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
Understanding global biomedical technologies in local realities. This project aims to advance understanding of the constitutive effects of global biotechnologies in local contexts through a case study of couples with mixed HIV status in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The project aims to contribute to scholarship and global debates on how biomedicine and local cultures co-exist and co-articulate in the making of social realities. By mapping the ways HIV treatment and prevention technologies intersect wi ....Understanding global biomedical technologies in local realities. This project aims to advance understanding of the constitutive effects of global biotechnologies in local contexts through a case study of couples with mixed HIV status in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The project aims to contribute to scholarship and global debates on how biomedicine and local cultures co-exist and co-articulate in the making of social realities. By mapping the ways HIV treatment and prevention technologies intersect with the cultural, gendered and religious landscapes of PNG, the project is designed to produce new knowledge of the promises and limits of global biotechnologies as their meanings and applications are created, negotiated and contested in the everyday practices of these couples.Read moreRead less
Race, science and indigeneity in Australia. This project aims to re-evaluate the role of biology in Aboriginal studies. Indigenous Australians have attracted intense scientific interest since European colonisation. Their bones, blood and hair have been collected to shed light on human evolution and migration, serology and, more recently, health disparities. This project will develop an account of how the history of race science matters in the present through investigating 20th century scientific ....Race, science and indigeneity in Australia. This project aims to re-evaluate the role of biology in Aboriginal studies. Indigenous Australians have attracted intense scientific interest since European colonisation. Their bones, blood and hair have been collected to shed light on human evolution and migration, serology and, more recently, health disparities. This project will develop an account of how the history of race science matters in the present through investigating 20th century scientific efforts to understand Indigenous Australians biologically. It will also study contemporary knowledge-making about Indigenous biological difference in the genomic era. This research aims to ensure that Indigenous genomics offer the most benefit to Indigenous people.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100394
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
From scientific specimen to Indigenous cultural property: the collection and use of Indigenous DNA samples since the 1960s. This anthropological and historical project will explore the provenance and present use of DNA samples collected from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. It will produce a new conceptual framework that will inform the conduct of genetic research in Indigenous communities and the governance of Indigenous sample collections and biobanks.
An analysis of research ethics and the ethical review process as culture and cultural process. This project explores research ethics and the ethical review process as culture and cultural process. It includes analyses of international ethics review-related documents, literature, and processes, case studies, key informant interviews, and observation of ethics committees in the process of deliberation. It focuses primarily on work associated with the paradigms and methods used or borrowed from t ....An analysis of research ethics and the ethical review process as culture and cultural process. This project explores research ethics and the ethical review process as culture and cultural process. It includes analyses of international ethics review-related documents, literature, and processes, case studies, key informant interviews, and observation of ethics committees in the process of deliberation. It focuses primarily on work associated with the paradigms and methods used or borrowed from the social sciences and topics and populations that seem to be the most problematic. This understanding might help us better address the issues involved and allow the development of policies and applications that are less problematic for all concerned.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
Spaces of Becoming: Spatial Strategies and the Formation of Modern Identities in Urban South Asia. The intensification of urbanisation in South Asia calls for new ways of understanding the politics of identity, and social complexity. This project will explore ways in which urban spaces (such as places of worship, streetscapes, markets, festival grounds, procession routes, and 'neighbourhoods') are used by different groups as a fundamental principle of organising social relations, including trans ....Spaces of Becoming: Spatial Strategies and the Formation of Modern Identities in Urban South Asia. The intensification of urbanisation in South Asia calls for new ways of understanding the politics of identity, and social complexity. This project will explore ways in which urban spaces (such as places of worship, streetscapes, markets, festival grounds, procession routes, and 'neighbourhoods') are used by different groups as a fundamental principle of organising social relations, including transmission of culture and creation of identity.
This interdisciplinary project argues that historicism - an exclusive temporal emphasis - can not capture the fundamental relationship between spaces and social processes that shapes contemporary cultural and social complexity in South Asia.
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Sisters and Sojourners: Stories of Rural Women in Urban China. A large increase in unofficial rural to urban migration has been one of the most significant aspects of social change in China in the last two decades. This project aims to advance our understanding of this phenomenon through a study of rural Chinese women's experiences of migration to the city, and in particular, the effects of migration upon their sense of identity, worldview and relationships with others. The project will involv ....Sisters and Sojourners: Stories of Rural Women in Urban China. A large increase in unofficial rural to urban migration has been one of the most significant aspects of social change in China in the last two decades. This project aims to advance our understanding of this phenomenon through a study of rural Chinese women's experiences of migration to the city, and in particular, the effects of migration upon their sense of identity, worldview and relationships with others. The project will involve ethnographic fieldwork, centring on the collection and analysis of rural migrant women's life stories. It will result in the publication of a book and three scholarly articles.Read moreRead less
Contexts of Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures. The research project will make people aware of the collaborative nature of the material record of Yolngu societies that has been made over time by the participation of researchers, collectors, filmmakers and Yolngu people themselves. It will demonstrate the ways in which digital technology can be used as an integral part of a research process to produce outcomes that can be made acc ....Contexts of Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures. The research project will make people aware of the collaborative nature of the material record of Yolngu societies that has been made over time by the participation of researchers, collectors, filmmakers and Yolngu people themselves. It will demonstrate the ways in which digital technology can be used as an integral part of a research process to produce outcomes that can be made accessible to a wide range of different users. It will help people understand the complex historical processes that have resulted in the present museum and archival record and facilitate their use.Read moreRead less
The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refi ....The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refining government policies concerned with the management of pluralism. At a more particular level, the research hopes to produce critical knowledge about diasporic Arab Muslim cultures that will ameliorate the thorny relations these cultures have today with western governments.Read moreRead less