Urban Futures & Social Change Symposia
20 - 24 October
20 - 24 October
Monday 20 October, 12:00 - 1:30pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
What happens when generative AI tools misfire, misunderstand, or hallucinate? This hands-on workshop explores critical-creative approaches to working with (and against) GenAI systems. Drawing from media research, design methods, and glitch aesthetics, in this interactive workshop, we’ll treat AI not just as a tool, but as a messy collaborator. Through demos, prompt experiments, and interpretive exercises, participants will learn to extract insight from error, build weird workflows, and document their own slop-inflected research processes. Come curious — leave with new techniques, frameworks, and a glitched assistant of your own.
This session is facilitated by Dr Daniel Binns, Senior Lecturer in Media at RMIT University, Melbourne, and a tinkerer-theorist whose research and creative practice explore synthetic media, critical AI literacies, and glitch-based methods of creative engagement.
Tuesday 21 October, 12:00 - 1:30pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
Curious about RMIT’s Design and Social Context research centres and how they can enrich your postgraduate experience? Join a panel of Research Centre Directors and HDRs from four of our leading research centres: Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC), Post-Carbon Research Centre (PCRC), Social Equity Research Centre (SERC), and Centre for Urban Research (CUR). Learn about the centres’ work and opportunities for engagement, and later join the research centre Directors in a networking meet and greet over lunch.
We will be joined by Prof Rob Cover (DERC), Prof Priya Rajagopalan (PCRC), Prof Hannah Badland (SERC), Prof Libby Porter (CUR) and HDR members of the centres. The panel will be introduced by Prof Ralph Horne, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation).
Tuesday 21 October, 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 is here to answer your questions and connect you with the right support services if required to help you navigate your research journey.
Tuesday 21 October, 5:00 - 7:00pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
Academic life is often imagined as a smooth path of publications, impact, and success. In reality, HDR candidates and academics navigate precarious employment, caring responsibilities, metrics-driven assessment, and the emotional toll of a bean-counting culture. Universities have shifted from civic institutions to corporatized, productivity-focused models shaped by KPIs, competition, and rankings. This panel brings together four researchers across career stages to reflect candidly on the hidden realities of academia and share strategies, practices, and values that nurture collaboration, critical debate, and spaces of joy within everyday struggles.
We are joined by panellists Prof Daniel X. Harris, Dr Sarah Robertson, Dr Caitlin McGrane and Dr Pradip K. Sarkar.
Wednesday 22 October, 12:00 - 1:30pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus
This session covers an introduction to career planning. In this highly competitive environment, PhD candidates need to start considering their options early and be strategic about developing their careers, whether they wish to remain in academic research or pursue other career paths. The training will be interactive and practical, designed to guide participants through the steps involved in turning career aspirations into goals, and then into actions that attendees can start taking right away. The session will be delivered by PostdocTraining.
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 Urban Futures and Social Change is available below and a list of research abstracts can be accessed here.
Check out also the PRS Australia milestone schedules.
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEDT) | Candidate | Presentation Title | Stream | Location |
| 09:00 - 10.30 | Lizhi Shen | The organisational behaviour aspect of fostering Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) adoption in the construction sector | Urban Futures | 016.07.001 |
| 09:00 - 10.30 | Shi Feng | Toward Cultural Competence: News Reporting of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Multicultural Australia | Social Change | 016.07.003 |
| 10.30 - 12.00 | Tan Hoang Bao Nguyen | Towards the Development of a Conceptual Model for Better Adaptation of Floodwalls Design to Climate Change | Urban Futures | 016.07.001 |
| 10.30 - 12.00 | Dewi Kumalasari | Extreme Environmental Events and Mental Wellbeing: The Role of the Built Environment in Brisbane’s Ageing Communities | Urban Futures | 016.07.002 |
| 10.30 - 12.00 | Linda Kennedy | The intersection of Aboriginal sovereignty and settler-colonial environment and land-use planning systems on Yuin Country in New South Wales and Jervis Bay Territory | Urban Futures | 016.07.003 |
| 10.30 - 12.00 | Lauren Kelly | The Augmented Worker: Understanding automated decision-making systems in Australia's supermarket warehouses and distribution networks | Social Change | 016.07.004 |
| 13.30 - 15.00 | Ransi Athauda Achchillage | Exploring dynamics of flood-resilient retrofitting in existing residential properties in Victoria | Urban Futures | 016.07.001 |
| 13.30 - 15.00 | Abdullah Evan | Citizenship, Ethnicity and Urban Space: Bihari Minorities in Bangladesh | Social Change | 016.07.002 |
| 13.30 - 15.00 | Lam Ha | Cultural Authenticity through Social Media Engagement: #Together We Co-Create. A Case Study of Vietnam | Social Change | 016.07.003 |
| 13.30 - 15.00 | Frederic Rauturier | Impact of the VOD era on content decisions made by media organizations operating in France | Social Change | 016.07.004 |
| 14.30 - 16.00 | Jonathan J. Felix | Higher education and human capital in Vietnam: Modernity and Creativity | Social Change | Online |
| 15.00 - 16.30 | Pouya Molaei | Investigating Neighbourhood-Built Environment Push-Pull Factors on Ageing in Place and Physical Functioning Outcomes | Urban Futures | 016.07.002 |
| 15.30 - 17.00 | Laura Castillo Pinzon | Building a Spanish-Language YouTube Channel as Practice-Based Research | Social Change | 016.07.003 |
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEDT) | Candidate | Presentation Title | Stream | Location |
| 09.30 - 11.00 | Nazanin Masoudi | Characteristics of Neighbourhood Built Environments that Support Participation, Inclusion, and Health and Wellbeing of Children with Disabilities | Social Change | Online |
| 10.30 - 12.00 | Sacha Paterson | Pretty Little Liars and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin: Feminist Analysis and Reflections | Social Change | Online |
| 12.30 - 14.00 | Laura Gartry | Personalised for the Public Good: Media, Audiences, and Newsroom Design | Social Change | Online |
| 13.30 - 15.00 | Tandin Wangdi | Mathematics Teachers Reflective Practices in Bhutanese Secondary Schools | Social Change | Online |
Presentations may be given in-person or online. Refer to the location column for details.
| Time (AEDT) | Candidate | Presentation Title | Stream | Location |
| 11.00 - 12.30 | Rasheeda Wilson | The Monstrous Other: Exploring Australian-Muslim Writing Practice through the Post-Colonial Gothic and Islamic Cosmology | Social Change | 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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