Affective Communities: Anti-Imperial Thought and the Politics of Friendship. This project is a study of five friendships between anti-imperial Europeans and South Asians at the turn of the nineteenth-century. Its aim is to offer a reading of anti-colonial politics as the product of numerous transnational collaborations, friendships and conversations between western and non-western dissidents. It will extend the theoretical paradigms of postcolonial studies by challenging orthodox understandings ....Affective Communities: Anti-Imperial Thought and the Politics of Friendship. This project is a study of five friendships between anti-imperial Europeans and South Asians at the turn of the nineteenth-century. Its aim is to offer a reading of anti-colonial politics as the product of numerous transnational collaborations, friendships and conversations between western and non-western dissidents. It will extend the theoretical paradigms of postcolonial studies by challenging orthodox understandings of the colonial encounter as a violent and antagonistic clash between western power and non-western dissidence. New information will also be brought to bear on the history of the Indo-European colonial encounter.Read moreRead less
Mobile Indonesians: social differentiation and digital literacies in the twenty first century. This is the first dedicated study of the social implications of mobile telephony's recent and rapid popularisation throughout the country. This project will study metropolitan, urban and rural users to understand how mobile phones create the new and unexpected social networks which will shape tomorrow's Indonesians.
Seeking the state: Incorporating the state on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. This study will provide significant theoretical insight into the functioning of the state both regionally and internationally by providing a local perspective on how Cocos Malays bring the state into their daily lives. Because they lie between Indonesia and Northwest Australia, the Cocos Islands play an important role in Australia's defence, security, and quarantine interests. The Malays residing there constitute an impor ....Seeking the state: Incorporating the state on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. This study will provide significant theoretical insight into the functioning of the state both regionally and internationally by providing a local perspective on how Cocos Malays bring the state into their daily lives. Because they lie between Indonesia and Northwest Australia, the Cocos Islands play an important role in Australia's defence, security, and quarantine interests. The Malays residing there constitute an important minority and one of Australia's oldest Islamic communities. This project is a fieldwork-based analysis of the way community members negotiate their identity as Australian citizens and Malay Muslims in relation to the state.Read moreRead less
A longitudinal enquiry into Chinese women graduates' post-study experience. This longitudinal study of female Chinese graduates of Australian universities will be the first to track how international education changes these women’s lives long-term. Through in-depth interviews with graduates in China and Australia, it aims to reveal the lasting benefits of an Australian education for our international graduates, providing significant insights for the recovery of Australian international education ....A longitudinal enquiry into Chinese women graduates' post-study experience. This longitudinal study of female Chinese graduates of Australian universities will be the first to track how international education changes these women’s lives long-term. Through in-depth interviews with graduates in China and Australia, it aims to reveal the lasting benefits of an Australian education for our international graduates, providing significant insights for the recovery of Australian international education in a post-COVID world. Further, the project expects to contribute to scholarly, public and government understandings of new Chinese migrants in Australia, provide new knowledge about cultural change in the middle classes of Asia’s largest and most powerful nation, and enhance Australia’s engagement with its region.Read moreRead less
Outside-Domestication: towards an anthropology of the spaces of negotiated being. All institutions today encourage innovation. Yet the word is not mentioned anywhere in the world when it comes to ethnic relations policy. This project looks at spaces of social relations that fall outside state rule. Rather than seeing them as a threat we examine if they offer material for a much-needed innovative inter-cultural politics.
Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis o ....Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis of the role of the avatar, in consultation with industry, this project offers a unique opportunity to develop a wider perspective that will contribute to an understanding of the uses and policies for the digital economy.Read moreRead less
Photography and eugenics: an historical investigation of photography's role in the development and popularisation of the eugenics movement. This project analyses the uses of racial type photographs by the eugenics movement. Photography was used as a scientific tool by eugenicists but this project is primarily concerned with its role in popularising and legitimating a movement that won widespread acceptance between c.1870 and WW2. It will explore the techniques, media forms, aims and effects of B ....Photography and eugenics: an historical investigation of photography's role in the development and popularisation of the eugenics movement. This project analyses the uses of racial type photographs by the eugenics movement. Photography was used as a scientific tool by eugenicists but this project is primarily concerned with its role in popularising and legitimating a movement that won widespread acceptance between c.1870 and WW2. It will explore the techniques, media forms, aims and effects of British, American and German eugenic photography and compare eugenics photography with the use of photography in contemporary liberal anthropology. The project will result in a groundbreaking monograph on a topic which will make a major contribution to our understanding of the history of racism.Read moreRead less
Indonesia's postcolonialism: absent, misrecognised or suppressed? This project will study the alleged absence of postcolonialism in Indonesia with a focus on Indonesians of European, Chinese and Indian descent. The various ways in which postcolonial consciousness might be expressed in public life will be explored, and further give due recognition to Indonesia's greater cultural diversity.
Social Memory and Historical Justice: How Democratic Societies Remember and Forget the Victimisation of Minorities in the Past. We will analyse how the victimisation of minorities is publicly and collectively remembered in a range of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, the Ukraine, Austria, Germany, Peru, Chile and the USA. We will identify key factors that enable democratic societies to work towards historical justice. By exploring how memories are contested and how communities ....Social Memory and Historical Justice: How Democratic Societies Remember and Forget the Victimisation of Minorities in the Past. We will analyse how the victimisation of minorities is publicly and collectively remembered in a range of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, the Ukraine, Austria, Germany, Peru, Chile and the USA. We will identify key factors that enable democratic societies to work towards historical justice. By exploring how memories are contested and how communities actively negotiate the legacies of the past, we will address issues of crucial contemporary concern. The project will provide research training and international experience for a postdoctoral fellow and three doctoral students in an area at the cutting edge of the humanities and social sciences.Read moreRead less
Consumer Culture: the influence of economics on modern theories and practices of sexual psychology. The project has implications for a wide range of public debates in Australia today, including debates about the ethics and psychology of the pornography industry and the pervasive use of the ‘sex sells’ principle in marketing and entertainment. It will produce new knowledge and understanding of how psychological theory has been used to rationalise the commercialisation of sex in consumer culture a ....Consumer Culture: the influence of economics on modern theories and practices of sexual psychology. The project has implications for a wide range of public debates in Australia today, including debates about the ethics and psychology of the pornography industry and the pervasive use of the ‘sex sells’ principle in marketing and entertainment. It will produce new knowledge and understanding of how psychological theory has been used to rationalise the commercialisation of sex in consumer culture and how modern rhetoric of sexual liberation have been shaped by the very economic concerns they purport to repudiate. Finally, the project will advance the knowledge-base of key disciplines in the new humanities and enhance Australia's reputation for groundbreaking research in cultural history and analysis.Read moreRead less