2013 CCG News
Dr Amit Sarwal convenes symposium celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema
Alfred Deakin Professor David Walker in Beijing
Do One Thing For Diversity and Inclusion Campaign
PhD Scholarship - ARC Discovery Islamic Religiosity
Dr Sally Percival Wood Joins CCG
Dr Amit Sarwal to give keynote address India in Our Lives Today: The 4th ‘C’ in India-Australia Relationship
On 17th May 2013, CCG’s Dr Amit Sarwal will give a Keynote address titled “India in Our Lives Today: The 4th ‘C’ in India-Australia Relationship” and later discuss his book Wanderings in India: Australian Perceptions (Monash University Publishing, 2012) with Christopher Kremmer, Michael Kasprowicz, Phil Brown, and Lydia Pearson at the “Encounters: India” festival organised by the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffiths University, at Cinema A, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Dr Amit Sarwal’s edited book is a collection of essays about diverse encounters between Australians and Indians. The chapters provide snapshots of the wide range of interests and issues that Australians have shown towards India, representing a range of responses, reactions and experiences that chart the course of the ongoing engagement between Australians and Indians. While there is an emphasis on literary responses, charting the ebb and flow of writers’ reactions to India from the 1850s onwards, it also includes historical, political, sporting and other writings about the complex “magnetic amalgams” that link Australia and India.
Dr Amit Sarwal convenes symposium celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema
CCG's Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Amit Sarwal will soon co-convene a one day symposium, 'Salaam Cinema: Past, Present and Future - Celebrating 100 Years of Indian Cinema' at the University of Western Australia. Dr Sarwal, feels that the symposium with academic and practitioners as presenters will help larger community know more about the key transformative moments and changing phases in Bombay cinema. He’s confident that such academic interventions will help re-evaluate Australian-Indian film connections and find ways to engage and build meaningful collaborative film projects between the two countries.
Find out more about the symposium here or contact Dr Sarwal.
Alfred Deakin Professor David Walker in Beijing
In April, Professor David Walker in his role as BHP Billiton Chair of Australian Studies at Peking University was invited to attend a gathering at the St Regis Hotel, Beijing, to welcome the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. In the course of her speech the Prime Minister referred to the Chair as one of the key initiatives in the development of closer ties between Australia and China in education and research. The BHP Billiton Chair is supported by the Foundation for Australian Studies in China (FASIC) and is the first Chair of Australian Studies funded by a Foundation underwritten by corporate sponsors. David Walker, who is an Alfred Deakin Professor, took up this new, two year appointment to Peking University in February.
In April, CCG welcomed Dr Jessica Walton to the position of Research Fellow working with Associate Professor Yin Paradies on the ARC Linkage Grant 'Using Museums to Counter Racism and Increase Acceptance of Diversity Among Young People'
Dr Walton received her B.A. (Honours) at the University of Virginia and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Newcastle (N.S.W.). Her disciplinary background is in socio-cultural anthropology and her research interests include racism, identity, belonging and transnationalism. She is currently involved in an evaluation of the Identity: Yours, Mine, Ours exhibition at the Immigration Museum which seeks to understand the role of museums to address racism and promote positive attitudes toward racial, ethnic and cultural diversity among secondary school students.
In April, CCG welcomed Dr Amelia Johns to the position of Research Fellow working with Alfred Deakin Professor Fethi Mansouri, Dr Michele Lobo and Professor Bryan Turner on the ARC Discovery project 'Islamic Religiosity, and the Challenge of Political Engagement and National Belonging in Multicultural Western Cities'.
Amelia completed a PhD in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne in 2012. Her PhD explored experiences of intercultural contact between groups of young people in multicultural, urban and suburban space, and how these encounters produce forms of racism, intolerance and violent conflict alongside ‘hybrid’ identifications and expressions of belonging. Her work has been published in the journals Continuum: Journal of Media and Culture, and a forthcoming book, Critical Youth Studies for the 21st Century. Her current research reflects a growing interest in young people’s experiences of new media as spaces where social and cultural identity, citizenship and experiences of embodiment are resituated and transformed. She is also interested in exploring the role that religiosity might play in these processes.
Do One Thing For Diversity and Inclusion Campagin
CCG is a proud partner in the UNAOC/UNESCO Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion campaign. The campaign aims to build a world movement to express public support for diversity, building inclusive societies and enhancing dialogue and understanding among people and cultures. 2013 is the 11th anniverary of the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, on May 21. Find out more about the campaign and 10 simple things you can do to celebrate diversity and inclusion.
PhD Scholarship - ARC Discovery Islamic Religiosity
CCG is seeking one outstanding scholar for a PhD Scholarship (Australian Postgraduate Award $28,728 per annum) to work on a large scale study of the role of Islamic religious beliefs, values, rituals and faith-based community participation in shaping belonging in three multicultural cities.
The project, Islamic Religiosity, and the Challenge of Political Engagement and National Belonging in Multicultural Western Cities is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant. The successful applicant will work with Professor Fethi Mansouri, Dr Michele Lobo and Professor Bryan Turner. Applicants with disciplinary backgrounds in humanities or the social sciences are encouraged to apply. The award is to commence in 2013.
For further information email Cayla Edwards (email cayla.edwards@deakin.edu.au or ph. 03 9244 6658).
Alfred Deakin Professor Fethi Mansouri Awarded UNESCO Chair in Comparative Research on Cultural Diversity and Social Justice
CCG Director, Alfred Deakin Professor Fethi Mansouri has been awarded a UNESCO Chair in Comparative Research on Cultural Diversity and Social Justice to address emerging social and ethical challenges in intercultural relations and the ethical and democratic governance of cultural diversity. UNESCO Chairs serve as a prime vehicle for building higher institutions’ capacity in specific areas of scholarship through exchange, collaboration, and knowledge transfer. This new Chair will conduct multidisciplinary research projects and host high profile events aimed at producing knowledge, communicating key findings and utilising empirical evidence that can inform effective public policy. The Chair will collaborate with key community and industry partners working in the area of cultural diversity and social justice.
CCG congratulates Fethi on this prestigious achievement.
University of Techonology Sydney, with Deakin University: University Doctoral Research Scholarship with Top Up - Cyber-Racism and Community Resilience (CRaCR): An ARC Linkage Project 2013-2015 (3 years)
The CRaCR ARC Linkage team invites applications from an energetic, committed and innovative higher degree by research candidate to join it in researching cyber-racism and the pathways to community resilience. The successful candidate will work with Prof Andrew Jakubowicz (UTS) and Assoc Prof Yin Paradies (Deakin) on a segment of the wider project that suits their experience and aspirations. The candidate should have a good honours or masters degree, experience in empirical and qualitative research in the social sciences, an understanding of racism and cultural diversity, and a well-developed understanding of social media and the Internet. As well as research associated with the thesis the candidate will be involved with the team’s liaison with community organisations, development of social media responses to cyber-racism and with the development of the project’s web-presence.
Further details of the overall project are available from A.Jakubowicz@uts.edu.au (02 9514 2298).
Other ARC Linkage team members include Prof Kevin Dunn (UWS), Assoc Prof Gail Mason (USyd), Dr Ana-Maria Bliuc (Monash) and Dr Nasya Bahfen (UTS). Industry partners include the Australian Human Rights Commission, VicHealth and the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia.
Stipend (2013) $32,561 pa
Dr Amit Sarwal commenced his Alfred Deakin Post-Doctoral Fellowship with CCG in Janurary 2013.
Prior to joining CCG, Dr Sarwal was an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at SGND Khalsa College and Rajdhani College, University of Delhi, India (2007-2012). He was also an Honorary Visiting Scholar at the National Centre for Australian Studies (NCAS) and School of Political and Social Inquiry (SPSI), Monash University, under the Endeavour Asia program of DEST (2006-2007). Dr Sarwal is also the Founding Convenor, Australia-India Interdisciplinary Research Network (AIIRN).
Dr Amit Sarwal’s current research project, titled ‘Cross-Cultural Diplomacy: Indian Visitors to Australia, 1947 to 1980,’ is the first systematic, theoretically informed and empirically grounded examination of how Australia and India viewed each other in the aftermath of decolonisation. This study will not only reassess the existing literature on Australia-India engagement in relation to Indian visitors, during the period 1947 to 1980, but will also analyse the real and effective cross-cultural connections between India and Australia that the Visitors Program forged.
CCG welcomes Dr Sarwal to the team. Find out more about Dr Sarwal here.
Dr Sally Percival Wood Joins CCG
Dr Sally Percival Wood commenced her Alfred Deakin Post-Doctoral Fellowship with CCG in Janurary 2013.
Dr Percival Wood comes to CCG after two years with Asialink at the University of Melbourne where she was the Manager of Applied Research and Analysis. In this role Sally managed Asialink's Track Two dialogues inthe Asia region, including the Asialink Conversations, the annual ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Dialogue, and the Australia-ASEAN Emerging Leaders Program.
In 2012, Sally co-edited The Asialink Commission report Our Place in the Asian Century: Southeast Asia as 'The Third Way' with Professor Anthony Milner. Sally has also published several book chapters and journal articles on Australia's historical, diplomatic and cultural relations with Asia and on the Asian-African Conference at Bandung, Indonesia in 1955, the subject of her doctoral thesis (2010). She also co-authored the monograph Identity, Education and Belonging: Arab and Muslim Youth in Contemporary Australia (2008) with Alfred Deakin Professor Fethi Mansouri.
Dr Percival Wood's current research project is titled ‘Australia’s Engagement with ASEAN: The Importance of Culture’. This project examines Australia's approach to its relationships across the ASEAN region from a cultural perspective. Often, diplomatic and economic relations operate on a strictly functional basis that overlooks the currents of cultural and historical connection that operate in Southeast Asia. The project seeks to explore how Australia can better leverage its relations with Asia through a deeper, more subtle, understanding of functions of culture and history.
CCG welcomes Dr Percival Wood to the team. Find out more about Dr Percival Wood here.
