Dr Isobelle Barrett Meyering and Dr Christoph Sperfeldt from the Faculty of Arts, and Dr Rebecca Keogh from the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences will share in more than $1.2 million under the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme.
Two hundred new research projects have been awarded nationally, for a funding total of more than $86 million.
The DECRA scheme aims to support innovative research projects that have economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius says the funding is a clear indication these researchers have prominent careers ahead of them.
“Funding awarded as part of the DECRA scheme is an acknowledgement not only of excellence in research, but also evidence of solid leadership potential,” he says.
“I am delighted to see that some of the University’s brightest researchers have been recognised and I look forward to watching as their innovative projects take shape.”
The successful Macquarie University projects are:
Child citizens: Young people and Australian democracy since 1945
Dr Isobelle Barrett Meyering, Department of History and Archaeology
This project provides a new account of Australian democracy from the perspective of children and young people. It tracks changes in children’s conceptions and practices of citizenship since 1945 to explain their contested status in contemporary politics. The project shows that, far from simply being ‘citizens in waiting’, young people have long been active participants in political and civic life. It also reveals how the citizenship claims of children and young people have expanded across this period, alongside those of other marginalised groups. The project’s findings will add nuance to current debates about children’s political exclusion, with its social impact enhanced through the development of an online research portal and collaboration with the Museum of Australian Democracy.
Funding awarded: $392,161
Investigating how visual imagery influences cognition
Dr Rebecca Keogh, School of Psychological Sciences
This project will characterise the role visual imagery plays in other cognitive functions, namely visual working memory and attention. This will be done by studying two special populations that have extreme forms of visual imagery: aphantasia and synaesthesia. This work will develop innovative psychophysics and physiological techniques to identify different cognitive strategies used to solve visual working memory and attention tasks. Further magnetoencephalography (MEG) decoding approaches will be used to compare the neural signatures of voluntary and involuntary visual imagery, working memory and attention. This work will help us understand why some individuals have better imaginations, memory and attention than others.
Funding awarded: $426,105
Universal legal identity and the Sustainable Development Goals
Dr Christoph Sperfeldt, Macquarie Law School
This project is the first comprehensive study into the risks of exclusion associated with the pursuit of the universal legal identity target enshrined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Through a systematic examination of legal identification initiatives at international level, as well as at country levels in Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, the project will generate new knowledge on how exclusion in legal identity regimes is produced and who it affects. Outcomes include improved understanding of these risks and practical guidance to address them. Expected benefits include the establishment of more inclusive state and non-state approaches to legal identity, as well as enhanced protections and development opportunities for marginalised populations in different contexts.
Funding awarded: $429,000
