Research was a highlight for the School of HASS in October. The month began with Assoc Prof Sarah Lawrence giving invited talks as part of University of Queensland’s Gender Studies seminar series and University of Sydney’s Classics and Ancient History seminar series. It was hard to miss the strong presence of the School in Research Week, which saw nine HASS staff participating as presenters and Assoc Prof Finex Ndhlovu launching his most recent book, Pan-African Integration from Below: Language, Publics, Culture, co-authored with Jesta Masuku (Mandela University Press, 2025). The School hosted the 40th Russel Ward Annual Lecture as well as the Against AI? symposium organised by and featuring papers from HASS colleagues. We also enjoyed taking a break to catch up with each other at the HASS morning tea during Research Week. 

For teaching, a highlight of October was the HIST303/503 (Witch-Hunting in Europe, 1400-1700) T3 intensive school run by Professor Thomas Fudge, which brought 44 students on-campus, along with UNE staff and community members, for lectures, tutorials, films, documentaries, talks and panel discussions. For those of us in E11, the high level of student enthusiasm and engagement was a pleasure to see – and hear!

To top off October, we had news of ARC success for members of HASS: Prof Martin Gibbs and Prof David Roberts and their team were awarded a three-year ARC Discovery Grant of $527,703 for a project on the first settlement at Norfolk Island (1788-1814), administered by UNE; and Prof Hamish Maxwell-Stewart was named on another successful Discovery Grant, on convict transportation, administered by UTS.

My apologies to anybody in HASS whose October achievements have been overlooked here. A great deal has been happening in the School, including on the staffing front. We welcomed Assoc Prof Jenny Wise to the role of Interim Deputy Head of School. We finalised one academic appointment – an announcement will soon be made to the School – and wait to hear the outcome of the selection process for Head of School.

To end, I would like to thank Course Coordinators in HASS who have been leading the reform of courses to include assurance tasks. Thanks to their efforts, we are on track to have these tasks embedded as required in 2026.