Meet our People - Brianna Newland

Brianna Newland

Brianna Newland is a lecturer in Event Management in the School of International Business. She started with VU in July 2011. Prior to starting at VU, Brianna was a lecturer in Sport Management in the Department of Kinesiology and Health at the University of Texas in Austin. Brianna has a doctorate in Sport Management, and a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutritional Sciences.

Brianna’s research interests focus on the study of sport development in various capacities. From a broad perspective, these areas include: how sport organisations sustain their future by attracting and nurturing participation –both elite and mass participation; what fosters/hinders adult participation in sport and how our sport delivery systems might be modified to foster growth; how key stakeholders impact the development and delivery of sport’; and how sport events can be leveraged to develop sport and community, especially at the grassroots level. My work explores the overlap between sport policy, the future patterns of sport delivery, and development of sport.Brianna and a group of her students recently volunteered for the inaugural Ironman Melbourne, and says of the event, 'It was a great opportunity to work with them in the field and to expose them to an event they had yet to experience'

Brianna is proud of finally following her heart and taken a job abroad. 'Melbourne provides an excellent environment for my research interests. I’m excited to work with industry and explore my many unasked questions!'

Currently, Brianna is exploring the meaning of sport in the lives of adult sport participants, and how that fosters and/or hinders involvement in sport throughout the lifespan. She is also examining what drives athletes to partake in destination races; what is driving intentions to race and travel great distances – is it the event features or the destination attributes?

Lastly, Brianna is exploring the impact of key stakeholders on the development and delivery of triathlon in the US and Australia.

In her ‘spare’ time, Brianna trains for triathlon. She completed her first Ironman distance triathlon in November 2010, but she enjoys all the distances. ‘I’m looking forward to my next Ironman next year. I also love to travel and look forward to exploring this side of the hemisphere!’

May Publication News

• Victoria Law School's David Parker, Andrew Clarke, Angelo Veljanovski and Marc Posthouwer have had a book published : 'Law Principles and Practice - Corporate Law' (Palgrave MacMillan)
• Brianna Newland (School of International Business) has, together with Pamm Kellett (Deakin University) an article published in this month's edition of Managing Leisure magazine, titled 'Exploring new models of elite sport delivery: the case of triathlon in the USA and Australia'
• Can virtual classrooms work? How do teachers and students experience an online learning environment? These are the kind of questions examined by School of Accounting and Finance Researcher Kathy Michael in a recently published paper, Virtual Classroom: Reflection of Online Learning. Kathy investigated a pilot trial of the e-learning program Elluminate Live! in five units at VU, with the aim of gauging students and teachers' experiences of the interactive online system.
• Dr Nick Sciulli, from the School of Accounting and Finance, has collaborated with Dr. Giulio Greco and Professor Giuseppe D’Onza from Italy's University of Pisa to investigate what motivates Victorian and Tuscan local councils to introduce sustainability reporting. While not legally required to do so, many councils in both Victoria and Tuscany produce sustainability reports voluntarily, either as discrete documents or incorporated into annual reports. Read more on Local Council Sustainability Reporting: Victoria versus Tuscany at the VU website

Accounting, Finance and Investment Student Society Q&A

Students at the AFISS Q&A chat with a presenter at the event

The Accounting, Finance and Investment Student Society (AFISS) hosted an industry Q&A night for their members earlier this month, and the evening was a great success. The 50 plus students in attendance gained valuable insights into the day-to-day dealings of professionals in the Accounting and Finance industries, and heard first-hand what employers are looking for in graduates.

Attendees learnt from the business leaders things such as the hardest interview questions they like to ask, the skills in which they look for when they hire and other valuable hints which indeed was of great value for us students in daunting times ahead. The guest speakers included an Executive Manager from CBA, a Planner and Development Coach from AMP and the CFO of Next Digital.

AFISS will be holding more events in the same vein next semester. If you are a professional in the Accounting and Finance industry and would like speak at a future event, please contact Katherine Pham at AFISS@students.vu.edu.au

VU Academic takes a role on the International stage

The School of Management and Information Systems' Dr Colin Higgins has been elected to the executive of the International Association of Business & Society (IABS). IABS is the largest group of business and society academics in the world.
IABS publishes the ‘Business & Society’ journal and has over 300 members in over 20 countries from more than 100 universities.
Dr Higgins will organise and host the IABS Annual Conference in Australia in 2014, and go on to become the President of IABS in 2015. This is the first time the Presidency and annual conference will be outside the USA and Europe.

VU shines at CIMA Global Challenge

L-R: Jenni Truong, Elaine Bie, Head of School Russell Craig,
Mentor Dr Jayce Naidoo, Rafael Paguio, Cathy Gong, Nancy Jiafan

CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is the world’s largest professional body of management accountants. Four VU students participated in this year's 'CIMA global business challenge' competition. Participants prepare and present relevant, well considered recommendations and solutions to a fictitious business scenario.

The VU team were made up of Jenni Truong(Team leader), Cathy Gong, Nancy Jiafan and Elaine Bie, with Dr. Jayce Naidoo their mentor. It was a great opportunity for the students to showcase their talents in business management, and they excelled in the challenge of the competition.

The first round involves several teams from universities from all over Australia competing to reach the top four. The four teams then compete at the national finals, where the winning team is sent to represent Australia at the international finals in Sri Lanka.

Although our students did not qualify, they submitted a very strong entry. We'd like to commend the VU team for their participation and dedication to the quality report submitted. They've done the School of Accounting and Finance, and VU, proud!

China’s best at Victoria Law School

A VU PhD student has been awarded for his academic and research achievements by the Chinese Government. The award, conferred by the China Scholarship Council, is to honour the academic merit and research achievements of Chinese students studying abroad. To be eligible for the award, the students must be enrolled in a PhD degree, be under the age of 40, at least in the second year of their study and not receiving any direct finance support from the Chinese government.

Yongqiang Li, a PhD student from Victoria Law School, is 2nd VU PhD studentto recieve the award since its inauguration of this award in 2003.

In 2011, supervised by Professor Anona Armstrong and Professor Andrew Clarke, I co-published a research report, 3 journal articles and more than a dozen conference papers, including one paper published in Economics Letters. Read more about Yongqiang Li's win at the VU website.

VU Staff are avid Conversationalists

The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector. It aims to provide a fact-based and editorially-independent forum, free of commercial or political bias. The Conversation has been widely reported in Australia and abroad, including articles in The Guardian, NYT, Harvard's Nieman Media Lab, Slashdot, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Times Higher Education Supplement. Read our staff contributions over at The Conversation