Chris Urwin

Precious finger traces from First Nations ancestors revealed in a glittering mountain cave in Australia Thousands of years ago, adults and children left their marks on soft rock surfaces deep in this cave in GunaiKurnai Country.

Precious finger traces from First Nations ancestors revealed in a glittering mountain cave in Australia

theconversation.com/precious-fin...

Top Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates, calling their humanities degrees life changing Tim Winton, Helen Garner and Peter Garrett are just a few of the high-profile signatories to an open letter against Job-Ready Graduates – and for the humanities.

Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates

The critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative skills of Bachelor of Arts graduates are critical for navigating a future of challenges and careers that haven’t yet been imagined.

#RepealJRG

theconversation.com/top-australi...

Important News about SAPIENS

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THREAD: It’s with deep regret we share the news that SAPIENS will halt publication of new content by the end of this year. We are so proud of everything SAPIENS has achieved and for our role in furthering public anthropology. Wenner-Gren’s letter to our community. wennergren.org/important-ne...

Horrendous news about the unique anthropology magazine @sapiens.org and the study of the human past and present worldwide

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archaeological study tells us about PNG sea trade Archaeologists once assumed that men were responsible for seafaring trade in Papua New Guinea. New research shows how women played a fundamental role.

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archaeological study tells us about PNG sea trade #archaeology theconversation.com/men-traded-w... /em

Great to hear! 😀

Graph of R&D spending (% of GDP) versus Year, with coloured dots joined by lines showing different countries (shown in the key at the bottom of the graph) taken from Nathan Garland's article here: https://nathangarland.substack.com/p/productivity-reform-starts-with-public

Black text on white background. List of "concrete and tangible actions" for increasing productivity. Screenshot from Nathan Garland's article: https://nathangarland.substack.com/p/productivity-reform-starts-with-public

"Productivity reform starts with public science" by Nathan Garland @n8sci.bsky.social has some worthy suggestions for improving productivity.

In news we all know – but the Government seems to like ignoring – it'll help to fund more basic science research!

nathangarland.substack.com/p/productivi...

Thanks Fiona! Hope all's well

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archeological study tells us about PNG sea trade Archaeologists once assumed that men were responsible for seafaring trade in Papua New Guinea. New research shows how women played a fundamental role.

Delighted to share our #archaeology 🏺 research in @theconvo-bot.bsky.social

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archeological study tells us about PNG sea trade

theconversation.com/men-traded-w...

So many congratulations to my dear colleague @jojomcd.bsky.social and @ciehf.bsky.social Chief Investigator on receiving an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship for her project Pilbara Dreaming: Rock Art, Water and Heritage Futures!

Thanks @cjfrieman.bsky.social !

Thanks Sean!

Beyond delighted to have received ARC Linkage funding to work with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and Museums Victoria to unlock new Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung stories through archaeology in artefact collections

Congratulations to the University of Sydney (Kakadu places of the recent past) and Monash University (Aboriginal artefact collections from southeast Australia) teams for their recent success in the ARC Linkage Projects funding #ozarch rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/D... /em

#booksky #writingcommunity

Hidden in a Blue Mountains cave are artefacts that change the story of a nation Deep in the Blue Mountains, archaeologists uncover artefacts that reveal secrets of the nation's Ice Age past.

Wonderful results from community based archaeology research! 🏺

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

@arc-tracker.bsky.social I’m struck by the irony / inconsistency / disconnect between the constant reminders I have been receiving over the past weeks to get on and complete my ARC assessments, while I await the LP24 outcome. He says during a break from completing the assessments…

The public meltdown happening between the world’s richest man 🙄 and the President of the United States 🙄🙄 once again begs the age-old question: are men simply too emotional to be in positions of power?

It severely undercuts industry trust in these schemes. I am not sure I would try to persuade my industry partners to have a crack at LP anymore.

Black text on white background. Excerpt from the ARC Act, with yellow highlighting indicating a sentence that states the ARC must announce grants (at least, to the universities that applied for them) within 21 days of the ARC Board approving them.

Is ARC breaching its own legislation right now?

ARC Act says grant outcomes have to be announced within 21 days of Board approval👇

Outcomes for Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships were anticipated weeks ago. If ARC Board approved before anticipated dates, they should've been announced by now.

Bullshit universities: the future of automated education - AI & SOCIETY The advent of ChatGPT, and the subsequent rapid improvement in the performance of what has become known as Generative AI, has led to many pundits declaring that AI will revolutionize education, as wel...

Article from @monashuniversity.bsky.social colleagues:

"Rather than creating a market for dodgy educational AI by lowering their ambitions ... universities should invest in smaller class sizes and teachers who are passionate about their disciplines."

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

There's now 2 schemes for which the announcements are late: Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships.

Despite knowing this might happen more than a month ago, ARC still haven't got a new timeline!

The outcomes will have been determined, and only require ARC Board sign-off (not the Minister).

Back text on white background with a blue header block. Screenshot of the ARC Network Messages webpage with an "update" about delays to funding announcements due to the federal election.

ARC once again smashing it out of the park with an extremely helpful "update"👇 (▶️ www.arc.gov.au/news-publica...)

This "update" tells us there'll be updates in future.

They had the entire Caretaker period to reschedule the Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships announcements…

In this new🏺paper we help overturn some assumptions about trade on PNG's south coast

We looked at similar pottery designs across 100km of coast

Turns out, they spread not by trade but movement of women makers - intermarriage and community exchanges

👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Back Australian Thinking — Australian Academy of the Humanities' 2025 Election Statement – Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian electorate, by and large, “backs Australian made” when it comes to manufacturing and innovation. But modern social and cultural challenges don’t receive the same profile. We call on the...

"The Australian electorate, by and large, backs Australian made when it comes to manufacturing and innovation. But modern social and cultural challenges don’t receive the same profile. We call on the next Australian government to back Australian thinking."

humanities.org.au/uncategorise...

Sad to hear it!

Yes, I see what you mean - but we are already a Q1 journal of international standing with high citations & volunteer workload would be immense - certainly the smaller Queensland Archaeological Research runs like you say.

Equity in publication is paramount: Editorial Published in Australian Archaeology (Ahead of Print, 2025)

My first editorial as part of the @austarchj.bsky.social team - but an important one ...

We discuss how not everyone is being included in the push for Open Access in🏺

How can we ensure research with, by and for Indigenous peoples is available for all? 👇

www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NEE3B...

Life imitates art: Trump's plans for Gaza.

L: From the new Private Eye (which went to press on Monday night), in shops now.
R: Yesterday's headlines.

No words