Biography
I am a Senior Research Fellow in Sociology. I study class, mobility, migration, education and inequality in Australia, with a focus on youth and family. I am particularly interested in how new and emerging forms of social mobility are enabled and stymied through intersections of social class, migration and place in contemporary Australia. Much of my research has centred rural lives and experiences.
I joined ADI Deakin in 2017 after completing a postdoctoral position in research and teaching at UNSW Sydney. I completed my PhD at the Australian National University in 2014.
Read more on Rose's profileCareer highlights
Academic Visitor (Research), Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University. Supported by the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD).
Visiting Scholar, Department of Sociology, University of Virginia.
Teaching interests
I welcome inquiries from prospective postgraduate students in relation to my research interests.
Knowledge areas
Youth and family
Class, including class inequality, social mobility and cross-class relationships
Migration and mobilities, particularly in regional and rural Australia
Schooling and education
Critical rural studies
Professional activities
ADI Executive Committee, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin
Convenor, Mobilities, Diversity & Multiculturalism Stream, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin
Associate Editor, Journal of Intercultural Studies
Member, The Australian Sociological Association; British Sociological Association; American Sociological Association
Media appearances
Select authored commentary
Butler, R. and Vincent, E. How does class impact on Australians’ love lives? New research brings a complex issue into the open. The Conversation, 2021.
Butler, R. and Ho, C. Why do parents take such different approaches to their kids' education? The Conversation, 2016.
Muir, K., Powell, A. and Butler, R. A whacking stick is not enough to get young people into work. The Conversation, 2015.
Projects
My current research program is based around three areas:
1. Through an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE190100247), I am investigating the role of class, migration and place in shaping the trajectories of young people coming-of-age in the rural city of Mildura, where I have conducted research since 2010. My current book project from this study examines diverging experiences of social mobility and immobility for youth in rural settler Australia. More information about this work is available here, including a Special Issue on Race and Place-Making in the Rural Global North in the Journal of Rural Studies (co-edited with Victoria Stead and Christopher Mayes). My most recent publication from this study examines Migration, class and intra-distinctions of whiteness in the making of inland rural Victoria. In late 2024, I will be a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.
Building on this work, I am also collaborating with Makiko Nishitani (La Trobe) and Maryanne Pale (Swinburne) on research which supports Pacific young people's working futures in Robinvale and Mildura, funded by the Scanlon Foundation.
2. I am examining the role of class difference within sustained intimate relationships between people from different class-origin backgrounds. In collaboration with Eve Vincent (Macquarie), we attend to the role that deeply encultured class-based orientations play in these cross-class relationships, and their entanglement with race, migration, gender and sexuality. Our forthcoming book, Love Across Class, with Melbourne University Publishing (May 2024), draws on in-depth interviews with 38 participants and discusses the friction, pain, solidarity, desire and humour that comes with partnering across class difference.
3. I am investigating emerging inequalities and opportunities for young skilled migrants and their families in Australia taking place at the intersection of class, family wealth and migration regimes, and in collaboration with Anita Harris (Deakin), Sherene Idriss (Western Sydney) and Sylvia Ang (Monash). I am also leading a new edited collection on Class and Migration in Australia with Sylvia Ang and Christina Ho (UTS). This collective work builds on prior research with Christina Ho and Eve Vincent on migration, schooling markets and racialisation within Australia's middle class; with Sherene Idriss and Anita Harris on interrogating whiteness in Australian youth studies; and with Megan Watkins (WSU) and Christina Ho on Asian Migration and Education Cultures in the Anglosphere.
I also work with organisations and governments on research which supports young people and families. This has included the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council, Scanlon Foundation, Burdekin Association, Mission Australia, Juluwarlu Aboriginal Corporation, Foundation for Young Australians, Raise Foundation, First Nations Foundation, University of Sydney's Global Student Recruitment and Mobility Hub, Swan Hill Rural City Council, Country Arts WA, Department of Education and Training, and Department of Social Services, among others.
Publications
Race and place-making in the rural Global North
V Stead, R Butler, C Mayes
(2023), Vol. 97, pp. 1-8, Journal of Rural Studies, C1
Rose Butler, Christina Ho, Eve Vincent
(2022), pp. 195-211, Class in Australia, Melbourne, Vic., B1
"Good to Say Out Loud": Researching Love across Class in Contemporary Australia
R Butler, E Vincent
(2022), pp. 1-16, Journal of Australian Studies, London, Eng., C1
Migration, class and intra-distinctions of whiteness in the making of inland rural Victoria
Rose Butler
(2022), Vol. 94, pp. 344-352, Journal of Rural Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, C1
Youth, mobilities and multicultures in the rural Anglosphere: positioning a research agenda
R Butler
(2021), Vol. 44, pp. 63-82, Ethnic and Racial Studies, C1
Centring settler colonialism in rural Australian multicultures: race, place and local identities
R Butler, J Ben
(2021), Vol. 47, pp. 2179-2197, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, C1
S Idriss, R Butler, A Harris
(2021), Journal of Youth Studies, C1
R Butler
(2021), Children's Geographies, C1
Young people's rural multicultures: researching social relationships among youth in rural contexts
R Butler
(2020), Vol. 23, pp. 1178-1194, Journal of youth studies, London, Eng., C1
Asian Migration and Education Cultures in the Anglosphere
Megan Watkins, Christina Ho, Rose Butler
(2020), London, Eng., A7
Rose Butler, Ho Christina, Eve Vincent
(2019), pp. 126-140, Journal Of Ethnic And Migration Studies, Abingdon, Eng., B1
Rose Butler
(2019), pp. 147-159, Youth, Place and Theories of Belonging, Abingdon, Eng., B1
R Butler, C Ho, E Vincent
(2017), Vol. 43, pp. 2408-2422, Journal of ethnic and migration studies, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Young people's education biographies: family relationships, social capital and belonging
R Butler, K Muir
(2017), Vol. 20, pp. 316-331, Journal of Youth Studies, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Children making sense of economic insecurity: facework, fairness and belonging
R Butler
(2017), Vol. 53, pp. 94-109, Journal of Sociology, London, Eng., C1
E Vincent, R Butler, C Ho
(2017), Vol. 25, pp. 29-36, Emotion, Space and Society, C1
Indigenous small businesses in the Australian Indigenous economy
J Collins, M Morrison, B Krivokapic-Skoko, R Butler, P Basu
(2016), pp. 265-274, Engaging indigenous economy : debating diverse approaches, Canberra, A. C. T., B1
Rose Butler
(2016), Vol. 37, pp. 339-354, Journal of intercultural studies, London, Eng., C1
R Butler
(2015), Vol. 10, pp. 340-355, Ethnography and education, London, Eng., C1-1
Everyday and cosmo-multiculturalisms: doing diversity in gentrifying school communities
C Ho, E Vincent, R Butler
(2015), Vol. 36, pp. 658-675, Journal of intercultural studies, Abingdon, Eng., C1-1
Rose Butler
(2013), Vol. 28, pp. 148-160, Visual studies, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Strengthening Intercultural Relationships among Australia's Rural Youth
Dr Rose Butler
ARC DECRA - Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
- 2021: $143,873
- 2020: $142,572
- 2019: $145,388
Supervisions
Rouven Link
Thesis entitled: Narratives of cultural diversity among older white people in rural Australia
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences