News

Africa is often referred to as the cradle of humankind – the birthplace of our species, Homo sapiens. There is evidence of the development of early symbolic behaviours such as pigment use and perforated shell ornaments in Africa, but so far most of what we know about the development of complex social behaviours such as burial and mourning has come from Eurasia.

Academic freedom – however elusive – is widely championed as the foundation of a good university.

In the latest issue of Australian Universities’ Review, special review editor Professor Kristen Lyons from the School of Social Science joins other University of Queensland researchers – alongside other scholars from Australia and Canada – in exploring what might be meant by academic freedom, and why its defence has become so important.

The Nobel Peace Prize medal is currently in Brisbane, under the care of University of Queensland’s Dr Marianne Hanson, specialist in nuclear weapons and international security.

How and when people first settled Sahul – or the Pleistocene supercontinent of Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania that formed during times of low sea level – is a topic of major debate in the fields of archaeology and human evolution.

Congratulations to Professor Greg Hainge who has been appointed Head of the School of Languages and Cultures for a five-year term starting next week.

The revival of interest in Anzac since the 1980s has depended in part on the repositioning of soldiers as victims. We rarely celebrate their martial virtues, and instead note their resilience, fortitude and suffering.

The discovery of unexpected artefacts in Africa’s Kalahari Basin has challenged conventional knowledge about the beginnings of human culture and innovation.

AusStage, the world-leading digital humanities platform preserving and showcasing the history of Australian live performance, has been welcomed to the prestigious UNESCO Memory of the World register.

Researchers are calling for parents and kids to be involved in a national study into early childhood sleeping patterns at The University of Queensland.

Ian Kemish, Former Ambassador and Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, says the COVID crisis on our doorstep shows how little we pay attention to PNG.

A new era in mental health care in Australia has arrived after the announcement that a $10 million national research translation centre is to be established at The University of Melbourne, aiming to improve health outcomes for Australians with mental illness.

It was his aspiration to be an actor that first brought Silvan Rus to The University of Queensland.

An apprentice, and then a core artist with the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, Mr Rus used to come to UQ’s St Lucia campus for group rehearsals of Hamlet and other iconic tragedies of the stage.

Internationally acclaimed conductor and UQ alumnus Dane Lam will join our School of Music as Conductor and Director of the UQ Symphony Orchestra (UQSO) later this month.

A new pilot study is helping Queensland’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs) become more sustainable by designing out waste and using resources more efficiently.

Anyone who’s slaved over a school sausage sizzle may not be surprised to learn that parents and friends raise an average $752 a year for every state school student in Australia.

But University of Queensland education expert Dr Anna Hogan says some important sociological questions are sizzling alongside all those sausages.

A short story for a University of Queensland project that evolved into the draft of a novel has helped secure Indigenous Arts student Sharlene Allsopp a prestigious literary prize.

Her work on the novel The Great Undoing – in parallel with smaller projects including a memoir about her great-grandfather – earned her a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter 2020 award.

This year, art and art museums became ever more central to the health of communities, particularly when life felt uncertain.

Throughout the lockdown, UQ Art Museum created and curated cultural experiences, projects, and discussions, designed to involve, build, and absorb our communities.

Archaeologists are generating a 65,000-year-old rainfall record from ancient food scraps found at Australia’s earliest-known site of human occupation.

University of Queensland researcher Dr Anna Florin said the research was giving a glimpse into the Kakadu region’s environment from the time when people first entered the continent from the north.

Two criminology students have joined forces with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to contribute to the prevention of child sexual exploitation.