Prof Anita Harris

youth identities and cultures; citizenship, participation and new politics; mobilities, migration and multiculturalism; girls' studies

Adjunct Research Professor, Youth Lab, Wellington Faculty of Education, Victoria University, New Zealand.

Research Affiliate, the Centre for Urban Youth Research, Carleton University, Canada.

Adjunct Research Professor, School of Social Sciences, Monash University

Honorary Research Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland

I welcome inquiries from prospective higher degree by research students on any aspect of my research interests.

My areas of expertise are:

youth studies, including youth identities and cultures; citizenship, participation and new politics; globalisation, mobility and multiculturalism.

girls' studies, including sociological and cultural studies of girlhood; young women and feminism; mediated femininities.

Anita Harris is a youth sociologist whose internationally recognised research focuses on young people, cultural diversity, gender, social inclusion and civic engagement in a globalised, mobile world. Her work elaborates this theme along three axes: 1. mobility, migration, citizenship and social cohesion; 2. new modes of civic and political participation, and 3. postfeminist girlhood.

• Youth/young people's issues

Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

Deakin leader, Youth, Diversity and Wellbeing in a Digital Age research and program stream, Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies

Stream co-leader, Mobilities, Diversity and Multiculturalism stream, ADI

Director, Consortium for Youth, Generations and Culture 

Member, Australian Sociological Association (Youth Thematic Group; Migration, Ethnicity & Multiculturalism Thematic Group)

Member, International Sociological Association (Sociology of Youth Research Committee; Sociology of Migration Research Committee; Racism, Nationalism & Ethnic Relations Research Committee); Cultural Studies Association

International Advisory Board member, 'Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation', European Commission FP7 project

International Advisory Board member, ‘Empowerment through liquid integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions’ (MIMY), Horizon 2020 project 

Advisory Board member, 'Building Stronger Communities: the Status of Young People from CALD Backgrounds', ARC LP project

former Associate Editor, The Journal of Youth Studies; Journal of Intercultural Studies

Deakin leader of the 'Youth, Diversity and Wellbeing in a Digital Age' research and program stream in the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies

Co-convenor of the 'Mobilities, Diversity and Multiculturalism' research stream in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation

member, International Sociological Association (‘Sociology of Youth’, ‘Sociology of Migration’, & ‘Racism, Nationalism & Ethnic Relations’ committees); Australian Sociological Association (‘Youth’, ‘Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism’ & ‘Indigenous Sociology’ thematic groups); Cultural Studies Association; Asia Pacific Sociological Association

Elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), 2022

ARC Future Fellow, 2011-2015

Certificate of Recognition, Vice Chancellor's Award for Social Inclusion, 2013

I facilitate a major research program as the Deakin leader of the 'Youth, Diversity and Wellbeing in a Digital Age' research and program stream of the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (https://www.crisconsortium.org/youth-diversity-wellbeing#projects). I am also currently undertaking several major research projects:

• The Effects of Transnational Mobility on Youth Transitions (ARC Discovery Project, CIs Harris, Baldassar, Robertson). Young people increasingly migrate abroad for work and education, and Australia is a significant hub for sending and receiving. Migration and education policies encourage this mobility, which is expected to provide youth with enhanced life chances and competitive skills. However, very little research examines its effects on young people’s transitions. This longitudinal project thus investigates how transnational mobility affects young people’s ability to not only achieve desirable qualifications and livelihoods, but to be connected and engaged in their social and civic worlds as these become more dispersed spatially and less predictable temporally.https://www.ymapproject.org/

• Youth Global Digital Citizenship (ARC Discovery Project; CIs Johns, Walton, Caluya, Harris). This project aims to understand how young Australians think about and express their digital citizenship in secondary school classes and in their everyday digital and social media use. We investigate relationships between young people’s ‘everyday’ use of digital and social media and civic engagement, political activism, and anti-racist action that can provide a sense of belonging, global community and connectedness. (https://youthdigitalcitizenship.com/)

• Understanding Digital Participation Amongst Young People of Migrant and Refugee Backgrounds (VicHealth Impact grant; CIs Harris, Lam, Third, Collin, Idriss). This project investigates what helps and hinders young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds to participate in the digital world, focusing on work, study, connection and wellbeing.  (https://www.crisconsortium.org/refugee-migrant-digital-participation)

Former projects include:

• Young People and Social Inclusion in the Multicultural City (ARC Future Fellowship). This project explored young people's negotiation of social cohesion and civic belonging in multicultural societies. It investigated the function of civic space and youth cultures in young people’s practices of social inclusion and exclusion and established how young people of diverse backgrounds create and contest productive intercultural relations. .http://www.deakin.edu.au/adi/our-research/projects/young-people-and-social-inclusion-in-the-multicultural-city

• The Civic Life of Young Australian Muslims: Active Citizenship, Community Belonging and Social Inclusion (ARC Discovery Project). This project investigated established and emergent forms of civic engagement amongst young Australian Muslims of migrant background. It ascertained the extent of their use of formal, informal, subcultural and everyday strategies for participation in civic life and belonging in community. http://http://www.deakin.edu.au/adi/our-research/projects/the-civic-life-of-young-australian-muslims-active-citizenship-community-belonging-and-social-inclusion