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Today's date is Friday, March 29, 2024
School of Social Sciences
 September 2019
Friday 06
11:00 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Seminar Series 2019 : LEARNING FROM ‘POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DEVIANTS’ TO IMPROVE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN INDONESIA. More Information
Various countries, including Indonesia, have developed environmental education (EE) to create environmentally responsible citizens in response to the growing challenges of environmental degradation and destruction caused by humanity. While there are many individuals who show irresponsible behaviour toward the environment, there are also individuals who are engaged in pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). Some of them may be the pioneers, the first ‘green’ individuals, who face opposition from their neighbours, especially if their pro-environmental action is considered to transgress the norms of the community. I used the term positive environmental deviants (PED) to describe such people. Learning from them may help to revealing the factors influencing their engagement in responsible environmental behaviour. Therefore, this study will explore the possibilities for using the Positive Environmental Deviance approach to improve EE in Indonesia. I will also use the Significant Life Experiences (SLE) concept to delve into the life history of the positive deviants to find what experiences influenced them to take up PEB. SLE is a retrospective exploration of the life of people who demonstrate environmental activism. I will carry out my study in several sites where I can find cases of PED. A qualitative approach, using interviews and participant observation, will be employed.

Resti Meilani is a PhD student in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia.

11:00 - SEMINAR - Can first language use improve foreign language performance? More Information
Abstract

This talk will bring together findings from two studies at Curtin University on the impact of allowing learners to plan for a communicative task in their first language (L1) as opposed to their foreign language (L2). The relative benefits will be discussed in terms of fluency and idea units used in an oral problem-solving task. Seventy-two Japanese university EFL learners were randomly assigned to one of two planning conditions. Dyads in each group were given 10 minutes to plan the content of a problem-solving task in the respective languages before individually performing a timed 2.5-minute oral problem-solving task in English. Data took the form of transcribed planning discussions and transcribed task performances. Task performances were coded for fluency based on Levelt’s (1989, 1999) model of speech processing, whereas all data were coded for idea units based on Hoey’s (1983, 2001) problem-solution discourse structure (situation, problem, response, evaluation). As expected, L1 planners spoke less fluently than L2 planners, monitoring their language output more in terms of number of replacements and reformulations. Also as expected, L1 planners generated more ideas connected with all four dimensions of problem-solving discourse. Contrary to expectations, however, the advantages of L1 planning in terms of task content did not transfer to L2 use. L1 and L2 planners’ were highly comparable in terms of ideas units used on the subsequent L2 task, and L2 planners were advantaged in some respects. Implications for future research and pedagogy aimed at facilitating transfer from L1 to L2 performance will be discussed.

References

Hoey, M. (1983). On the Surface of Discourse. London: George, Allen and Unwin.

Hoey, M. (2001). Textual Interaction: An Introduction to Written Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.

Levelt, W. (1989). Speaking from intention to articulation. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Levelt, W. (1999). Producing the language: A blueprint of the speaker. In C. Brown and P. Hagoort (Eds.), The neurocognition of language (pp. 83-122). New York: Oxford Press.

Short bio

Craig Lambert is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Education at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. His specialization is in task-based language teaching (TBLT), and his research has focused on learner needs, materials design, motivation, fluency and syntactic development.

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series : The Cultural Invisibility of Autonomic Stress: Navigating a Life With Fibromyalgia More Information
Fibromyalgia is a neurosensory condition characterised by widespread pain, stiffness and non-restorative sleep. Individuals often also experience cognitive difficulties commonly termed fibro-fog, and altered sensory and visceral states associated with a chronically activated autonomic stress response. However, these sensory and visceral experiences are poorly understood in the Western biomedical model. Alongside similar and often related conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, multiple chemical sensitivity and irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia is frequently listed under the category of MUS – ‘medically unexplained symptoms’. From its earlier incarnations under the names neurasthenia, fibrositis and psychogenic rheumatism, it has remained a controversial condition in relation to whether it should be viewed as an organic illness of body or an inorganic illness of mind. This fundamental schism in Western biomedicine has greatly limited insight into the cultural and neurophysiological processes that underlie the development of fibromyalgia. Trauma, stress, accidents and viral illnesses are all common precursors, and research is increasingly elucidating epigenetic factors whereby environmental triggers alter gene expression, leading to the onset of post-traumatic pain and autonomic dysregulation. In this paper I share some of the experiences of my research participants in navigating the challenges of living with fibromyalgia and the frequent invisibility of their lifeworlds to others. I consider what has gone wrong in medical perceptions of the condition, and how peoples' sensory and visceral symptoms offer clues that may also be channels for healing. How might redundant dichotomies be replaced by more helpful approaches and, more broadly, how might there be a re-synchronisation of culture and homeostasis that engenders human well-being?

Sally Robertson is a PhD student in Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Western Australia. Her research interests include the relationship between culture and physiology, cross-cultural insights into different approaches to health and illness, neuroanthropological insights into sensory experience and human adaptation, interspecies connectivity, and creative approaches to healing trauma and restoring well-being
Saturday 07
9:30 - TALK - Social Impact of Social Media : The Hong Kong identity is changing with the help of social media. Website | More Information
Join researcher Dr Catherine Archer, and dig deep into the social impact of social media. Social media has only been part of our lives for little more than 15 years and yet it has irrevocably changed and challenged some of society’s major institutions regarded in the past as “untouchable”. “Social media allows citizens to be the source of ideas, plans and initiatives in an easier way than ever before” says Eileen Guo of Impassion Media. Social movements are now adept at garnering support through hashtags, live-streaming, likes and engagement, to name just a few tactics. Our growing love of social media is not just changing the way we communicate – it’s changing the way we are governed, and the way we live in society. This seminar, presented by social media researcher Dr Catherine Archer, will unpick the approaches of activists and advocates on social media, using case studies and a hands-on approach that digs deep into the social impact of social media.
Tuesday 10
13:00 - SEMINAR - Political Science and International Relations Seminar Series 2019 : A Tale of Two Continents: How America is Looking to Australia on Electoral Reform More Information
Electoral reform is a hot issue in the United States, particularly since the election of President Donald Trump. This presentation will examine how US reformers are seeking to introduce distinctively Australian institutions such as compulsory voting, preferential ballots and independent electoral boundaries as a means of combating polarization and improving legitimacy in American politics. It will focus in particular on the recent adoption of preferential voting in Maine’s 2018 mid-term Congressional elections, the first time ‘our’ system has been used for national elections in US history.

Ben is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences at UWA, working on research and engagement in a range of policy and international issues across the Indo-Pacific. He was formerly Dean of the Sir Walter Murdoch School at Murdoch University, and prior to that head of the Policy and Governance Program and Director of the Centre for Democratic Institutions at the Australian National University (ANU), and has also worked with the Australian government, the United Nations and other international organisations, and held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Johns Hopkins universities. As a political scientist, he has authored or edited seven books and over 100 scholarly papers, and received financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the United States Institute of Peace, the East-West Centre, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Australian Research Council.

Thursday 12
15:00 - SEMINAR - CMSS Seminar : Identity Politics in India: the case of Gujarat riots More Information
Muslims in India have lived alongside Hindus peacefully for many centuries. Yet in the contemporary period some politicians have orchestrated division for political ends, for example, during the Godhra-Gujarat riots in India in 2002 in which there were many Muslim casualties. Critics allege that the ruling party in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its leader Chief Minister Narendra Modi (now the Prime Minister of India) were responsible for the Godhra-Gujarat riots.

Within the framework of identity politics in India, where religion seems to dominate the social, economic and political spheres, this paper examines how the 2002 Gujarat riots impacted on Muslims in Gujarat. This paper is based on interviews with Muslims (aged 15 years and over) that I conducted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2012. I will examine Muslims’ experiences during the riots and in the aftermath of the riots. I conclude that, in the era of identity politics when Muslims form a disadvantaged minority, national and international policy makers should promulgate policies that would improve social cohesion and intercommunal understanding in India in general, and Gujarat in particular.

Biography Nahid Afrose Kabir, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA, and holds Adjunct Professor positions at Edith Cowan University, Perth and at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.

Nahid Kabir is the author of Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History (Routledge 2005); Young British Muslims: Identity, Culture, Politics and the Media (Edinburgh University Press 2012); Young American Muslims: Dynamics of Identity (Edinburgh University Press 2014); and Muslim Americans: Debating the Notions of American and Un-American (Routledge 2017). In addition, she has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.

ENTRY: Free, but please RSVP to [email protected]

15:00 - SEMINAR - CMSS Seminar : Identity politics in India: the case of Gujarat riots More Information
Muslims in India have lived alongside Hindus peacefully for many centuries. Yet in the contemporary period some politicians have orchestrated division for political ends, for example, during the Godhra-Gujarat riots in India in 2002 in which there were many Muslim casualties. Critics allege that the ruling party in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its leader Chief Minister Narendra Modi (now the Prime Minister of India) were responsible for the Godhra-Gujarat riots.

Within the framework of identity politics in India, where religion seems to dominate the social, economic and political spheres, this paper examines how the 2002 Gujarat riots impacted on Muslims in Gujarat. This paper is based on interviews with Muslims (aged 15 years and over) that I conducted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2012. I will examine Muslims’ experiences during the riots and in the aftermath of the riots. I conclude that, in the era of identity politics when Muslims form a disadvantaged minority, national and international policy makers should promulgate policies that would improve social cohesion and intercommunal understanding in India in general, and Gujarat in particular.

Biography Nahid Afrose Kabir, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA, and holds Adjunct Professor positions at Edith Cowan University, Perth and at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. Nahid Kabir is the author of Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History (Routledge 2005); Young British Muslims: Identity, Culture, Politics and the Media (Edinburgh University Press 2012); Young American Muslims: Dynamics of Identity (Edinburgh University Press 2014); and Muslim Americans: Debating the Notions of American and Un- American (Routledge 2017). In addition, she has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.

RSVP: [email protected]

18:00 - SEMINAR - Using the Land-Ocean Transition to Understand Past Coastal Landscapes : A public lecture by Mark Bateman, Director Sheffield Luminescence Dating Laboratory, University of Sheffield and Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow More Information
Coastal dunes can contain lengthy, but complex, records of long-term environmental, climatic and sea-level fluctuations particularly where the dune sand has become lithified into aeolianite or calcarenite. Both Australia and South Africa have fairly widespread occurrence of on-shore coastal aeolianites. Aeolianites can form shore-parallel barrier reaching up to 200 m above modern sea level and up to a few km inland.

This talk will focus on Professor Bateman’s research on the South African aeolianites which occur in association with world renown Middle Stone Age archaeological sites. The aeolianites provided the caves and at times dune sand inundated or blocked caves aiding archaeological preservation. But why did our early ancestors choose to live in dunefields? What was the environment and coastline like then and how has it changed through time? This talk will show how integrating off-shore and on-shore topography with an extensive luminescence dating programme allows for a better understanding of the evolution of coastlines through time. The sediments themselves can also be used to gives hints of the humans, animals and plants occupying past dunes.

We now know the preserved terrestrial dunes have been constructed over at least the last two glacial-interglacial cycles (back to ~270,000 years) with multiple phases of deposition during sea-level high-stands. Tectonic stability of the region allowed shorelines to reoccupy similar positions on multiple occasions with sediment deflated from beaches building large stacked dunes. Local variation in the off-shore topography controlled when and where these stacked dunes formed. As global sea-levels rose during non-glacial times so pre-existing dunes were eroded and recycled into new on-shore dunes. As global sea-levels fell during glacial times so dune construction moved out onto what is currently the off-shore platform. Thus whilst the preserved on-shore dune and archaeological record looks fragmented this reflects the big changes in coastline position which have occurred in the past. When sea-levels were high, people occupied caves in the aeolianite and utilised both marine resources and the diverse flora and fauna found on the shifting dunes. When sea-levels were lower they followed the coast-line and dunefields onto the newly exposed coastal plain.

Mark Bateman was appointed at the University of Sheffield in 1995 as a post-doctoral researcher to set up and run the Sheffield Luminescence Laboratory and in 1998 was appointed as a lecturer. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 2004, reader in 2007 and became a Professor in 2011. He is a world-leading expert on research on sediments as an archive for better understanding past depositional processes and environmental changes. In particular, he has applied and developed luminescence dating as a tool for understanding the ages of sediments but also post-depositional disturbance they may have undergone since burial. His work has spanned from understanding coastal dunes, coastline changes and Middle Stone Age archaeology in South Africa to dating the retreat sequence of the Last British and Irish Icesheet. He has also undertaken research in Arctic Canada on cold-climate aeolian systems and periglacial sediments. He has over 180 research publications including in Nature and recently published the Handbook of Luminescence Dating (2019, Whittles Publishing).
Friday 13
11:00 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Seminar Series 2019 : Unsafety and Unions in Singapore’s State-led Industrialization, 1965-1994 More Information
This paper looks at Singapore’s rapid industrialisation between 1965 and 1994 with a particular emphasis on the rising number of industrial accidents and how this was dealt with by the Singapore State. Its looks at the shipbuilding and repair industry as one of the most dangerous workplaces in Singapore and questions the effectiveness of the states largely top down approach in efforts to curb the number of accidents and deaths. It suggests that the lack of a truly independent union movement (along with other factors) in Singapore hampered efforts to curb the number of injuries and fatalities in the sector. Bio Stephen Dobbs is associate professor in the School of Social Sciences at UWA.

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series : Concrete Development: Distraction and Destruction in the eastern Himalaya More Information
India’s frontier state of Sikkim is a ‘sensitive space’ (Dunn and Cons 2014) sharing borders with Bhutan, China and Nepal. As distinctions between urban and rural dissolve across the Himalaya, attention to concrete narrates the transformation of these landscapes and the assemblages that hold them together. In Sikkim, tourism is a key development strategy that is built around mountain landscapes, organic agriculture and concrete structures. Religious theme parks, Hindu temple complexes, gigantic statues of Lord Buddha and other religious figures are crucial components of this concrete landscape. The success of these attractions has led to public demands for more concrete. Concrete is now imbued with hopes of transforming villages and towns into popular and economically prosperous tourist destinations. On the other hand, large-scale hydropower projects which also promise economic development for the state and its citizens are being built across the river Teesta and its tributaries in Sikkim. Concrete, therefore has become the focal point of the state’s development initiatives; the tangible representation of hope and prosperity for citizens whilst simultaneously being used for resource extraction by private hydropower companies. Based on ethnographic research in Sikkim, the paper focuses firstly on the development narrative and visions of modernity which is based on the construction of concrete structures; concrete foregrounds the ways aspirations are materialised in the built environment of a ‘remote’, yet geopolitically significant territory. Secondly, the paper offers a critical reading of the ways landscape is imagined, reproduced and politicised through this development narrative of environmental destruction and cultural distractions ; and thirdly the paper discusses how concrete heralds the collusion of the state and private finance leading to the social and spatial transformation of Sikkim, producing a loyal border state out of a recently independent polity.

Dr Mona Chettri is UWA Australia-India Institute New Generation Network Scholar. She is the author of Constructing Democracy: Ethnicity and Democracy in the eastern Himalaya (Amsterdam University Press, 2017). Her current research focuses on resource frontiers, urbanisation, gender and development in the eastern Himalaya, India.
Friday 20
11:00 - SEMINAR - �I LOVE STUDYING CHINESE� A Q METHODOLOGY STUDY OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS� MOTIVATION TO STUDY CHINESE LANGUAGE More Information
In 2018, 63 students sat the Chinese Second Language WACE exam. Although Chinese had more candidates than other languages such as Indonesian, there has been a steady downward trend in students attempting the WACE over the last two years. The low retention rate is of concern to teachers of Chinese, with only 5% of each cohort of students who start to study Chinese continuing to year 12. Previous initiatives to increase the rate of students studying Chinese to year 12 level have failed to make any real progress to the situation. In order to understand what motivates students to study a language this study investigates the future language self of high school learners of Chinese following Dörnyei's L2 motivational self system framework to better understand how students envision themselves as speakers of a foreign language. Students in years 7-8 in WA were surveyed using Q methodology, a qualitative method, to individuate typologies of future language self. Results can be used to devise potentially motivating classroom activities based on future self vision.

14:30 - SEMINAR - SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES: ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY SEMINAR SERIES, SEMESTER 2, 2019 More Information
The Indonesian Diaspora across the Celebes Sea: Citizenship, Negotiation and Identity

This research focuses on the dynamics of the Indonesian diaspora whose members have been living for generations in the southern Philippines. While previously considered as stateless, these people have been officially recognised as (new) Indonesian citizens since December 2017. This study’s importance stems from this being the first time that the Indonesian government granted citizenship to a subpopulation in its diaspora. Research will take place in Davao City, General Santos City and Balut Island in the Philippines as the main locations of the Indonesian diaspora. This study is a qualitative research project that uses in-depth interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions (FGDs) for data collection, in addition to desktop research.

Amorisa Wiratri is a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Sociology.

Being international? –an ethnographic study of Chinese international students’ academic and social experiences in an Australian university

With the increasing number of international students seeking education abroad, student mobility has become one of the key drives toward internationalization in higher education. Accounting for one-third of total international students in Australia universities, Chinese international students play a crucial role in the economy of Australia and the financial sustainability of Australian universities. Therefore, this study will benefit universities seeking to maximize students’ experiences and governing bodies on developing policies towards international students. So far, universities are offering programs and opportunities for student support. However, the gap between international students’ needs and institutional provisions can be significant. This project intends to better understand experiences of international students and different ways international students seek support and improve self-efficacy in a foreign environment. This research will centre on the lived experiences of Chinese international students in The University of Western Australia (UWA), using qualitative research methods, including participant observation, interviews, focus group discussions, video recording, and research diary, as well as thematic analysis. I also want to question integration theory which tends to dominate popular accounts of international student life as it is viewed by universities as the most ideal and valuable model after 1970s when “pluralism” paid more attention to “ethnic maintenance” instead of “assimilation”. Mingxin Qu is a PhD student in the Anthropology and Sociology Discipline. Her research interests include student mobility, education and new media.

Following Inclusion: A study of dyslexia, schools and policy enactment

Through the lens of inclusive education, this project will examine the educational experiences of dyslexic students and their families, asking questions about the levels of inclusion and exclusion they face. In Australia, inclusive education policies (IEP) mandate that mainstream schools must support the diverse needs of all students. Although extensive research has been carried out on inclusive education, no previous Australian study has investigated dyslexic students and their parents’ experiences in light of the emergence of IEP. The study will address the following set of questions:

1) How do dyslexic students experience their education, and what do the participants’ experiences reveal about A) How IEP are enacted in schools B) The potential of IEP to enhance the inclusion of dyslexics?

2) How have inclusive education policies developed in Australia?

In this project, I will follow a select group of up to 18 students diagnosed as dyslexic and their parents/guardians through the course of the 2020 school year. Postulating that students with a Higher Education Family Tradition (HEFT) are more likely to seek and gain support in accommodating their disability, the study aims at equal distribution of HEFT and non-HEFT students. I will also consider differences between metropolitan and rural students by recruiting up to 6 students from families living outside of Greater Perth. This study design will allow me to document and analyse the experiences of a variety of students in different school settings. Through this process, I will develop a clear sense of how certain schools across the state are responding to student needs. This project aims to contribute significantly to the small body of qualitative research on dyslexia by presenting an in-depth analysis of how dyslexics and their families, in different school contexts and from different educational backgrounds, experience and respond to the promise and the enactment of inclusive education policies.

Thom Nevill is a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Sociology.

 October 2019
Thursday 24
12:00 - SEMINAR - Pleistocene archaeological sites in developing countries across Asia: Research and management More Information
Abstract

There are a number of challenges that face the cultural heritage management of prehistoric sites dating back to the Pleistocene. Conservation, which includes research, and protection of such sites, requires approaches that are uniquely applicable to this context. Discussion will revolve around four Pleistocene sites across Asia: the fossil hominin sites of Dmanisi, Georgia, and Sangiran, Java, Indonesia, and two further sites in the Philippines, Rizal, Kalinga Province, and Callao, Peñablanca, Cagayan Province. While each site has its own unique set of elements, all of these are located within developing countries, a key factor that has an impact on how they are managed.The archaeological research that has been generated and continues to be carried out in these four sites as well as the efforts to manage other aspects such as protection, presentation and dissemination of information, interpretation and creation of value for the public, involvement and engagement of the locals will also be examined.

Biographical information

Caroline Marie Quinto (Mylene) Lising specialises in heritage studies and applications with a focus on Southeast Asia, human origins and Palaeolithic archaeology. She is a Cultural Deputy Officer at the National Museum of the Philippines and a lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at Ateneo de Manila University. She recently received a grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation (Germany) to build the Rizal Town Library, Kalinga, Philippines. Mylene holds an Erasmus Mundus International Master in Quaternary Science and Prehistory from the Muséum National d’histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. She is currently a PhD student at Goethe University in Frankfurt and a guest researcher at the ROCEEH (The Role of Culture in the Expansion of Early Humans) program at the Senckenberg Research Institution.

16:00 - SEMINAR - Exploring Sea Country through high-resolution 3D seismic imaging of Australia�s NW Shelf: resolving early coastal landscapes and preservation of underwater cultural heritage More Information
Abstract

Almost 2 million square km of Australia’s continental shelf was flooded following the termination of the last glacial maximum, and with it the cultural heritage of the first arrival and coastal occupation of Australia beginning some 65,000 years ago. In order to prospect for this missing cultural record, we must first identify submerged coastal landscapes and landforms which likely provided favourable environments for occupation and potential settlement by aboriginal groups. However due to the sheer size of the Australian continental margin, it has proven challenging to locate and identify prospective submerged cultural sites. In order to improve the chances of success, we take a novel approach using industry 3D seismic datasets, which cover vast areas of Australia’s continental shelf, to map seafloor bathymetry at high resolution (10 to 25 m). Our study focuses on the mid/outer shelf regions proximal to Barrow Island where there is evidence of Aboriginal occupation as far back as 50,000 years BP. The 3D seismic bathymetry, which covers an area of 6,500 square km, revealed a highly complex and geomorphically mature coastal landscape preserved at depths of −70 to −75 m, including coastal barrier dunes, lagoonal systems, tidal flats and estuarine channels, each are highly productive and understood as preferred habitation sites for Aboriginal groups. Based on the seabed depth of the submerged shorelines and reconstructed sea level curves we determine that these coastal landforms likely formed during a sustained interval of stable sea level spanning Marine Isotope Stage 3 (57 to 29 ka).

Biographical information

Dr Michael O’Leary is Senior Lecturer in Climate Geoscience at the School of Earth Sciences, UWA, with research expertise in the fields of tropical coastal geomorphology, coral reef and reef-island evolution, and climate change. His research focuses on (1) sea level reconstructions during periods of known climate instability, a metric that speaks directly to the stability of the Polar ice sheets, and (2) tropical coastal response, in particular, low reef-island response to future sea level rise. He is currently undertaking investigations into the Quaternary evolution of the NW Shelf, and in particular, reconstructing the physical and cultural environments that relate to the shelf's remnant submerged landscapes.
Friday 25
14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology & Sociology Seminar Series 2019 More Information
Title: The Power of Shared Heritage: China’s Belt Road Initiative and the Politics of Silk Road Heritage

Presenter: Erin Linn

In 2013, China formally announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a multinational global development, infrastructure, and investment initiative involving more than 70 countries. As part of its multi-pronged strategy, China is using a number of mechanisms to realise the goals of BRI: infrastructure development, economic and business investments, diplomacy, political negotiations, culture, and cultural heritage. To gain public support for the initiative China is promoting “people-to people bonds”, one of five strategic “cooperation priorities” of the Belt and Road Initiative (NDRC, 2015). Cultural heritage is identified as a key tool by which to foster “people-to-people bonds”. To date, research has primarily focused on the political, economic, and policy implications of BRI in an attempt to understand the motivating factors behind this grand strategy. Few scholars have considered the cultural implications of BRI and how China’s explicit use of cultural heritage may impact the people living in areas most affected by Belt and Road projects. Belt and Road Initiative represents a complex web of institutions, networks of connectivity, and identities spanning vast geographic distances. Through public discourse the BRI is being framed as a revitalization of the ancient Silk Roads. China is both creating and promoting a notion of shared heritage using imagery, history, and heritage of the ancient Silk Roads. This notion of shared heritage is framed around conceptualisations of inter/intra-regional heritage rooted in ideas of an ancient trade network based on peaceful and prosperous cross-cultural exchange between nations. In creating this conception of shared heritage, the heritage of nation states, and ethnic and religious groups are circumvented, the significance of national borders lessens, and new identities are forged. This PhD seeks to understand if notions of shared heritage exist in the context of the lived experiences of communities in countries impacted by BRI, outside of official discourse. The research contributes to the emerging field of shared heritage by developing a conceptual framework of shared heritage drawing on theories of cosmopolitanism. Using this framework China’s use of trans-regional heritage is interrogated to identify how notions of shared heritage are being created and promoted. Oriented by a qualitative methodology and place-based studies, the thesis explores if and how these ideas are manifesting within institutions, policies, and local communities in Central Asia. Fieldwork in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan will be conducted to investigate how these complex ideas of shared heritage are being received, understood, and/or affecting individuals impacted by BRI.

Bio: Erin is a PhD candidate at UWA researching China’s use of cultural heritage within the context of the Belt Road Initiative. Her work explores the emerging concept of shared heritage and how China is creating and operationalizing notions of a shared heritage of the ancient Silk Roads as a key strategy of the BRI. She is interested in understanding how these complex ideas of shared heritage are being received, understood, and/or affecting the lived experiences of individuals and communities impacted by BRI. Erin’s research is informed by 15 years of work in cultural heritage and archaeology in Southeast Asia, Jordan, Israel, Italy, Australia, the US, and the United Kingdom. She holds an MA in Archaeology from the University College London and an MA in Cultural Heritage from Deakin University and is the founder and director of the non-profit organization, Integrated Heritage Project.

Title: Spark-ling New Social Relations. Social Network Analysis and Design-Based Research in practice

Presenter: Lukasz Krzyzowski

Technological innovation in health care can have a positive impact on seniors’ independence at home, enhance their wellbeing, and maintain social networks. While in many cases end-users’ perspectives are included in the process of technology development, this presentation provides a case study for a relation-centred approach combined with the Living Lab model. The Spark Living Lab was a creative environment where project partners and end-users were actively involved in co-designing, prototyping, and testing a mobile application through participation in social network research, a series of design thinking workshops, usability tests, and use of the app ‘in practice’ in the community, enabling the project’s outcomes to be measured and scaled up.

Bio: Dr Lukasz Krzyzowski is Manager of the UWA Social Care and Social Ageing Living Lab (UWA School of Social Sciences) and Assistant Professor at AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Lukasz is a certified project evaluator, Design Thinking facilitator, user-centred service and product designer with aged care, and community engagement expertise. Lukasz previously worked on European Commission funded projects including “ICT for Ageing Well”, and recently on “Smartcare: Social Rechnology, Aged Care, and Transnational Connections”. Lukasz currently collaborates with Befriend Inc. to co-design digital services for people with disability in WA.

 November 2019
Friday 01
11:00 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Research Seminar 2019 : Understanding School-Family Relationships and their Contribution to Children’s Religious Identity Formation in Indonesia More Information
Indonesia has been built on the pluralism principle, as enshrined in its state ideology, Pancasila. However, tension over the relationship between religion and the state has always existed. Contemporary Indonesia is marked by inter-religious conflicts, religious intolerance and the increasing discrimination against religious minorities. Education potentially could be used to promote religious tolerance in a diverse society. In the education system, religious identity formation is foregrounded in specific areas such as curriculum and in broader activities designed to create school culture. Given the centrality of religion in Indonesian culture and schooling, there is a need to better understand the religious life sphere, the possibilities for peaceful religious coexistence, and how children’s religious identities are formed. This presentation provides an outline of a proposed doctoral study that aims to explore school-family relationships and their role in shaping children’s religious identities. It is important to research these relationships for two main reasons. First, religious identity is poorly understood and is only now appearing as a sub-field within identity studies. Research about children’s religious identity is lacking globally especially in the Indonesian context. Second, while there is a large amount of work on parental involvement in schools globally, this is not the case in Indonesia, where there is a major need for further research. Data gathered will be based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork with teachers, parents, school principals, and children in two primary schools in Indonesia, and will employ participant observation, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and photo-elicitation interviews.

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series : The governing parent-citizen: School governance, policy reform and divisions of parent labour More Information
Internationally, major policy reforms seek to deepen parent and community engagement in schools. Yet whilst pervasive in policy documents, discourses surrounding ‘parent engagement’ are elastic and imprecise, ultimately gaining meaning through the technologies of governance that emerge when policies are enacted in schools. In this paper, we examine how one major reform movement in Australia is articulating new roles for parents and community members in schools: the 'Independent Public Schools' initiative in Western Australia. We argue that this reform is constructing a new ‘governing parent-citizen’, through which the parental labour of social reproduction is being extended and rearticulated. Our analysis demonstrates the intensive policy intervention required to produce this new form of parental labour and the subsequent divisions of labour it is producing.

Dr Glenn Savage is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. His research is located at the intersection of public policy and sociology, with specific expertise in schooling reform, federalism and the politics of education policy. He has recently completed an Australian Research Council 'Discovery Early Career Researcher Award' project titled 'National schooling reform and the reshaping of Australian federalism'.

Jessica Gerrard is a Senior Lecturer at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. She is an interdisciplinary researcher who works with sociological and historical methods and policy analysis to address issues of inequity in education. Her research focuses on the relationship of education to social change and politics in the context of transforming school and work contexts

Thursday 07
18:00 - SEMINAR - Centre for Muslim States and Societies Seminar Series 2019 : FOOD for THOUGHT- Event Canceled More Information
CMSS invites you to its new dinner meeting talks on Muslim societies. The talks are followed by dinner with a dish from the country a given talk is about. The first talk, in partnership with Africa Research and Engagement Centre (AfREC), UWA, is on Western Africa, by UWA analyst Muhammad Suleiman. Western Africa is the heartland of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa, a dynamic and diverse region undergoing rapid development and reforms in governance. With increasing research and policy attention focused on this crucial sub-region, this lecture offers FOOD for THOUGHT on the following questions: 1. What is the history of religion-based violence in the sub-region? 2. What are the real costs of recent developments in Western Africa to extant nation-building efforts, including for pre-existing social dynamics and conflicts? 3. What does the situation mean for foreign investment in the sub-region, such as in the resources industry? 4. What are appropriate and effective policy responses by key stakeholders and interested actors?

Muhammad Dan Suleiman recently completed a PhD in Political Science and International Relations at UWA where his thesis deconstructed Islamist movements and state-society relations in Western Africa from decolonial and pan African lenses. He is also an analyst for several think tanks and teaches units at UWA on the international politics of Africa, peace and security in Africa, and Islam in the world.

TICKETS: (Standard $50; Students $35) via Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/food-for-thought-lecture-on-western-africa-tickets-78565699121
Thursday 14
15:00 - SEMINAR - Centre for Muslim States and Societies Seminar Series 2019 : The Islamic Republic of Mauritania: yesterday, today and tomorrow More Information
Mauritania stands at the crossroads of modernity, with deep potential tensions between different groups (“white” Maures, “black” Afro-Mauritanians, and “Haratin”), threatening the country’s socio-political stability.

Recent discoveries of world-class hydrocarbon reservoirs offshore southern Mauritania, an area principally peopled by Afro-Mauritanians, further adds to these tensions. This could cause an uprising of a merged portion of the black African population against Maure dominance, with a potential balkanisation of the country in a similar scenario to that of the former Sudan.

This seminar explores these tensions and explains their roots. It will also propose potential remedies that can be formulated as public policies and joint government- industry actions to counteract potential instability.

Profile: Max is a graduate geologist (UNSW, 1975) with 44 years of international experience and has been instrumental in finding and championing the evaluation of significant hydrocarbon and mineral discoveries, most especially in Africa and the Near-East.

He is an “Officer of the National Order of Merit for the Islamic Republic of Mauritania”. This is the second such award given to a foreigner by the Mauritanian Government, the first being to the French President Charles de Gaulle. He was the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Mali in Perth between 2005 and 2016.

Max has a Graduate Diploma in Business (1988), a Masters in International Relations (2010), and a Doctorate in International Affairs awarded with Chancellor’s recommendations in 2015.

Max presently heads African Geopolitics, a socio-political advisory group that assists African governments and foreign companies in the natural resources industries to work together on the African continent. Entry for this event is free. Please register your interest through [email protected]
Friday 15
14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series : Relationships in the Making: Negotiating knowledge through documentation. More Information
Museums these days work hard to document their collections through field research, and all anthropologists are deeply involved in the everyday negotiation of their presence in different fieldwork contexts. Part of what underlies such negotiations is a principled reliance on conventional Enlightenment conceptions of knowledge. Assumptions built into this mode of making knowledge result in a perfectly rational process in which appropriation, and recontextualisation seem obvious and natural: realising the value of (data) collection by preserving and analyzing it in a reified space. However, such spaces are often claimed to be inaccessible or inutile to the people about whom they claim to know. Documentation may thus also be read as an artefact of persistent inequalities that lie behind data gathering or collecting, epitomized by the imposition of knowledge forms. While some historical collectors and many contemporary scholars work beyond the implications of this frame, it remains a formative problematic. Taking account of the diagnosis, the talk will draw on an experiment, undertaken with Reite villagers on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea, to make documentation ‘responsive’ to a different problematic: that of retaining the ‘relationality’ of knowledge. In doing so, we will explore one strategy to make documentation itself a process and a relationship, responsive to an ethics of mutual, but differentiated, value creation. Drawing upon the Melanesian practice of ‘knowledge as relationship’ is one possible way to make the process of documentation responsive to the relationships it constitutes.

James Leach is a Social Anthropologist with research interests in creativity, intellectual property, knowledge production, digital technologies, and ecological relations to place. His primary fieldsite is in Papua New Guinea, and has also undertaken fieldwork in the UK, Europe, and Australia with Contemporary dance companies, interdisciplinary collaborators, and software engineers. Some of his recent works include Dance Becoming Knowledge (with Scott deLahunta), Leonardo; The death of a drum: objects, persons, and changing social form on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute; ‘Foreword’: Ownership and Nurture Studies in Native Amazonian Property Relations, eds. Brightman, Faust, and Grotti; Leaving the Magic Out. Knowledge and effect in different places. Anthropological Forum. He works for CREDO, Université d'Aix-Marseille, France, and is an adjunct in Anthropology and Sociology at UWA.

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