La Trobe University

For more than 50 years, La Trobe University has been transforming people and societies and has earned a global reputation for research that addresses the major issues of our time. With a dual emphasis on excellence and diversity, La Trobe has seven campuses across Victoria and New South Wales. Through innovations in teaching and learning, strong graduate employment outcomes and leading research, La Trobe consistently rates among the world’s best.

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Something hidden in manuscript – what could it be? Les Enluminures

That’s no kangaroo on the manuscript – so what is it?

Peter Pridmore, La Trobe University

The discovery of a Portuguese manuscript purporting to include an illustration of a kangaroo has been used to question which European power was first to “discover” Australia. The drawing is included in…
The country Richard ruled was very different from the one that exists today. University of Leicester

Consent and discontent: what will become of Richard III’s bones?

Janna Thompson, La Trobe University

Richard III’s skeleton, dug up from a carpark in Leicester in 2012, is currently the subject of a legal dispute about where he should be buried. In one corner is the University of Leicester, whose archaeologists…
Mexico’s Zapatistas are one of the world’s longest running active revolutionary groups. But who are they, and what are they fighting for? EPA/Jorge Núñez

Mexico’s masked Marxists: meet the Zapatistas

Andrew Self, La Trobe University

On New Year’s Day 1994, the world was taken by surprise. A group of indigenous people staged a rebellion against a Mexican state that had continued the trajectory of racism, neglect, genocide and exploitation…
Pets can also provide their owners with social support, acting as a friend and confidante. Crashing Waves/flickr

Why science can’t really tell us whether pets are good for health

Pauleen Bennett, La Trobe University

Links between human health and pet ownership are of widespread community interest but there’s little clarity about the issue in scientific circles. It is relatively safe to say that pets can be good for…
Sign language can be used and misused, as with any form of communication. STR/EPA

Explainer: what is sign language?

Adam Schembri, La Trobe University

What is sign language? Before we answer that question, it might be useful to first consider what a “language” is. Spoken languages are naturally developed complex systems that use a set of conventionalised…
Former prime minister Paul Keating argued governments need to use their political capital to drive reform. But this is becoming increasingly difficult in a poll-driven political climate. AAP/Paul Miller

Keating, reform and the difficult notion of ‘political capital’

Natalie Mast, The University of Western Australia and Nicholas Barry, La Trobe University

Throughout Keating, a series of interviews that finished airing on the ABC earlier this month, the former prime minister makes reference to the notion of political capital in relation to the Labor government…
Jang Song Taek, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was summarily executed by the regime. EPA/Rodong Sinmun

Game of Thrones in Pyongyang: the execution of Jang Song Taek

Benjamin Habib, La Trobe University

In a drama reminiscent of George RR Martin’s epic book A Game of Thrones, court politics at the pinnacle of the Kim dictatorship in North Korea have taken a brutal turn with the purge and execution of…
Meet your earliest animal ancestor, the comb jelly. Patrick Calder

Ctenophores semaphore information about earliest animals

Susan Lawler, La Trobe University

Most of us have never heard of Ctenophores, or comb jellies, but this is about to change. In a publication out today in Science, a team of researchers in the computational genomics unit at the National…
Trade ministers from countries negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership failed to finalise the deal at the recent Singapore meeting. EPA/How Hwee Young

Update from the latest Trans Pacific Partnership meeting

Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University

Just before leaving for Singapore on December 6 for the latest Trans Pacific Partnership meeting, I wrote about some of the major concerns surrounding the secretive agreement. This is an update on developments…
What if sex workers were seen as allies in redressing gendered stereotypes? Lies Thru a Lens 

Criminalising those who pay sex workers misses the point

Lizzie Smith, La Trobe University

A recent report by the non-governmental organisation Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia recommends the adoption of the Nordic Model in Australia. Also known as the Swedish Model, this legislation…
A report has found 34% of young people serving a community-based order and 66% in custody have a substance abuse problem. Image from shutterstock.com

Better health services needed to break cycle of juvenile offending

Aneeka Simonis, The Conversation

Improving health services in the juvenile justice system and the community could reduce the risk of youth offenders repeating anti-social behaviours, an Australian study has found. Published in the Journal…
Representatives from Japan, New Zealand, and the United States at the start of the Trans-Pacific Partnership summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Bali, on October 8, 2013. EPA/BARBARA WALTON

What you need to know about the Trans Pacific Partnership

Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University

Expect to hear a lot about the Trans Pacific Partnership in the next few days. As it moves into final stages of negotiations, outrage over some of its more onerous provisions is ramping up around the world…
What time is it in Europe? Why are we still looking to the north Atlantic for cultural role models? leoplus

How to read Australia’s literary obsession with the North Atlantic

Dennis Altman, La Trobe University

Last weekend columnist and broadcaster Phillip Adams published a piece in The Australian lamenting what he called the “coca-colonial cringe”: Like you I measure my life with American movies, music and…
Men, women and children were among the gold diggers who rebelled on this day in 1854. S. T. Gill, 1954

Flashers, femmes and other forgotten figures of the Eureka Stockade

Clare Wright, La Trobe University

When I was at primary school in the late 1970s, engaging kids in history lessons meant a good dose of role-play. Each year, on today’s date, it was time to re-enact the Eureka Stockade. It was on this…
What has the international response been to China establishing an Air Defence Identification Zone over the East China Sea? EPA/Hiroya Shimoji

China’s ADIZ and Australia’s commitment to America’s Asian order

Nick Bisley, La Trobe University

Last week, China announced the creation of a new Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea, encompassing the disputed Senkaku Islands. The move has significantly escalated tensions…
Fairfax journalists strike in Melbourne in 2012. Around 15% of the Australian journalist workforce was made redundant last year. AAP Image/Julian Smith)

New beats: where do redundant journalists go?

Lawrie Zion, La Trobe University

You’ve probably heard the news: the Australian media is experiencing the most serious contraction in its history. The rise of online and mobile media has led to the collapse of the classified advertising…
Not since the papacy of Paul VI in the 1960s has a pope openly declared the need to rebel against unjust capitalism. EPA/Claudi Peri

Pope Francis prioritises the poor, channels Marx in new ‘manifesto’

Andrew Self, La Trobe University

Pope Francis has openly attacked capitalism in his recently released Apostolic exhortation, which for all intents and purposes is the Pope’s “manifesto”. While Francis has called for the radical decentralisation…
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