporate conscience
The different failures at Crown and Collingwood shows that the law needs to go beyond individuals when holding corporations to account
Inside Business
Children with same-sex parents outperform others in school
A new study finds that same-sex-parented children actually outperform their peers in many areas of academic achievement