Faculty/School

Faculty of Business and Law

School of Law

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

This topic is affiliated with the Carumba Institute.

Primary Supervisor

Dr Helena Kajlich
Position
Senior Lecturer
Division / Faculty
Academic Division

Other QUT supervisors

Dr David Singh
Position
Indigenist Health Humanities Academic Director
Division / Faculty
Academic Division

Overview

This project examines how racism is framed, erased or rendered legally uncertain in recent Australian coronial findings involving Indigenous health-related deaths. Building directly on Dr Kajlich's PhD research the VRES placement will undertake close comparative analysis of a selection of publicly available coronial findings handed down since 2024, examining how legal reasoning constructs (or erases) racism as a cause of preventable Indigenous death.

This work feeds directly into an ARC DECRA application investigating why legal processes so often fail to recognise racism as causative of harm in the health system. Students from law or justice backgrounds are particularly well-placed for this project, though the specific focus and case selection can be shaped in conversation with the student's own disciplinary location and interests.

Outcomes

  • Annotated case summaries (3–5 findings) analysing the treatment of race and racism in coronial reasoning
  • A short comparative analysis identifying recurring patterns across the selected findings
  • A brief reflective piece on what the student's own standpoint/disciplinary location brought to the analytical process

Start date

2 November, 2026

End date

19 February, 2027

Location

Carumba  Institute,  B-block, Level 3, Gardens Point

Additional information

Applicants must identify as Indigenous Australian

Contact

Carumba Institute

+61 7 3138 8611

carumbainstitute@qut.edu.au