Macquarie University Faculty of Arts

The Faculty of Arts is a constituent body of Macquarie University, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The faculty offers undergraduate and postgraduate coursework and research degree programmes and is home to a number of research centres. It ranked equal 101st–125 in the Times Higher Education 2022 university rankings.

Faculty of Arts

Type	Public
Established	1964
Dean	Chris Dixon (2022)
Students	30,249 (2021)[1]
Location	Sydney , New South Wales , Australia
Campus	Urban
Colours
Affiliations	Macquarie University
Website	www.arts.mq.edu.au

History

Macquarie University was established in 1964, and has grown to be a major public university.^[2]

New arts precinct

In April 2020 the Macquarie University Arts Precinct Project (MUAPP) was completed, an upgrade and expansion of existing buildings which consolidate ten departments into a cohesive precinct. It also created a new museum, incorporating the Ancient History Museum, numerous collections, Numismatics and the Australian History Museum.^[3] The new building incorporates an atrium with roofing "cushions" that give protection for the weather but allow natural light into the space.^[4]

The project won the Sydney Master Builders Association's Excellence in Construction Award, in the category Tertiary Buildings $100m–$200m.^[3]

The new building includes a huge video wall intended for student produced videos. The first video shown on it was commissioned by the university to sell their brand, created by Hank Mango. This video was entered in the Australian Effects and Animation Festival in 2022.^[5]

Governance and structure

Historian Chris Dixon, formerly Dean of the Macquarie School of Social Sciences and before that Head of the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at the university, is dean of the faculty.^[6]

Departments and schools

As of 2021^[update] the faculty comprises five departments and three schools:^[7]

• Department of History and Archaeology
• Department of Indigenous Studies – Dharug Ngurra^[8]
• Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature (MCCALL)^[9]
• Department of Philosophy
• Department of Security Studies and Criminology
• Macquarie Law School
• Macquarie School of Education
• Macquarie School of Social Sciences

Research centres

As of 2021^[update] the faculty's research centres include:^[10]

Macquarie University research centres

• Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment (CACHE)
• Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics (CAVE)

Faculty research centres

• Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies (ACANS)
• Centre for Applied History (CAH)
• Centre for Children's Learning in a Social World
• Centre for Environmental Law (CEL)
• Centre for Research in Numeracy Development and Learning (CaNDLe)
• Centre for Media History (CMH)

In October 2021, the faculty approved the creation of a Centre for Early Childhood Education Research, which will be staffed by 14 early childhood education researchers from the School of Education.^[11]

Ranking

In 2008, the faculty was ranked as 64th among the world's university arts and humanities departments.^[12]

The faculty ranked equal 101st–125 in the Times Higher Education 2022 university rankings.^[1]

Students

In 2021, it had 30,249 students enrolled, of whom 30 per cent were international students. There is a staff-student ratio of 69.6 students to one staff member.^[1]

Publications

Scan

Scan | Journal of Media Arts Culture was an inter-discliplinary peer-reviewed online journal published by the Department of Media, Music, Communications and Cultural Studies. Its subject matter covered "media studies, cultural studies, media law, information and technology studies, fine arts and philosophy... developments in new media, digital art, screen arts, music and audio arts, as well as the culture enveloping these practices and technologies".^[13] Founded in 2004 by John Potts, Sherman Young and Graham Meikle, its editorial board included academics from universities across Australia and as well as the United States and United Kingdom.^[14] It ceased publication after the Volume 11 Number 1 in 2014,^[13][15] but all of its issues are still available online.^[16][13]