Body, Language and Socialisation across Cultures. This project aims to advance the understanding of how people learn languages, and in the process become socialized into particular cultures and communities. To that end, it will bring together an international team of leading experts in the field, and focus in new ways on the interplay of speech and sign with other bodily forms of communication in a wide variety of cultures. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of multimodal communica ....Body, Language and Socialisation across Cultures. This project aims to advance the understanding of how people learn languages, and in the process become socialized into particular cultures and communities. To that end, it will bring together an international team of leading experts in the field, and focus in new ways on the interplay of speech and sign with other bodily forms of communication in a wide variety of cultures. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of multimodal communication and language socialization, and enhancement of Australian research capacity in these fields. This should lead to significant practical benefits, improving Australia's ability to adapt to cultural diversity and to counteract its disadvantages in schools and everyday life.Read moreRead less
Connecting Indigenous Community Photographies: a transnational case study. The project aims to conduct the first transnational comparison of Indigenous community-controlled photography, exploring Indigenous peoples’ ways of seeing and documenting their worlds. The project seeks to significantly advance Australian and global understanding of Indigenous vernacular photography through investigating formerly unexplored private collections of images created by Indigenous photographers during the mid ....Connecting Indigenous Community Photographies: a transnational case study. The project aims to conduct the first transnational comparison of Indigenous community-controlled photography, exploring Indigenous peoples’ ways of seeing and documenting their worlds. The project seeks to significantly advance Australian and global understanding of Indigenous vernacular photography through investigating formerly unexplored private collections of images created by Indigenous photographers during the mid 20th Century in four communities across three countries. One of the outcomes of the project is a nuanced visual history that cannot be excavated from other sources. The benefits of this project include public exhibitions, a book, symposiums, and a scholarly anthology that encourages the public’s connection with the past.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100795
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$412,606.00
Summary
Message sticks: Long-distance communication in Indigenous Australia. Message sticks are marked wooden objects that were once used throughout Indigenous Australia to convey important information between communities. The intended outcome of this project is to answer a central question: What role did message sticks play in Indigenous long-distance communication? Drawing on archival evidence and original fieldwork in the Top End, the project aims to be the first empirically grounded study of message ....Message sticks: Long-distance communication in Indigenous Australia. Message sticks are marked wooden objects that were once used throughout Indigenous Australia to convey important information between communities. The intended outcome of this project is to answer a central question: What role did message sticks play in Indigenous long-distance communication? Drawing on archival evidence and original fieldwork in the Top End, the project aims to be the first empirically grounded study of message sticks as a practice. The project expects to define message sticks as a class of material culture, explain their communicative dynamics, generate new cross-cultural insights, and strengthen collaborations between research institutions, museums and Indigenous cultural organisations. Read moreRead less
Economic, political and cultural brokers in remote Papua New Guinea. This project aims to understand the role of brokers in shaping flows of knowledge and wealth at in resource frontiers in Papua New Guinea; the intent is to investigate the demands that brokers service, their positioning, and the tensions they mediate. The project plans to generate new knowledge by studying cultural, political and economic brokers in a region where encounters with church, state and corporations are comparatively ....Economic, political and cultural brokers in remote Papua New Guinea. This project aims to understand the role of brokers in shaping flows of knowledge and wealth at in resource frontiers in Papua New Guinea; the intent is to investigate the demands that brokers service, their positioning, and the tensions they mediate. The project plans to generate new knowledge by studying cultural, political and economic brokers in a region where encounters with church, state and corporations are comparatively recent. Expected outcomes include contributions to the scholarly literature on brokerage, and building capacity of PNG researchers. This should provide significant benefits, informing better management of processes that threaten viability of development projects, legitimacy of the state, and stability of communities.Read moreRead less
Society and climate change: A social analysis of new technology. The project aims to explore the likely unintended social consequences and disruption of technological responses to climate change. Responses to climate change often involve imagined technological innovation, including geo-engineering (or the modification of the global environment), newer forms of energy such as solar, wind or biofuels, and social technologies such as carbon trading. Both technological innovations and fantasies abou ....Society and climate change: A social analysis of new technology. The project aims to explore the likely unintended social consequences and disruption of technological responses to climate change. Responses to climate change often involve imagined technological innovation, including geo-engineering (or the modification of the global environment), newer forms of energy such as solar, wind or biofuels, and social technologies such as carbon trading. Both technological innovations and fantasies about technologies can disrupt social and economic life, and are themselves disrupted by the social processes involved in deployment. This investigation could make informed, acceptable, and possible technological adaptation more possible.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100595
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$422,108.00
Summary
Raising Rare Breeds: Domestication, Extinction and Meat in the Anthropocene. This project aims to advance knowledge of livestock breed extinctions and domestication in the climate change era. Through the first nationwide qualitative study of rare breed farmers, this project will produce fine-grained data on the values and practices of rare breed farmers, while raising awareness of the challenges they face in their critical conservation work. The project's findings are expected to provide innovat ....Raising Rare Breeds: Domestication, Extinction and Meat in the Anthropocene. This project aims to advance knowledge of livestock breed extinctions and domestication in the climate change era. Through the first nationwide qualitative study of rare breed farmers, this project will produce fine-grained data on the values and practices of rare breed farmers, while raising awareness of the challenges they face in their critical conservation work. The project's findings are expected to provide innovative perspectives on human-animal relations and meat consumption in contemporary Australia. Benefits to rare breed farmers and the Australian community are anticipated through determining how Australia's livestock genetic diversity can best be supported for a food secure future.Read moreRead less
Epigenetics and Indigenous Australia. This project aims to investigate how epigenetics is being received by Indigenous Australians, and to identify the potential risks and opportunities that narratives of biosocial damage entail. Epigenetics is a rapidly evolving science concerned with how life experiences, such as trauma or stress, can modify DNA and be passed on to negatively affect children's (and possibly grandchildren's) health and development. This project will offer an understanding of th ....Epigenetics and Indigenous Australia. This project aims to investigate how epigenetics is being received by Indigenous Australians, and to identify the potential risks and opportunities that narratives of biosocial damage entail. Epigenetics is a rapidly evolving science concerned with how life experiences, such as trauma or stress, can modify DNA and be passed on to negatively affect children's (and possibly grandchildren's) health and development. This project will offer an understanding of the relationships between Indigenous health and epigenetics that will help Indigenous researchers, policymakers, and government bodies make well-informed decisions about the application and direction of this new science. The research will make a significant contribution to understanding how the interplay of biology, race, and society unfold at the intersection of different knowledge systems and at the forefront of technological progress.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101225
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,278.00
Summary
Tackling social inequality in Indian schools. This project aims to investigate whether affirmative action education policies can assist in breaking down social inequality. It will do so by exploring the lived outcomes of India’s Right to Education Act, which requires private schools to provide free education for underprivileged children. Based on long-term fieldwork, this project is expected to identify factors that contribute to inclusivity in private schools, and to generate fine-grained data ....Tackling social inequality in Indian schools. This project aims to investigate whether affirmative action education policies can assist in breaking down social inequality. It will do so by exploring the lived outcomes of India’s Right to Education Act, which requires private schools to provide free education for underprivileged children. Based on long-term fieldwork, this project is expected to identify factors that contribute to inclusivity in private schools, and to generate fine-grained data on class contestation. Anticipated outcomes include a deeper understanding of how Indian private schools can be desegregated, new perspectives on the analysis of class globally, and insights into the relationship between the state, the private sector and education as a public good. The project will inform Australian debates about social mobility and education as a public good.Read moreRead less
Mining voids and just transition: reimagining post-mining landscapes . This project aims to address the complex problem of how to deal with the long-term legacies of coal mining. Through a combination of ethnographic and Arts-Based Methods, the project will advance insight into how local communities in the Hunter Valley, NSW, experience socio-cultural impacts of environmental disturbance and mining legacies, particularly where final voids are present. It will generate new knowledge into potentia ....Mining voids and just transition: reimagining post-mining landscapes . This project aims to address the complex problem of how to deal with the long-term legacies of coal mining. Through a combination of ethnographic and Arts-Based Methods, the project will advance insight into how local communities in the Hunter Valley, NSW, experience socio-cultural impacts of environmental disturbance and mining legacies, particularly where final voids are present. It will generate new knowledge into potentials for reimagining post-mining landscapes and how such landscapes can support a just transition towards a post-mining future. Expected benefits include advancement of public discourses around mining legacies, research capacity building and theory development to support multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200724
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$167,200.00
Summary
Australian understandings of infectious disease symptoms in the COVID era. This project aims to study how Australians interpret symptoms of acute infectious diseases and how those beliefs shape their health-seeking behaviour. Using mixed social science methods, the project will document how Australians decide when to seek medical treatment at clinics or hospitals and when to stay at home, how they believe disease spreads and how they decide whether to go to work, school, social commitments, shop ....Australian understandings of infectious disease symptoms in the COVID era. This project aims to study how Australians interpret symptoms of acute infectious diseases and how those beliefs shape their health-seeking behaviour. Using mixed social science methods, the project will document how Australians decide when to seek medical treatment at clinics or hospitals and when to stay at home, how they believe disease spreads and how they decide whether to go to work, school, social commitments, shops, or stay home when unwell, and what they think about government health policy regarding infectious disease in the wake of COVID-19. Humans spread diseases through culturally coded patterns of behaviour, and this project will offer critical public health insights in an era of infectious disease epidemics and pandemics.Read moreRead less