2024 Work-in-Progress (WiP) Conference

Exploded View: Expansion, Inquiry and Curiosity

Using the concept of ‘Exploded View’, we invite you to reimagine the broad spectrum of research undertaken across Communication and Arts. We challenge you to reposition and reframe your topic or area of expertise as a complex, three-dimensional mechanism. Now, explode that view. What do you see? How will you explain the role each part plays to make a functioning whole? And most importantly: who needs to know and why does it matter?

This year’s Work-in-Progress conference is all about crossing disciplinary boundaries and disrupting the status quo; deconstructing and reconfiguring; scaling up (or down), expanding or consolidating. It’s about switching point-of-view: a new angle, a sharper lens, a crystalline filter; on a micro or macro level. It’s about championing the critical work we, as artists and communicators, do, every day; with passion, with purpose, with precision – often without fancy tools or instruction manuals. 

As artists and communicators, our core instruments are curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. Now’s the time to showcase your work-in-progress; to think outside the box, then explode the box. We invite abstracts both traditionally academic and in creative formats, and as highlighted in the conference title, we welcome works in progress.

Conference Dates: Wednesday 13 November –Thursday 14 November 

Venue: Steele Building (Bldg 3) St Lucia Campus

Register to attend: https://payments.uq.edu.au/UQSCAWIP2024 

Full Program: WiP Conference 2024 Schedule

Hosted by: School of Communication and Arts 

Enquiries:  l.enright@uq.edu.au

THE DR JOHN MCCULLOCH ANNUAL MEMORIAL PRIZE

Submissions are now CLOSED

The School of Communication and Arts is delighted to continue the annual prize open to any Higher Degree Research (HDR) student within the School who presents a paper at the forthcoming 2024 WiP Conference. To be considered for the prize, written and fully referenced papers must be submitted for judging no later than 4 November, and must be presented at the 2024 WiP Conference.

Dr John McCulloch OAM (1938-2010) died of pancreatic cancer in 2010, shortly after submitting his PhD thesis, a biography of Queensland suffragist Elizabeth Brentnall.

John believed passionately the best possible legislation cannot be enacted until all our parliaments consist of approximately equal numbers of males and females. John explained the inspiration for his work in the afterward of his two-volume work on the early suffragettes and Queensland women legislators in state and federal parliaments, published in 2005.

These circumstances highlighted the need for a book that would open the window on the struggle for women’s suffrage in Queensland and its aftermath.

John’s legacy has done more than open a window on women’s suffrage. The Dr John McCulloch Annual Memorial Prize allows the light from that window to recognise HDR students inspired to research that seeks change and explores the untold stories.

What’s more, the prize is a recognition of the life of man who is considered a supportive, gentle man, an activist, an educator, and much more.

John was a researcher with a special interest in the advancement of gender equity. His published work includes From Suffragists to Legislators, written to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Queensland. John was a senior parliamentary research officer at the State Parliamentary Library (1984-1995), but also found time to undertake voluntary work for the Queensland and Australian Youth Hostels Association, served as convenor of the Homelessness Taskforce 99, and was a part-time researcher for St Vincent de Paul. John was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in January 2000 for service to youth.

John had a long connection to The University of Queensland: roles included activity as a student, as a tutor, and as an elected Sub-Dean of the Arts Faculty. He was a member of the first Campus Camp group, established in 1973, and continued throughout his life to be a strong advocate on equity issues. Dr John McCulloch significantly contributed not only to the lives of students in the School and the University, but also to the WiP Conference which he convened and attended while he was completing his studies.

We are delighted to have the support of John’s family and partner Gary in creating this prize, for Communication and Arts students. Gary Portley has generously offered to donate the prize of $1000 to be offered at the WiP conference in memory of Dr John McCulloch OAM.

School of Communication and Arts HDR students participating in the forthcoming WIP conference are invited to submit their written papers no later than 2pm 01 November 2024. Written papers must be fully referenced and be no longer than 2000 words (excluding bibliography). Papers will be judged by an SCA panel, drawn from across a range of disciplines, and the decision of the judges will be final. Judges will select the winning paper based on academic standards; criteria include argument structure, knowledge of the field, clarity of written expression, attention to referencing, and salience of content in relation to the annual conference theme. The papers must be presented at the conference for the SCA student to be eligible for the award. Please review eligibility requirements prior to submission. The award will be presented at the conference to the author of the winning paper.

Papers should be emailed to l.enright@uq.edu.au

Papers must be in PDF format with file name: lastname_firstname_studentnumber_McCullough submission2024