College of Arts, Society & Education

Karen Cavu

Karen Cavu

Pascal Agbadi

Pascal Agbadi

Leonard Freeman

Leonard Freeman

Kate Manlik

Kate Manlik

Subhashni Taylor

Subhashni Taylor

Peta Salter

Peta Salter

Ines Zuchowski

Ines Zuchowski

Jemma Hamley

Jemma Hamley

Rosita Henry

Rosita Henry

Michael Ackland

Michael Ackland

Stature estimation from fragmentary skeletal remains in prehistoric Cambodia: Health and forensic applications
Sophorn Nhoem
20 Feb 2023 - 20 Feb 2025
This project examines the interrelationships between social change and health and growth during the Iron Age (500 BCE-CE 500) in northwest Cambodia. To facilitate this investigation, a new methodology is established to determine biological sex, long bone lengths and stature from the fragmentary remains of four Iron Age communities (Phum Snay, Phum Sophy, Prei Khmeng and Phum Lovea) in Cambodia. Evidence for growth during childhood in prehistoric times is combined with evidence for growth disruption, diet, and disease to extend the understanding of the quality of life experienced by Iron Age people. This period is considered one of social tension with a developing hierarchical social structure that eventually led to state rule across Cambodia and beyond. This project assesses the interrelationships between sociopolitical change and health and growth in the everyday experience of communities and individuals.
Walking through Time: Australia-Japan Symposium and History Trail
Tianna Killoran
13 Jan 2025 - 30 Oct 2025
This project delves into the rich history shared by Australia and Japan, with a specific focus on northern Queensland. Townsville is the site of Australia’s first Japanese Consulate (1896-1908), and the project’s primary location, which highlights the unique opportunity of this project. The project involves a one-day symposium bringing together eminent scholars from both countries, presented in-person and online. Their presentations will explore diverse aspects of Australia-Japan history focused on northern Australia. This public symposium is complemented by a guided walking tour of significant sites of Australia-Japan’s shared past in Townsville, bringing these place-based histories to life. To ensure long-term impact, the project partners will collaborate on a digital resource documenting the history trail. This online platform will showcase these key Australia-Japan sites, alongside photographs and information, making the project accessible to a wide audience. Through co-creation and public outreach, this project will foster deep appreciation for Australia-Japan’s shared histories and inspire further education, research, and collaborations. The project will coincide with the Australian Historical Association conference held in Townsville in 2025, thereby capitalising on opportunities for networking and knowledge exchange among historians, educators, and heritage professionals. Ultimately, this initiative will strengthen Australia-Japan partnerships through education, engagement, and cultural exchange.
Recovery from disaster experience _community resilience.
Helen Boon
14 Jan 2010 - 14 Jan 2012
A multi site disaster preparedness and resilience to climate change induced disasters using a mixed methods, including Rasch methodology, approach.
Adaptation, piloting, and validation of research instrument for assessing ethical sensitivity in teaching
Helen Boon
01 Jan 2016 - 01 Jan 2018
an examination of the ethical sensitivity of educators and development of an instrument to measure it using Rasch analysis
Building Community Economic Capacity through Understanding Insurance Levels (Old ID 26741)
Nick Osbaldiston
01 Feb 2020 - 31 Jul 2020
This research will assist in understanding the vulnerability and resilience of the Cairns Community to major natural disaster events such as cyclones. Using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research, the project will collect data on how communities across Cairns insure their property and what levels of under or noninsurance there is. In doing so, the project will provide one of the first attempts to quantify and qualify under/noninsurance in the Cairns region to date. This research will also build on former similar research conducted through James Cook University (Osbaldiston, McShane and Oleszek, 2019).
The Nakanai Caves Cultural Heritage Project (Old ID 21247)
Simon Foale
01 Jul 2014 - 31 Dec 2018
This project will document and integrate the natural and cultural values of the Nakanai Caves in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, in preparation for a cultural landscape World Heritage nomination. Our novel methodology incorporates community knowledge with archaeological and anthropological evidence to link natural and cultural values and define the landscape from local perspectives. Local input into the research will be prioritised. By emphasizing local participation and management of World Heritage listing processes we address an identified gap in World Heritage methodologies. Our approach allows for a subtle, nuanced definition of cultural landscapes under the World Heritage Convention.
Development and Validation of a Parent–Child Career Value Congruence Scale: A Two-Stage Study on Scale Construction and Structural Model Analysis in Young Adults
Sujin Kim
28 Jul 2025 - 31 Dec 2025
This postdoctoral research project aims to develop and validate a Parent–Child Career Value Congruence Scale tailored to collectivist cultural contexts, with a focus on young adults in Indonesia. The study consists of two stages: (1) scale construction and validation, and (2) structural model analysis to examine how value congruence influences career-related outcomes such as wellbeing, autonomy, and satisfaction. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, Value Congruence Theory, Social Cognitive Career Theory, and the Systems Theory Framework, this research addresses a gap in cross-cultural career development literature by creating an evidence-based tool grounded in both psychological theory and local context. The project is a collaboration between James Cook University and Diponegoro University, and it will contribute to international scholarship, practical counselling tools, and future cross-cultural applications across education and career services.
Improving food security in the northern uplands of Lao PDR: Identifying drivers and overcoming barriers (Old ID 21945)
Simon Foale
01 Jul 2014 - 06 Oct 2019
Despite strong economic growth in the last decade, food insecurity in Lao PDR remains high (around 22%) and more or less unchanged. The drivers of food insecurity are largely unknown. This project asks: 1) What are the past drivers, and current constraints and enhancers, of food security status, and 2) What are the impacts of interventions to address food insecurity, in the Northern Uplands of Lao PDR? The project will use a variety of mixed methods to produce an analysis of household strategies towards income generation and stabilisation under a range of market conditions.
Tropical Rainforest in Expedition Journals
Elizabeth Smyth
31 Jul 2025 - 26 Apr 2026
This proposal is to conduct a comparative analysis of Ellis Rowan’s memoir The Flower Hunter: The adventures, in Northern Australia and New Zealand, of flower painter Ellis Rowan (1898) about her experience of visiting tropical rainforest in Queensland, Australia, with the journals of two people who travelled through the forests of the Congo in 1908 and 1909. This will allow consideration and analysis of perspectives of tropical rainforest in two countries in a comparable era. The latter journals are held in the Smithsonian libraries of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA). They are: A.B. Rendle, E.G. Baker and S. LeM. Moore’s An account of the plants collected by the Ruwenzori Expedition (1910) and M. W. Hilton-Simpson’s Land and peoples of the Kasai being a narrative of a two years’ journey among the cannibals of the equatorial forest and other savage tribes of the south-western Congo (1911). A third journal is M. W. Hilton-Simpson’s Journal of the Congo expedition: Containing narrative of the journey, personal notes, geographical notes (1909), which is available as a digital resource, a format that will enable me to begin my research before travelling. This project is designed to build on a major grant application submitted in March through the Australian Research Council to study rainforest representation in Australian fiction and life writing. The Smithsonian proposal does this by expanding the scope internationally. Should the DECRA be successful, this Fellowship would coincide with and support the literature review phase of that project.
Success and failure in climate (im)mobility policy solutions around the Indo-Pacific
Liam Moore
30 Jun 2025 - 30 Jun 2027
There is a prescient and ongoing need to better understand the drivers, patterns, and required support structures for people, households, and communities engaging with decisions around climate-related (im)mobilities. What we also know is that in these spaces of climate and disaster governance, preparation is exponentially more cost-effective than rapid response. We propose two key activities to manage the problem of understanding success and failure in climate policy possibility solutions in the Indo-Pacific. The first aspect is developing a baseline of climate (im)mobility policy solutions. This would involve developing a typology of climate (im)mobilities policy clusters to both highlight the diversity of mobility types that exist within this broad governance area and provide clarity towards what policy and practice should focus on for improved outcomes for people and communities. The second aspect of this project extends beyond its academic research-based roots to share the findings with policymakers and practitioners across the region. Therefore, we will directly engage with key stakeholders, sharing policy-focused interpretations of the findings and opening up a dialogue to understand the barriers to putting in place the practices we argue for. After these consultations, we will progress to a short, impactful monograph that brings together the academic and the practical to express both the state of climate mobilities governance across Oceania and where the field is heading in the future.
Title: Wakefield Scholarship (University of Cambridge, Institute of Criminology)
Reseracher: Mark David Chong (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2022
Title: Longworth Scholarship (University of Sydney, Law School)
Reseracher: Mark David Chong (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2003
Title: Longworth Scholarship for Academic Merit (University of Sydney, Law School)
Reseracher: Mark David Chong (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2006
Title: Longworth Scholarship (University of Sydney, Law School)
Reseracher: Mark David Chong (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2007
Title: Cooke, Cooke, Coghlan, Godfrey and Littlejohn Scholarship (University of Sydney, Law School)
Reseracher: Mark David Chong (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2004
Title: Invited to deliver James Cook University's Annual Last Lecture - A humanistic approach to educating our next generation of ‘crime fighters’
Reseracher: Mark David Chong (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2015
Title: Small CASE Grant - $5000
Reseracher: Wili Suluma (Lecturer, Education (Indigenous [Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander] Education))
Start Date: 01 Jan 2025
Title: Head, Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing, James Cook University
Reseracher: Victoria Kuttainen (Centre Head, The Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
Title: Deputy Head of Academic Group, James Cook University
Reseracher: Peta Salter (Associate Professor, Curriculum and Pedagogy)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2025
Title: Education Queensland,
Reseracher: Philemon Chigeza (Senior Lecturer)