DASSH Award Winners 2022
DASSH Awards for Excellence and Innovation are made in recognition of the outstanding work of staff in Australasian humanities, arts and social sciences fields each year. The Awards celebrate the efforts of those involved and promote their achievements across the region, with the aim of inspiring new initiatives and sharing best practice approaches in our member faculties.
We have recieved a number of fantastic nominations and the judging panel, drawn from the DASSH Board, is happy to announce the winners,
Employability Award
Dr Jacqueline Burgess is a Lecturer in International Business and the program coordinator of the Bachelor of Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Her teaching areas include brand management, marketing communication and international marketing and her andragogy focuses on the authentic and the practical. Her research investigates narrative brands, such as video games or television series, with a focus on how consumers and audiences become emotionally connected to the stories these brands tell. She has collaborated with various practitioners including those in the creative industries and small businesses as part of her research and teaching. Her work has been published in multiple peer-review journals including the European Journal of Marketing, Game Studies, the International Journal on Media Management and the Creative Industries Journal, presented at various academic conferences and been covered by local and international news outlets.
Judge’s Comments
In 2021, Dr Jacqueline Burgess started GradChat: a series of innovative, recorded conversations with university alumni about their experiences in the workplace based on questions crowdsourced from students. GradChat expanded in 2022 to include creative writing students, featuring interviews with published authors about their experiences (AuthorChat). Students can learn from professionals in their fields, understand and anticipate workplaces via digestible conversations available online. GradChat fits in with the busy lives of students who report that the conversations are ‘inspirational’, helping to inform their job applications, feel more confident and increasing their employability skills. As the leader and creator, Dr Burgess worked with numerous alumni and USC colleagues to source guests, questions, and make the conversations accessible. They are used in 19 undergraduate courses. Based on their success, a fourth series named GameChat is intended to be launched in the second half of 2022 involving developers in the video game industry.
Dr Burgess speaks about her project and what it means to her to be a DASSH 2022 Award Winner.
Indigenous Award
Associate Professor Aroha Harris (MNZM) belongs to Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi iwi. She is a historian at Te Kura Tangata o Waipapa Taumata Rau, Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland. Significant among her publications are Hīkoi: Forty Years of Māori Protest (2004) and the award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History (2014), a collaboration with Emeritus Professor Atholl Anderson and the late Dame Judith Binney.
Aroha is a former President of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, a founding member of Te Pouhere Kōrero, the national collective of Māori historians, and former President of the New Zealand Historical Association. She was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2008.
Judge’s Comments
Aroha Harris (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) is Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, specialising in Māori histories of policy and community development. This award is for the development of Ko Wai Tātou, a course for all Arts students based around a the University of Auckland’s Waipapa framework. The framework takes its title from Waipapa Taumata Rau, the name gifted by the local iwi Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to the university. The course facilitates social and academic transitions for Arts students by embedding the principle of whanaungatanga (focusing on relationships and a sense of connection) as both a philosophy and a practice; that principle is made possible through teamwork in the course and in assessment design to ensure students develop the kinds of interpersonal skills valued in workplaces and communities. Through the course questions relating to place, belonging, communities and inequality, for example, are examined drawing on diverse disciplines to allow students to experience and explore opportunities available in their Arts degree.
Associate Professor Harris speaks about her project and what it means to her to be a DASSH 2022 Award Winner.
Public Engagement Award
Dr Eleni Kalantidou is a design psychologist, teacher and researcher. Her research activities are focused on sustainable and social design, social impact and social innovation. Dr Kalantidou's research projects investigate alternative models of behavioural change, repair, and community transitions within conditions of climate change. Her research work has been supported by government grants and industry funding, and published in scholarly journals and books. Dr. Kalantidou has collaborated as a researcher.
Judge’s Comments
‘The Transformative Repair for Social Change’ is an inspiring place-based project that demonstrates the significance of HASS disciplines in leading measurable changes in the experiences and outcomes of individuals and their regional communities. A pilot program in Maryborough brought young men involved in, or at risk of being involved in, the youth justice system together with artists, researchers and educators. Though workshops they co-designed a practical toolkit for creative skills development. This toolkit is now a resource that supports the building of connections between local councils, NGOs and social enterprises with ‘at risk’ Individuals, and fosters a shift towards economic and environmental sustainability. The TRSC program has received state and federal government funding to continue for two years, contributing to resilience among vulnerable groups, and improving social inclusion.
Dr Kalantidou speaks about her project and what it means to her to be a DASSH 2022 Award Winner.
Employability Award
Sarah is Professor of Politics at the University of Melbourne, and Director of the Australian Centre. Her work focuses on reconceptualising political relationships between First Nations and the Australian settler state. She has published widely in international journals and is the author or editor of ten books including, most recently, The Colonial Fantasy (2019). She has led numerous research projects and was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow 2011-14. Her current ARC project explores intersections in Indigenous and settler governance regimes. Sarah was Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 2019 to 2021 and is currently on the boards of the organisations Justice Connect and Unharm. In 2021 she was awarded the Australian Political Studies Association award for Leadership in Political Sciences.
Judge’s Comments
The Treaty Education Program offers evidence of the profound impact that HASS disciplines have on working towards more just relationships in our society. As Victoria and other states prepare to enter treaty negotiations with First Nations, this course was designed to educate stakeholders on the possibilities that treaties may open for future relationships. Learners develop critical analytical skills essential to cultivating successful treaties and lawful relations between First Nations and the state. The program has been open to the community since October 2021 and has educated 182 Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. This includes 54 participants sponsored by the Department of Premier and Cabinet; a bespoke offering to 115 learners from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing; a specialised cohort of Wurundjeri Traditional Owners sponsored by Chancellery; a small cohort from Charles Darwin University; and other participants. The program is expecting another 200 learners from across the Victorian public sector.
Professor Maddison speaks about her project and what it means to her to be a DASSH 2022 Award Winner.