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Centre for Regional Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Based at ACU’s picturesque historic Ballarat Aquinas Campus, the newly established centre for Regional Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (RHASS) aims to advance humanities-based research and enquiry, capacity, connectivity and engagement by invigorating a vibrant community of practice.
Located in the historic Carn Brea homestead, RHASS will support regional students in HASS programs; provide unique enrichment and engagement opportunities for postgraduate researchers; deliver collaborative community opportunities with regional partners; and better engage with alumni, key stakeholders, and the wider community across regional Victoria with a unique series of programs.
Consolidating ACU’s commitment to regional Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the RHASS centre will offer enrichment opportunities for our postgraduate researchers and alumni, connecting with regional Arts partners and collaborators.
Through a bespoke program of activities, RHASS will serve as a hub for collaboration and knowledge exchange, support regional campus development and growth, enhance campus life, strengthen partner and alumni engagement, prioritise student support, and promoting impact focussed community participation in the region.
The RHASS project is proudly supported by Museum Victoria, Public Records Office Victoria, Sovereign Hill Museums Association, Art Gallery of Ballarat, City of Ballarat and Child and Family Services Ballarat.
Promising a vibrant centre of activities and initiatives, the RHASS project includes:
RHASS will offer a bespoke range of short courses to amplify the study of humanities across regional hubs, building a sustainable and vibrant intellectual community that fosters collaboration, innovation, and positive social change with impact. Current projects focus on engagement with history and the stories of our shared past.
“Access to Arts and Culture is essential for our regional communities. ACU’s centre for Regional Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (RHASS) is the university’s hub for public, alumni and industry engagement across the regional arts sector. Based at our Ballarat campus in regional Victoria, in the historic Carn Brea house, the RHASS is a mecca for research, learning, debate and discussion. Our goal is to foster new initiatives that promote the arts, humanities and social sciences in regional Australia; support the latest research in the HASS disciplines – such as history, English, politics and the creative arts; and to work with our regional partners to support the development of vibrant, culturally rich, regional communities.”
Associate Professor Benjamin Mountford
Phone: +61 3 5336 5413
Email: Benjamin.Mountford@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Ballarat Campus
Phone: +61 3 5336 5475
Email: Kat.Murphy@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Ballarat Campus
Kathryn (Kat) holds a PhD in Australian History. Her broad research interest is Australian foreign policy history, with a particular focus on Australian-Japanese and Australian-British relations during the twentieth century. She holds a dual role at the Australian Catholic University as a sessional lecturer in History, and Regional Arts Engagement and Participation Coordinator.
Ella’s PhD project explores the policies and the lived experiences of refugee families in Australia. Her research asks questions of how we construct ideas of family, national identity, and race in Australia, and how these ideas impact families experiences of resettlement in Australia. She also aims to uncover nuanced insights of refugee and asylum seeker families who have chosen Ballarat as their new home, hoping to contribute to a new history of Ballarat. Ella is undertaking her research in collaboration with the City of Ballarat.
In collaboration with Sovereign Hill Museums Association, Sharni’s work focuses on the contributions women had on Ballarat communities between 1835 and 1861, with an additional purpose of challenging hyper-masculine viewpoints of that era.
Bronwyn recently commenced her PhD in January 2025 in collaboration with Sovereign Hill. She is a dress historian with an interest in increasing the visibility of female trades at the living museum by researching dressmakers on the goldfields.
Ebony is an artist, educator and researcher living and working on the unceded lands of the Wadawarrung people. She has held numerous exhibitions and received large public art commissions in Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong and Ballarat. In collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ballarat, she is engaging in a practice-led PhD exploring the perpetuation of coloniality in contemporary societies. The core objective of Ebony’s research is to contribute to the development of decolonial curatorial strategies that will nurture other ways of existing and relating to each other and to the planet. Her work brings together the site-specific histories of the Gallery and the universal forces of colonisation, modernity and extractive capitalism.
Melissa is an ACU-Art Gallery of Ballarat Arts Industry PhD candidate researching watercolours by women artists. She is also a practising contemporary artist who paints with watercolour. Melissa’s key research focuses on revitalising connections between past and present watercolours from the Art Gallery of Ballarat Collection to challenge broader assumptions and expand watercolours by women artists.
Erin is currently exploring Dancing Ghosts of the Irish Diaspora through her creative-led Honours project in experimental film. Her art is cinematic, multilayered film using archival, found and captured moving image. She uses expanded cinema to embrace the screen language of the half-dark - creating overlay and blur to reflect her long-sightedness and her deepening connection to her ancestors. Alongside her main creative research project, Erin is working with the programs team at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne as part of her Honours Industry Internship.
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