Becoming at home: the good starts for refugee youth cohort, transition to early adulthood and settlement outcomes. This project follows a cohort of young adults with refugee backgrounds who have been living in Australia for around ten years, and will examine settlement and social integration outcomes. This study will provide a robust evidence-base that can inform humanitarian settlement policy and programs.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101077
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Recognising the pain of others: gendered displacement, memory and identity in Bosnian refugee diaspora. The project examines the role of gender in forced migration and how violence against Bosnian women during the 1992-95 war has affected their settlement in Australia, Austria and the USA. The outcomes of the project will help guide the formulation of immigration/integration policy in these countries and facilitate better understanding of refugee women in diaspora.
Cultural competence in supporting Cambodians recovering from conflict. This project will (1) reduce the impact of conflict for the next generation, a key to a healthy start to life and ageing well (2) guide interventions in regional settings (3) inform guidelines for refugee programs in Australia (4) highlight culture as redressing weakened traditional support structures of survivors of war in Australia and the region, supporting the Government's welfare reform and participation agendas (5) equi ....Cultural competence in supporting Cambodians recovering from conflict. This project will (1) reduce the impact of conflict for the next generation, a key to a healthy start to life and ageing well (2) guide interventions in regional settings (3) inform guidelines for refugee programs in Australia (4) highlight culture as redressing weakened traditional support structures of survivors of war in Australia and the region, supporting the Government's welfare reform and participation agendas (5) equip Australia to understand insecurities of globalisation and what survivors of war can be driven to do - unless their culture is used as an asset rather than a source of terror (6) enhance Australia's capacity to engage with its cultural environment (7) enhance capacity for AusAID to interpret itself to the rest of the world.Read moreRead less
Recovery and wellbeing following stroke in Southeast Asia: ethnicity, affordances and the impact of community level factors. Globally, stroke is a significant contributor to burden of disease and, in developing countries, is a leading cause of death. Little has been documented about how patients in these contexts ‘do’ in terms of wellbeing, quality of life, and physical and psychosocial functioning after stroke. Recovery is assumed to follow a predictable trajectory, determined by stroke severit ....Recovery and wellbeing following stroke in Southeast Asia: ethnicity, affordances and the impact of community level factors. Globally, stroke is a significant contributor to burden of disease and, in developing countries, is a leading cause of death. Little has been documented about how patients in these contexts ‘do’ in terms of wellbeing, quality of life, and physical and psychosocial functioning after stroke. Recovery is assumed to follow a predictable trajectory, determined by stroke severity, type and location. This does not take into account contextual factors, which profoundly shape how people adapt following, recover from and live with a catastrophic illness. This ethnographic research elucidates the ways in which contextual affordances (perceived opportunities that can shape action) shape recovery and quality of life following stroke.Read moreRead less
Violence, Religion and Well-being in Contemporary Burma (Myanmar): A Medical Anthropological Study of Everyday Life Under Dictatorship. For 40 years, Burma has been controlled by a military dictatorship with human rights abuses occurring daily. Terror and political violence are used as tools of repression. An in-depth ethnographic study will be conducted into the relationship between emotional/psychological distress and the violence and fear that pervades everyday Burmese life. The project will ....Violence, Religion and Well-being in Contemporary Burma (Myanmar): A Medical Anthropological Study of Everyday Life Under Dictatorship. For 40 years, Burma has been controlled by a military dictatorship with human rights abuses occurring daily. Terror and political violence are used as tools of repression. An in-depth ethnographic study will be conducted into the relationship between emotional/psychological distress and the violence and fear that pervades everyday Burmese life. The project will test the hypothesis that religion plays an important role in mediating responses to fear. No other study has been conducted of everday life under this dictatorship, or of survival strategies created to alleviate fear. Outcomes will include refereed articles, a major monograph on the subject and the development of a new methodology appropriate for aiding victims of terror and torture.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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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
Cultural values, birth and parenting: Reproductive health and Lao socialism. This project aims to provide an anthropology of procreation and parenting through ethnography of the Government of Laos’ Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health rollout as well as everyday reproduction in rural and remote Laos. It expects to generate new knowledge of core values in Laos, including those underpinning official treatment of children as human capital, difference as deprivation, and mother-and-chil ....Cultural values, birth and parenting: Reproductive health and Lao socialism. This project aims to provide an anthropology of procreation and parenting through ethnography of the Government of Laos’ Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health rollout as well as everyday reproduction in rural and remote Laos. It expects to generate new knowledge of core values in Laos, including those underpinning official treatment of children as human capital, difference as deprivation, and mother-and-child biomedical care as universal, as well as the (counter-)values lived in rural and remote practices, knowledge and sentiments. Anticipated benefits include advanced understandings of Lao culture and society, socialism as it articulates with international health and economic agendas, and the anthropology of human flourishing.Read moreRead less
New Regional Labour Circuits in the South Pacific: Gender, Culture and Transnationalism. This project aims to produce vital knowledge about transforming Pacific and Pacific Islander migration. Pacific mobility is being shaped by new patterns of international trade, investment and aid adopted by key regional players—China, United States, Australia and New Zealand especially—the effects of which are not yet well understood. Using a multi-sited analysis of regional labour circuits focusing on the C ....New Regional Labour Circuits in the South Pacific: Gender, Culture and Transnationalism. This project aims to produce vital knowledge about transforming Pacific and Pacific Islander migration. Pacific mobility is being shaped by new patterns of international trade, investment and aid adopted by key regional players—China, United States, Australia and New Zealand especially—the effects of which are not yet well understood. Using a multi-sited analysis of regional labour circuits focusing on the Cook Islands, Australia and New Zealand, this project aims to connect these broad geopolitical shifts to the movement of individuals and families, and to their gendered and culturally embedded economic practices.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