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
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
Social, economic and health vulnerabilities in Indonesia. This project aims to study and provide ways to overcome vulnerability in Indonesia. Half the Indonesian population is still clustered around the poverty line, contributing to their vulnerability. This project will identify vulnerable groups and why they are vulnerable. Using a common framework of the life course in eight Indonesian field sites, this project will investigate whether social networks and welfare programs reduce vulnerability ....Social, economic and health vulnerabilities in Indonesia. This project aims to study and provide ways to overcome vulnerability in Indonesia. Half the Indonesian population is still clustered around the poverty line, contributing to their vulnerability. This project will identify vulnerable groups and why they are vulnerable. Using a common framework of the life course in eight Indonesian field sites, this project will investigate whether social networks and welfare programs reduce vulnerability, and pinpoint strategies for reducing vulnerabilities in the future. The project expects to show how vulnerable citizens in Indonesia can be made more secure, helping to build a more stable and prosperous region.Read moreRead less
Food system resilience in Indonesia: A moral economy approach. This project aims to understand and enhance food security in Indonesia and beyond. It examines culture-specific moral concepts, embedded in food systems and daily practices, that affect food security. For 60 years, the dominant approach to food security has been to boost supply by industrialising agriculture and liberalising trade, but this market-based approach has failed. One billion people are food insecure. The project will condu ....Food system resilience in Indonesia: A moral economy approach. This project aims to understand and enhance food security in Indonesia and beyond. It examines culture-specific moral concepts, embedded in food systems and daily practices, that affect food security. For 60 years, the dominant approach to food security has been to boost supply by industrialising agriculture and liberalising trade, but this market-based approach has failed. One billion people are food insecure. The project will conduct case studies of three food systems to examine how moral economies ameliorate market failures locally and how different rural development programs disrupt or enhance their capacity to do so. The data produced could inform food security-friendly development of trade policies and provide the evidence base for UN efforts toward a global food solidarity pact.Read moreRead less
The future of the Pacific: youth leadership and civic engagement. This project aims to investigate how youth in the Pacific develop and demonstrate the forms of leadership and civic engagement needed for positive outcomes for their countries. New knowledge is expected to be generated about what influences Pacific youth to engage with the profound challenges facing their region, through Pacific-wide research and three case studies using participatory and collaborative methodologies. Expected outc ....The future of the Pacific: youth leadership and civic engagement. This project aims to investigate how youth in the Pacific develop and demonstrate the forms of leadership and civic engagement needed for positive outcomes for their countries. New knowledge is expected to be generated about what influences Pacific youth to engage with the profound challenges facing their region, through Pacific-wide research and three case studies using participatory and collaborative methodologies. Expected outcomes include interdisciplinary contributions to Pacific and youth studies and applied outputs. This should provide significant benefits including enhanced capacity for governments, development agencies and donors to develop policy and programming measures to nurture the future leadership of the Pacific region. 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
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
The African Diaspora and Pentecostalism in Australia. This project aims to investigate the new African Diaspora in Australia and its embrace of Pentecostalism. The African community in Australia has often been associated with poor settlement outcomes, and has also been subject to racialised moral panic regarding so-called ‘African gangs.’ This project will use new methods to understand the role of Pentecostal translocal and transnational networks in supporting African communities to overcome the ....The African Diaspora and Pentecostalism in Australia. This project aims to investigate the new African Diaspora in Australia and its embrace of Pentecostalism. The African community in Australia has often been associated with poor settlement outcomes, and has also been subject to racialised moral panic regarding so-called ‘African gangs.’ This project will use new methods to understand the role of Pentecostal translocal and transnational networks in supporting African communities to overcome the challenges of settlement. The project expects to contribute to policy efforts to improve outcomes for new African arrivals in Australia.Read moreRead less
Trust in Pacific Healthcare: Transforming research, policy and practice. Medical trust is vital to building positive healthcare engagement and improving health outcomes, yet is poorly understood in non-Western contexts. Focusing on crises of trust related to type 2 diabetes and COVID-19 interventions in the Pacific, this collaborative project aims to examine the social and cultural dynamics of medical (mis)trust in Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa. Providing the first cross-cultural study of medical tru ....Trust in Pacific Healthcare: Transforming research, policy and practice. Medical trust is vital to building positive healthcare engagement and improving health outcomes, yet is poorly understood in non-Western contexts. Focusing on crises of trust related to type 2 diabetes and COVID-19 interventions in the Pacific, this collaborative project aims to examine the social and cultural dynamics of medical (mis)trust in Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa. Providing the first cross-cultural study of medical trust, an international team of researchers will generate interdisciplinary scholarly outputs, policy resources and a documentary film. Findings will assist healthcare professionals and communities strengthen trust relationships and ultimately achieve improved health engagement and delivery in the Pacific and beyond.Read moreRead less
Australia and Brazil in the Asian Century. This project aims to update a theory of trust that accounts for the growing international influence of the Chinese state. As the mining boom subsides, Australia and Brazil must expand their agriculture exports, especially to China, their leading trade partner. The Chinese government has proposed large-scale investments in both countries’ agriculture sectors, but allegations of tax evasion, hidden subsidies and neo-colonialism have fuelled distrust of Ch ....Australia and Brazil in the Asian Century. This project aims to update a theory of trust that accounts for the growing international influence of the Chinese state. As the mining boom subsides, Australia and Brazil must expand their agriculture exports, especially to China, their leading trade partner. The Chinese government has proposed large-scale investments in both countries’ agriculture sectors, but allegations of tax evasion, hidden subsidies and neo-colonialism have fuelled distrust of Chinese investors. This project hypothesises that these tensions stem from diverging approaches to building trust. This could inform academic and policy publications and lead to more informed and productive relations with Chinese partners.Read moreRead less