Up Front and Beyond the Centre Line: Australian Aborigines in Elite Australian Rules Football

Although there has been a substantial growth in the number of Aboriginal players in the Australian Football League over the past decade, issues of structural and institutional racism have not been explored. This investigation of the assignment of players by position revealed marked patterns of difference, which tend to reflect stereotypes about Aboriginal athletes. The results are similar to research conducted in the USA and the UK but suggest even stronger patterns of differentiation

College of Graduate Studies News

The Grad Post Program Spotlight For Fall 201

Radio Emission and Orbital Motion from the Close-encounter Star–Brown Dwarf Binary WISE J072003.20–084651.2

We report the detection of radio emission and orbital motion from the nearby star–brown dwarf binary WISE J072003.20–084651.2AB. Radio observations across the 4.5–6.5 GHz band with the Very Large Array identify at the position of the system quiescent emission with a flux density of 15 ± 3 μJy, and a highly polarized radio source that underwent a 2–3 minute burst with peak flux density 300 ± 90 μJy. The latter emission is likely a low-level magnetic flare similar to optical flares previously observed for this source. No outbursts were detected in separate narrow-band Hα monitoring observations. We report new high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations that confirm the presence of a co-moving T5.5 secondary and provide the first indications of three-dimensional orbital motion. We used these data to revise our estimates for the orbital period (4.1_(-1.3)^(+2.7) year) and tightly constrain the orbital inclination to be nearly edge-on (93º6^(+1º6)_(−1º4)), although robust measures of the component and system masses will require further monitoring. The inferred orbital motion does not change the high likelihood that this radio-emitting very low-mass binary made a close pass to the Sun in the past 100 kyr

Multi-Messenger Astronomy with Extremely Large Telescopes

The field of time-domain astrophysics has entered the era of Multi-messenger Astronomy (MMA). One key science goal for the next decade (and beyond) will be to characterize gravitational wave (GW) and neutrino sources using the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). These studies will have a broad impact across astrophysics, informing our knowledge of the production and enrichment history of the heaviest chemical elements, constrain the dense matter equation of state, provide independent constraints on cosmology, increase our understanding of particle acceleration in shocks and jets, and study the lives of black holes in the universe. Future GW detectors will greatly improve their sensitivity during the coming decade, as will near-infrared telescopes capable of independently finding kilonovae from neutron star mergers. However, the electromagnetic counterparts to high-frequency (LIGO/Virgo band) GW sources will be distant and faint and thus demand ELT capabilities for characterization. ELTs will be important and necessary contributors to an advanced and complete multi-messenger network.Comment: White paper submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Surve

The Hyperactive L Dwarf 2MASS J13153094-2649513: Continued Emission and a Brown Dwarf Companion

We report new observations of the unusually active, high proper motion L5e dwarf 2MASS J13153094-2649513. Optical spectroscopy with Magellan/MagE reveals persistent nonthermal emission, with narrow H I Balmer, Na I and K I lines all observed in emission. Low-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy with IRTF/SpeX indicates the presence of a low-temperature companion, which is resolved through multi-epoch laser guide star adaptive optics imaging at Keck. The comoving companion is separated by 338 \pm 4 mas, and its relative brightness (\Delta K_s = 5.09 \pm 0.10) makes this system the second most extreme flux ratio very low-mass binary identified to date. Resolved near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck/OSIRIS identifies this companion as a T7 dwarf. The absence of Li I absorption in combined-light optical spectroscopy constrains the system age to >~0.8-1.0 Gyr, while the system's kinematics and unusually low mass ratio (M_2/M_1 = 0.3-0.6) suggests that it is even older. A coevality test of the components also indicates an older age, but reveals discrepancies between evolutionary and atmosphere model fits of the secondary which are likely attributable to poor reproduction of its near-infrared spectrum. With a projected separation of 6.6 \pm 0.9 AU, the 2MASS J13153094-2649513 system is too widely separated for mass exchange or magnetospheric interactions to be powering its persistent nonthermal emission. Rather, the emission is probably chromospheric in nature, signaling an inversion in the age-activity relation in which strong magnetic fields are maintained by relatively old and massive ultracool dwarfs.Comment: 15 pages, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Multi-Messenger Astronomy with Extremely Large Telescopes

The field of time-domain astrophysics has entered the era of Multi-messenger Astronomy (MMA). One key science goal for the next decade (and beyond) will be to characterize gravitational wave (GW) and neutrino sources using the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). These studies will have a broad impact across astrophysics, informing our knowledge of the production and enrichment history of the heaviest chemical elements, constrain the dense matter equation of state, provide independent constraints on cosmology, increase our understanding of particle acceleration in shocks and jets, and study the lives of black holes in the universe. Future GW detectors will greatly improve their sensitivity during the coming decade, as will near-infrared telescopes capable of independently finding kilonovae from neutron star mergers. However, the electromagnetic counterparts to high-frequency (LIGO/Virgo band) GW sources will be distant and faint and thus demand ELT capabilities for characterization. ELTs will be important and necessary contributors to an advanced and complete multi-messenger network

Book review: Douglas Booth and Colin Tatz, one-eyed: a view of Australian sport

My forays into sport history in general and Sporting Traditions are in search of papers that are critical interrogatives to sit alongside similarly oriented sociology papers. As such, I have acquired several works by Booth and Tatz especially since my principal interest is with the politics of ‘race’ and racialised identities, and I have the highest regard for their work in this domain. I was specifically asked to comment on the strengths of the volume for history and sociology, but I will contain my response to sociology – or more specifically, sports sociology

The Presentation of Human Biological Diversity in Sport and Exercise Science Textbooks: The Example of "Race"

Examines the usage of the race concept in sport and exercise textbooks. Presentation of human biological diversity; Inappropriateness of race as a typological construct for describing human physical activity; Biased and unscientific nature of the race concept in sport and exercise