About

The Research School of Humanities and the Arts (RSHA) is primarily concerned with building on its established strengths in research and education across the humanities and the creative arts at all levels. While it places a strong emphasis on traditional humanities scholarship, at the same time it encourages creatively interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and practice-led research, including digital humanities research; Indigenous studies and policy development; language studies; health communication and applied linguistics, museum, curatorial, and heritage studies; archaeological science, bioanthropological and forensic studies; studio visual arts and crafts; musical composition, sound recording and performance, and much more. The RSHA also engages with the community beyond the university in a variety of ways – in industry and cultural collaborations and policy contributions through programs in applied anthropology and development studies, art exhibitions and musical performance; music education and outreach in the ACT; and production of the Australian National Dictionary.

RSHA’s four schools, each representing a broad group of disciplines, include the School of Archaeology and Anthropology (including an ARC Laureate Fellow in Pacific archeology, Linkage projects with national cultural institutions, and the Native Title Research Centre in collaboration with the Attorney General’s office); the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics (including the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language and Institute for Communication in Healthcare); the School of Art (internationally recognised for specialised links with Asian and other international craft and design institutions, and for digital media, art history, and its contribution to arts fairs and biennales); and the School of Music (which focuses on producing twenty-first-century music scholars and professionals in composition and music technology, and has the best equipped sound recording studio in the southern-hemisphere!). Cross-disciplinary dialogue is also facilitated by a number of research centres within the Schools.