Student topics

Our built environment changes our brain function. There is considerable interest from many research fields upon the positive and negative health and wellbeing effects of our environments. This research area explores how architectural environments and spaces impact experience and mood using wearable brain-imaging technology.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Architecture and Built Environment

Projects may address entrepreneurial skills, behaviours and attributes as learnable human capabilities across a diverse range of educational contexts. Sub-topics may include entrepreneurial alertness, risk taking and productive failure, values formation and creation,  agency-passivity, emancipatory entrepreneurialism, antifragility, entrepreneurial leadership, global mindset, emotive experiences and interplay with learning for entrepreneurial capabilities, opportunity creation.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Education

The adage “united we stand, divided we fall” has frequently guided leadership practice – that is, for one to lead others effectively, one first needs to unite them. However, large groups of people often comprise smaller subgroups with distinct identities. How, then, does the leadership process look like when these smaller subgroups are polarised into conflicting factions that cannot simply be united under a common superordinate identity?This research broadly examines the process of leadership within teams and organisations where there …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Management

The shopping centre (mall) is the central hub of modern retailing and holds a significant role in developing a first overall impression. As a result, shopping centres (malls) have focussed on creating positive customer experiences in shared public spaces. Bringing natural elements such as green plants, flowerbeds, water features, aquariums, animals, birds, and butterfly gardens into the hotel service setting, is an innovative approach known as biophilic design.The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of biophilic elements …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Recent work has identified outcomes of sustained customer aggression, however an opportunity lies in identifying the drivers of the specific dimensions of customer aggression. (See Mortimer, G., Wang, S., & Andrade, M. L. O. (2023). Measuring customer aggression: Scale development and validation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 73, 103348.)Future research may also assess the extent to which each customer aggression type individually affects the different attitudinal and behavioural outcomes tested herein. Both expressive aggression forms may be stronger drivers …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, employee associations (unions) are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe. One such tactic was an ‘under-name-badge’ message (“I’m someone’s daughter”, “I’m someone’s dad”). Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into the effect of such messaging.Does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘someone’s daughter/son’ mitigate aggression? Alternatively, does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘a local/attends a local …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, retailers are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe – assets such as body worn cameras (BWC) and duress watches. Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into these technologies in a retail setting, with much of the earlier research being undertaken in corrective services, policing and train guards.Current research identifies, in some cases, the presence of such technologies can lead to a ‘back-firing’ effect (the aggressive individual becomes more aggressive), …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Research and practice often focus on how leadership is successfully developed or built. Little attention is given to the factors that may undermine leadership. Understanding these factors may help shed light on how effective leadership is sustained through challenges and setbacks.Taking a social identity approach to leadership, this research may investigate:the potential destabilisers of leadership within teams and organisationsthe lifecycle of leadership within groupsthe factors that turn followers away from their leader.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Management

Broadly, this research theme looks into the effects of leader transgressions (e.g., misconduct, misbehaviour, deviance) on workers within organisations.More specifically, adopting a social identity approach, projects within this theme may examine the following questions:How does the organisational level of the leader influence the effects of their transgression on workers?How do workers'  identity configurations affect whether they respond to leader transgressions?How does the type and target of the leader transgression influence the way workers respond to the transgression?

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Management

Sonographers, highly skilled healthcare professionals responsible for essential diagnostic ultrasound services, are currently facing a severe nationwide shortage. The Australasian Sonographers Association reported a deficit of at least 3,000 sonographers in 2019. Training new sonographers involves comprehensive work-integrated learning (WIL), which blends academic knowledge with structured real-world experiences to develop vital clinical skills. However, due to escalating workforce demands, concerns have arisen about potential exploitation of students within workplaces. This exploitation could involve assigning tasks exceeding their capabilities or subjecting …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Clinical Sciences

Dementia exhibits the presence of Lewy bodies in the cerebral cortex, which are composed of α-synuclein (αSYN) or Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, as well as hyperphosphorylated tau (P-tau) tangles in various forms of dementia. The exact pathological mechanisms underlying this disease are not well understood; however, there is evidence suggesting the involvement of inflammatory activity. Microglia, macrophage cells residing in the brain responsible for clearing external pathogens and dead cells, are of particular interest.Our study aims to investigate whether Lewy bodies …

Study level

Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Microbiome Research

OverviewProstate cancer (PCa) is the second-most common cancer in men. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) encoded by the KLK3 gene is the only FDA-approved PCa biomarker for PCa. As a serine protease, PSA can also regulate multiple functions involved in PCa progression and metastasis and is summarised in our recent publications. Immunotherapies, including PSA-targeting therapies, have shown modest improvement in survival, for only a subset of metastatic PCa patients. Not much is known on the immunoregulatory role of PSA or its variants, …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health