Social Change Symposium
2 - 6 June 2025
2 - 6 June 2025
Monday 2 June, 12:00pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
This workshop covers essential aspects of using AI in research, with a focus on research integrity and maintaining ethical standards. It will discuss key considerations for responsible use of AI, common tools for literature searching, and strategies for creating effective prompts. The session will also include guidelines for acknowledging AI use, along with relevant RMIT resources and services.
This session will be facilitated by Julian Blake, Teaching and Research Librarian, and Huong Phan and Barbara Yazbeck, Academic Skills Advisors.
Tuesday 3 June, 12:00pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
Join us for a lively lunchtime panel and Q and A featuring four presenters who have worked in academia, government, not-for-profits, policy, and cultural and museum sectors. Hear real life stories and practical tips about diverse career pathways—spanning climate, energy, digital cities and communities, and urban farming and local food systems—and discover strategies to shape your future beyond the PhD.
Our panellists include Kelly Donati (Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow), Kat Lucas-Healy (Senior Climate & Energy Advisory Environment Victoria), Sarah Barns (Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow) and Victor Albert (Assistant Director, Gas Transition Policy, DCCEEW).
Wednesday 4 June, 12:00pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
Explore strategies for publishing - identifying relevant, quality publications - as well as considerations around promoting research through social media and researcher profiles. This workshop will also outline support for open access publishing from the library to maximise research visibility and impact.
This session will be facilitated by Mark Parsons and Jennifer Hurley, Teaching and Research Librarians.
Tuesday 3 June, 2:45 - 3:45pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
Got questions about your candidature, enrolment, leave, or scholarship?
Drop by and chat with the friendly team from the School of Graduate Research at this drop-in session. The team will be there to answer your questions and connect you with the right support services if required to help you navigate your research journey.
Tuesday 3 June, 5:00pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
Join us at this catered social and networking event at the iconic Green Brain.
At this networking event, the Poster Competition entries will be showcased, and certificates and prizes will be awarded to the winners. Posters will be judged on design, clarity, and research impact. Refreshments will be provided and HDR students and staff are welcome to attend.
Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates from the College of Design and Social Context will present their milestones throughout the symposium.
Please note that information for milestone presenters, chairs and panellists is available through the RMIT SharePoint site for HDR Milestone Presentations (RMIT login required).
The candidate milestone schedule for Social Change is available below and a list of research abstract can be accessed here.
Check out also the Urban Futures Symposium and PRS Australia milestone schedules.
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEST) | Candidate | Presentation title | Location |
| 9:00 - 10:30 | Charlotte Crowley | Investigating the impact of Intentional Teaching Gestures on student oral production and attitudes in the French-as-an-Additional-Language classroom | 016.07.003 |
| 10:30 - 12:00 | Tung Vu | Australia-based international students' perception of intercultural competence for workplace settings | 016.07.003 |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Laura Kayes | The Relational Infrastructure of Innovation: Interdisciplinary Knowledge Building in Australian Higher Education | 016.07.003 |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Chris Berzi | Identification of a Wrestling Fan: Understanding Migrant Experiences through an Autoethnographic Documentary on Melbourne’s Wrestling Community | 016.07.001 |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Joel Humphries | Queer community and new internet technologies |
016.07.004 |
| 15:30 - 17:00 | Leesa Corbo | Digital Power in Queer Social Worlds: An Exploration of the Lived Experiences of Australians with Diverse Genders and Sexualities | 016.07.004 |
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEST) | Candidate | Presentation title | Location |
| 09:00 - 10:30 | Abair Alanazi | Conceptualisations of Love in Saudi Arabic | 016.07.003 |
| 10:30 - 12:00 | Hamid Taheri | Iranian cinema and the “modest woman” |
016.07.003 |
| 10:30 - 12:00 | Zichen Zhao | Female Images in the English Translations of Shui Hu Zhuan | 016.07.004 |
| 10:30 - 12:00 | Brian Rodrigo Llagas | Reading packaging designs better: Using visual semiotics to reduce consumer confusion | Online |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Martin Huang | Infrastructures of Expansion: Exploring Media and Governmental Influences on Huawei’s International Growth | 016.07.003 |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Daniel Pitman | Gender & the State: Analysing Australia’s Gender-based violence policy during the rise of neoliberalism | Online |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Shiyang Zhu | Troubling the Digital: Affect, Activism and Queer Subjectivity in Post-Socialist China | 016.07.004 |
| 15:30 - 17:00 | Haryo Pambuko Jiwandono | Mobile League: understanding mobile game e-sports in Indonesian popular culture | 016.07.004 |
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEST) | Candidate | Presentation title | Location |
| 9:00 - 10:30 | Natalia Alarcon Penagos | The Foreign Language Teacher as a Transformative Intellectual: A Collaborative Space for Critical Practice in the Classroom | 016.07.004 |
| 10:00 - 11:30 | Adnan Alamri | Infodemic and misinformation on COVID-19 vaccination through social media in Saudi Arabia and Egypt | 016.07.003 |
| 10:30 - 12:00 | Jasmine Aslan | The Role of Museum Interactives in Developing Digital Literacies | 016.07.004 |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Sergio Nombreuse | The transformation of vernacular creativity and photo-sharing on Instagram | 016.07.004 |
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEST) | Candidate | Presentation title | Location |
| 09:00 - 10:30 | Loeurt To | Higher Education Leadership and the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Postcolonial Cambodia | Online |
| 16:00-17:30 | Temiti Lehartel | Rethinking “Remoteness” in the Fiction Of Alexis Wright and Cathie Dunsford | Online |
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEST) | Candidate | Presentation title | Location |
| 13:00 - 14:30 | Thanh Tran | Social Cartoon Influencer Culture in Vietnam: Social Implications of Automated Content Production | Online |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Monica Sasikumar | (Re)Connecting Humans with Nature: Embedding Nature Values into the Fashion Value Chain and Developing Positive Visions for the Future | Online |
| 14:30 - 16:00 | Wynston Lee | The Political Economy of Data Infrastructures and Credit Platforms in China's Corporate Social Credit System | Online |
| 15:00 - 16:30 | Emily Spiller | The President and the Bomb: Nuclear Thought and Policy Approaches, 1939 – 1974 | Online |
| 15:30 - 17:00 | Lilan He | Nation branding: Image of China in the cyber space through the lens of sports diplomacy | Online |
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
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