Kate Morris studied a Bachelor of Science/Arts at the University of Queensland, majoring in Archaeological Science and Anthropology in each respective degree. Studying archaeology through a Science degree allowed her to take useful electives such as Biology and Statistics. Kate also undertook Honours in Archaeology at UQ in 2019; analysing historical burial artefacts from the North Brisbane Burial Grounds. Her thesis explored socio-economic status in 19th century Brisbane through an analysis of four out of only seven known dentures recovered from 19th century Australian cemetery contexts. Kate’s thesis is currently included in the archives of the Australian Dental Association Queensland’s museum in Brisbane.

Her successful grant applications, academic achievements, and field experience, gained through opportunities at UQ, contributed to her recent employment in the Heritage sector of a NSW consultancy. Kate is currently undertaking fieldwork in her new role and is looking forward to post-excavation analyses.

Maya is in her third year at the University of Queensland, studying a Bachelor of International Studies, majoring in Spanish and International Relations. She has just returned from a university volunteering trip to Mexico where she visited migrant shelters. On this trip, she was able to research immigration, law and human rights at the La Salle University in Mexico City.

For her:

”This experience was very rewarding, as not only were we able to study matters theoretically, but our site visits enabled us to witness firsthand the mass influx of Central American immigrants to Mexico and how current poor planning and the reintroduction of stringent border security policies are negatively affecting the migrant experience – which often left volunteers feeling incredibly overwhelmed. During my stay, I saw that there was a need for passionate lawyers and researchers, and hopefully one day I hope to fill a small part of that void”

After graduation, she wishes to pursue a Juris Doctorate at the University of Melbourne, with hopes of further researching migration law. Eventually, she would like to work in migration centres in Mexico, educating immigrants on their rights and potential avenues to seeking asylum.

Additionally, Maya has a love for languages, and sees the value of language in peace negotiations. Maya has extensive volunteering experience, which has allowed her to work alongside the marginalised in society and know that this work is really helping people in need in our community.

Casa del Samaritano, Bojay, Hidalgo: 

Casa del Samaritano is a temporary shelter whereby migrants’ transit through, as it is positioned right next to the train tracks. The facilities at the shelter include toilets and showers, dorms, clothing supplies, food, coffee and sanitation products. Essentially, the shelter is a place for immigrants to quickly rest and rejuvenate before continuing their journey. The shelters support comes from the Diosesis of Tula, the local community and NGOs. The number of migrants coming to the shelter varies day from day.

Las Patronas:

Las Patronas are a group of women from Veracruz who cook and create food packages and hand it to migrants traveling on the “The Beast”, a train which heads to the US border. These women are from a low socio-economic area that mainly relies on farming and manual labour, who decided to selflessly devote themselves to the plights of the immigrants travelling by train. They have been recognised domestically and internationally and have aided an estimated 1 million migrants. Additionally, Las Patronas have been recognised for their work in changing Mexican perceptions of Central American migration, as their work has attempted to humanise the migrants, who often the media vilifies.

Casa Tochán:

Casa Tochán translates to “our house” from Nahuatl which is the Indigenous language of the Aztecs. It is a shelter for men and male adolescent migrants and refugees, although, currently for the first time a family is saying there. The shelter offers a wide variety of services including housing, access to psychological and medical services and introduction to Mexican society. It’s a long-term facility with some migrants staying there for up to a year. Ultimately, it attempts to provide a steppingstone to immigrants who are hoping to either continue on their migration journey or establish roots in Mexico City.

Caitlin has career aspirations to work in the waste management industry, focussing on either sewage treatment, contaminated land rehabilitation or large-scale manufacturing waste disposal. Within this field, she is particularly fascinated by the concept of resource recovery, where materials are recovered from waste products and then undergo beneficial re-use.  Examples of this include biogas and electricity production from sewage treatment plants, bioethanol generation from agricultural by-products including sugar cane waste, and fertiliser recovery from phosphorous and nitrogen waste streams.

Recently, she completed a 3-month vacation research program working at Queensland Urban Utilities where she had exposure to the project management side of Engineering within Brisbane’s water treatment processes. Caitlin’s role was centred around asset management which is a fundamental platform for operating, maintaining and disposing of large-scale assets in the most cost-effective manner.

Caitlin had plans to study abroad in Semester 2 of this year, at Denmark Technical University in Copenhagen – a city at the frontline of renewable technology. She was hoping to gain insight into Copenhagen’s environmental engineering processes so she can apply it to her research at UQ. Caitlin’s plans have been adjusted, and she is hoping to go in 2021 then returning to commence her Masters of Engineering.

Melody graduated with first class honours from the University of Queensland, studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Archaeology and minoring in Ancient History.

During her undergraduate studies she gained experience in archaeobotany (the archaeological study of plants) through volunteering— working on assemblages from Neolithic Jordan, Australia, and Malaysia. She joined the archaeobotany team in excavations at Kaman-Kalehöyük in Turkey in 2018.  She also interned with the R.D Milns Antiquities Museum in Italy on a fieldschool where she gained hands on experience handling, identifying and cataloguing ancient Roman pottery and glass.

Her interest in archaeobotany and ancient history came together in her Honours thesis — an interdisciplinary study on the archaeology of contraception in the Greco-Roman world. She conducted an archaeobotanical case study on contraceptive plant use in Soranus’ Gynaecology (early 2nd century AD).

For her:

 “I was always curious about what ancient people used for contraception, or if they used any at all. Pregnancy and childbirth were extremely dangerous prior to modern medicine, and even today can be quite scary.  As I researched, I found that scholars in the 90s already found long lists of plant, animal and mineral ingredients in historical sources which were used as oral or physical contraceptives as well as amulets. What struck me was that lots of these ingredients are what archaeologists often dig up in excavations (eg. pomegranates and fig) but no-one has thoroughly researched these ancient contraceptive practices from an archaeological point of view. I think it’s important to consider all possible uses of ancient plants that we find, especially medicinal uses of plants that today we only recognise as food.  Androcentric bias often unintentionally colours interpretations of the past. My research explores an often overlooked, but nevertheless plausible type of ancient plant use.”

Melody recreated several of Soranus’ contraceptive recipes, taking note of all the by-products and waste products left behind during the process, and then investigated whether any of these could become clues to help other archaeologists figure out whether plant remains that they excavate might have been used for contraception and not just as food.

After graduation, apart from pursuing further study in archaeology, Melody would also like to complete a professional certification in English/Mandarin translation. She hopes to be able to translate archaeological papers, making research from different parts of the world is more readily available to scholars, students, and the public.

Dan has just graduated with an Honours degree in Physics from the Australian National University. Throughout his undergraduate studies he was involved in various research projects ranging from plasma rockets to dark matter physics, before focusing on quantum computing for his Honours year.

Quantum computing offers new technological developments and seeks to transcend many of the limits of classical computers used today. The applications of quantum computers have diverse and revolutionary applications, which can inform research surrounding economic modelling, engineering design, cryptography and biomolecular systems.

In particular, Dan’s honours involved performing experiments on a diamond quantum computer. Diamond quantum computers consist of clusters of defects, and are the only solid-state devices that have demonstrated quantum algorithms at room temperature. These defects in diamond quantum computers, are leading systems in the development of quantum computers and communication networks. Dan’s project focused on performing several experimental measurements, the results of which can be used to improve measurement precision, a key performance metric.

Dan is now taking a gap year while deciding between continuing research with a PhD or working in industry. With the latter, he’d be interested in pursuing opportunities that allow him to focus on integrating quantum technologies into industry. As he is certain this can bring improvements to several sectors including pharmaceuticals and finance.

Dan also believes that whether he chooses industry or academia:

‘ … the skills and experience I’ve gained by completing a research-focused undergraduate degree have been invaluable so far, and I’m confident that they will continue to guide me throughout my career.’

Matt Stent holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Classical Studies. Matt is currently undertaking an honours in Political Geography at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch. His honours project focuses on climate change resilience and territoriality in the Pacific. Matt is broadly interested in Cities and Urban environments, especially how marginalised communities (queer, young and low-income communities) fit within cities and what can be done to help create better places to live.

Matt was part of a recent Christchurch based undergraduate research project where he adopted innovative surveying methods to work directly with school children in urban planning. The outcomes were published in ACUR’s May 2020 URNA (Undergraduate Research News Australasia) edition (Issue 17).

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“At the University of Canterbury one of the options for third year geography undergraduates is to take a course entirely focused on a project that works with members of the wider community to solve problems and provide insight into an issue. My group of five students worked with the St Albans local residents’ association in Christchurch. They had reached out to the university to help them understand what the effect would be of the expansion of a major road through their neighbourhood and what the feelings of the residents were towards the project. As a group we wanted to engage with a range of residents’ perspectives especially since we knew there was anger towards the city council and government around the issue. Working on community building and matters of urban design were really helped by being able to talk to people in the affected places and understanding how they interacted on a personal level…”