Sydney Environment Institute welcomes 2025 Honours students
SEI is pleased to extend a warm congratulations and welcome to Catherine Gunawan, Arohi Saini, and Dylan Shadbolt, who have been awarded SEI Honours Research Fellowships, and Cana Nongkhlaw, this year’s recipient of the Iain McCalman Honours Research Award in partnership with the Chau Chak Wing Museum.
The 2025 Honours projects cover topics including investigating biodiversity in informal green spaces; the effectiveness of early warning systems for extreme weather events; governance, access, and usage of ephemeral beaches; and restoration and recognition of Indigenous knowledges within formal education related to environmental conservation. Read more about each project below.
Our Fellows come from the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Science, and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Towards the end of the year, the Honours Fellows will be invited to present at an Honours roundtable, where their supervisors and SEI researchers will have the opportunity to provide feedback on their research progress.
Being an SEI Honours Fellow increased my confidence in researching, presenting, and writing.
Last year’s Iain McCalman Honours Award Fellow, Antonio Izzo worked on a thesis about Barangaroo as a new model for public space development and governance. He commented, “Working with the Chau Chak Wing Museum and using their archives was incredibly helpful in framing the historical context of the land Barangaroo now sits on; and the scholarship funds allowed me to access academic texts and industry manuals to get deeper insights into specific aspects of Sydney's planning processes.”
Another of our 2024 Fellows Sanaa Shah investigated social outcomes of the engagement of ENGOS in Private Protected Areas, who added, “Being an SEI Honours Fellow increased my confidence in researching, presenting, and writing. It was a great opportunity to meet other Honours students outside of my discipline who were all conducting research on environmental issues from different angles.”
Meet the 2025 Honours Fellows
Space for Growth: Investigating the Potential of Informal Green Spaces in Western Sydney - Catherine Gunawan, Faculty of Science
This project investigates the informal green spaces that exist along Western Sydney's railway corridors, in order to establish an understanding of the kinds of biodiversity currently existing in these largely forgotten zones and also to analyse and understand what can be done with them in the future. While these sites may be small or overlooked, they may be the key to increasing Sydney's green space in coming years, especially as the need for housing and infrastructure competes with the ability for "new" land to be turned into intentional green spaces.
Supervisor: Professor Dieter Hochuli
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Philippines’ anticipatory action framework – Dylan Shadbolt, Faculty of Engineering
Technological advances in early warning systems are increasing capabilities in forecasting extreme weather events. These weather predictions can now be combined with social variables to determine where the risk of impacts is the greatest – creating models that forecast how people will be affected. The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, facing significant challenges in managing typhoons which are both frequent and destructive. This research will focus on quantifying the effectiveness of the Anticipatory Action framework currently employed in the Philippines in combating the effects of typhoons.
Supervisor: Dr Aaron Opdyke
Shifting Sands, Shifting Rules: Exploring Geomorphological Change and Informal Practices on Ephemeral Beaches – Arohi Saini, Faculty of Science
This study is focused on Mackenzies Bay Beach, an ephemeral beach, which presents a unique case of coastal informality, regulatory ambiguity, and public space access rights. This project investigates both the beach's physical transformations and the social governance surrounding its use and management. It will critically examine how institutional policies, local regulations, and informal community practices interact in governing an ephemeral beach. By comparing governance models from other beaches experiencing similar transformations, this research will contribute to discussions on adaptive and inclusive coastal governance frameworks in an era of increasing climate uncertainty.
Supervisor: Professor Kurt Iveson
Decolonizing Education: Indigenous Knowledge, Conservation, and Land-Based Learning in Khasi Communities - Cana Nongkhlaw, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
This project explores the decolonisation of educational spaces through the integration of Indigenous Khasi knowledge, focusing on conservation, care, and land-based learning. Colonial education structures have historically dismissed Indigenous ways of knowing, contributing to cultural erosion and ecological disruption. By investigating how knowledge production is shaped by power and colonial legacies, the project will advocate for inclusive models of education that recognise multiple ways of learning. Central to this is the assertion that Indigenous people must be recognized as educators, reclaiming their roles as knowledge holders and transmitters within formal education systems.
Supervisor: Dr Ihab Shalbak