School of Humanities and Communication

The School of Humanities and Communication is a dedicated community of scholars and creative professionals committed to providing opportunities for graduates to lead and inspire others, and to engage and create impact in their communities. Our academic staff are experts in their fields and encourage others to learn through their passion, their abilities to communicate clearly and their skills in teaching online and face-to-face.

Creating Impact

Our students create impact in their communities by building a professional identity, working with industry partners, and curating a qualification that can take them where they want to go. The variety of our disciplines provides space for interdisciplinary and collaborative learning and research opportunities to help students future-proof their careers, develop expertise, and invest in flexible and transferable skills to equip them for diverse career opportunities.

Students graduate with a hands-on qualification that equips them with an interdisciplinary skill set supported by technical know-how, creative problem-solving, strategic thinking, and the development of an enterprising approach to their careers.  This strategically positions our graduates in the job market, appeals to industry experts, and boosts their employment edge.

Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize

As an Australian poet, your contribution shapes our culture. None believed this more so than the late Emeritus Professor Bruce Dawe AO, one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary poets. Professor Dawe believed that universities should support the study of literature and promote the Arts in Australian society. His passion was turned to action when he chose to sponsor this prominent literary prize.

Prize: $3000
Generously pledged by the late Bruce Dawe

David Kilmartin Memorial Literary Award

For a student in the Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature whose academic achievement over the program has been of the highest order. 

Prize: $200
Generously pledged by Cecelia Kilmartin

Keith Willey Award for Journalism

This annual journalism award named in honour of the late Keith Willey, a former lecturer in Journalism at UniSQ is awarded to the student who has completed two years equivalent full time study in Journalism, has Journalism as a first major, and has the highest GPA.

Prize: $500
Generously pledged by the Willey family

Maurice French History Prize

This prize is awarded to a high achieving graduating student who has majored in History and has enrolled in the History Honours program. Student disadvantage may be taken into account when awarding the prize.

Prize: $500
Generously donated by UniSQ Professor Maurice French AM

Communication and Public Relations Australia Prize

For the best graduating full-time Professional Communications student. Eligible students must be Australian citizens.

Prize: Membership to CPRA for one (1) year
Generously donated by the Communication and Public Relations Australia.

Research Themes

1. Cultural Heritage and the Environment

Professor Celmara Pocock – CSIRO-UniSQ Partnership Developing Digital Model for Cultural Water Assets in the Murray Darling Basin
Professor Celmara Pocock – Cultural Heritage of the Swanbank Power Station
Professor Lara Lamb – The Legacy of Coastal Infrastructure: Reclamations and Seawalls
Professor Lara Lamb – Fossil Fuel Extraction Sites as Sites of Monumental Landscape Construction
Professor Lara Lamb and Professor Bryce Barker - Pathways through Tropical Sahul: The Archaeology of the Great Papuan Plateau
Professor Bryce Barker - Archaeology of the Queensland Native Mounted Police
Professor Bryce Barker - Aboriginal Rock Art and Cultural Heritage Management in Cape York Peninsula
Professor Laurie Johnson – Cultural Geographies of Shakespearean Plays, Players, and Playhouses
Associate Professor Jayne Persian - Migration, Memory and Commemoration
Dr Catherine Dewhirst - Digitising Internment Memories and Community Histories
Dr Catherine Dewhirst – Cultural Heritage in Print: Preservation of the Minority-Community Press
Professor Laurie Johnson – Mapping Marlowe
Professor Laurie Johnson - Playhouse Archaeotypes: Dynamic Local Heritage via Virtual Playhouse Reconstruction
Professor Laurie Johnson - The Sound of the Rose Theatres, 1587, 1592
Professor Laurie Johnson - Weather Extremes in the English Little Ice Age, 1500-1700
Dr Mark Emmerson - Frontier Landscapes: First Nations’ interactions with non-British Migrants

2. Memory, Migration and Mobility

Associate Professor Jayne Persian - Migration, Refugees, Nation-Building and Ethnic Communities
Associate Professor Jessica Carniel and Associate Professor Jayne Persian - Ethnic Humour and Representation
Dr Catherine Dewhirst – Resisting Imperialism: Voices of Marginalised Communities
Dr Mark Emmerson - Global diasporas and Ethnic Community Building
Dr Mark Emmerson - Transnational Migrant Networks

3. Media and Mediascapes

Professor Jason Bainbridge – Law and Popular Culture
Professor Jessica Gildersleeve - Affective Screen Cultures
Associate Professor Jessica Carniel - Global Popular Culture, Multiculturalism, Transnationalism
Professor Laurie Johnson and Dr Anne-Maree Wicks – Weird Shakespeare
Associate Professor Jessica Carniel - Ethics, Pedagogy, Humanities
Dr Caryn Coatney - Investigative Journalism
Dr Mark Emmerson - Migrant Soldiers, Nationhood and Nationalism

4. Conflict, Crisis and Communication

Professor Jessica Gildersleeve and Richard Gehrmann - War, Trauma and Memory
Dr Caryn Coatney - Leaders, Journalists and Conflicts
Dr Victor Igreja – Minority Struggles, Critical Majorities and Aesthetics of Revenge
Associate Professor Jessica Carniel, Dr Mark Emmerson, and Richard Gehrmann – Soft Power and Diplomacy
Associate Professor Jessica Carniel, Dr Mark Emmerson, and Richard Gehrmann – Battlefield Diplomacy and Memorialising Wartime Relationships

5. Community and Cohesion

Professor Andrew Hickey and Professor Celmara Pocock – Youth Community Futures
Professor Andrew Hickey – Enhancing the Toowoomba Volunteer Workforce
Professor Andrew Hickey – Youth Engagement and Relational Pedagogy
Professor Andrew Hickey and Dr Sally Hourigan – Social Inquiry and Sociology of Community
Professor Celmara Pocock and Professor Jessica Gildersleeve – Queer Heritage and Culture
Dr Sharon Bickle – Women Writers and Queer Literary Communities
Professor Jessica Gildersleeve - Australian Literature, Culture and Affect
Professor Jessica Gildersleeve – Gender, Violence, and Ethical Storytelling
Professor Jessica Gildersleeve – Illness, Trauma, and Narratives of Coping
Associate Professor Jayne Persian - Community Storytelling
Dr Nike Sulway and Associate Professor Jessica Carniel - Cultural (Re)Imaginings and Perspectives in Writing
Professor Jessica Gildersleeve – Trauma-Informed Practice in Higher Education
Dr Caryn Coatney – Journalism and Social Cohesion in Civil Society
Professor Laurie Johnson, Professor Jessica Gildersleeve and Professor Andrew Hickey – Canon, Corpus, Classroom: Shaping Local English Canons
Dr Mark Emmerson - Historical Multicultural Community Building Practices
Dr Mark Emmerson - Processes of Inclusion and Exclusion in Settler Societies