ANNUAL REPORT 2009 AB10/120 11 August 2010
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AB10/120 11 August 2010 ANNUAL REPORT 2009 AB10/120 11 August 2010 Annual Report 2009 CONTENTS Centre Overview . 1 Director’s Report . 2 Research Projects New ...................................4 Continuing . 4 Completed . 6 Features Home Lands . 7 SettleMEN . 10 Research Collaborations . 12 Research Collaboration in Focus . 12 Research Grants . 13 From the !eld . 14 Publications and Reports .. 18 Conference Presentations . 20 Seminars and Guest Lectures . 21 LaRRC postgraduate Seminar Series . 22 LaRRC Events . 22 Other Sta" Activities . 23 Educational Activities . 24 Scholarships and Fellowships . 25 Event in Focus . 26 Funding . 28 LaRRC Sta" in 2009 Front cover illustrations by Kat Chadwick Illustrations. (Originally presented as case study illustrations in Gi!ord, S.M., Correa-Velez, I. and La Trobe Refugee Research Centre Sampson, R. (2009) ‘Good Starts for School of Social Sciences recently arrived youth with refugee La Trobe University backgrounds: Promoting wellbeing Bundoora VIC 3086 in the "rst three years of settlement in Australia Melbourne, Australia’. Melbourne: La Phone: +61 3 9479 5874 Trobe Refugee Research Centre, La Email: [email protected] Trobe University.) Website: www.latrobe.edu.au/larrc 1 AB10/120 11 August 2010 Annual Report 2009 CENTRE OVERVIEW The La Trobe Refugee Research Centre – LaRRC (formerly the Refugee Health Research Centre – RHRC) takes a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to research in the field of refugee and forced migration studies. As part of La Trobe University’s School of Social displacement and their impacts on human security. Sciences, and a core a#liate of the Institute for A key focus of LaRRC is to investigate the social Human Security, LaRRC works to promote the determinants of wellbeing of people with refugee wellbeing, participation and social inclusion of backgrounds, the contexts that promote optimal people with refugee backgrounds through applied resettlement and the socio-political factors that and foundation research, teaching, continuing hinder or promote social inclusion while also education and professional development. promoting access and equity to health and social services for communities with refugee backgrounds Organised around the key themes of displacement, and raising awareness of refugee issues through $ight and refuge LaRRC aims to raise public teaching in the undergraduate curriculum across awareness and contribute to national global debate University faculties. about the causes and consequences of forced 11 AB10/120 11 August 2010 Annual Report 2009 DIRECTOR'S REPORT 2009 marked the La Trobe Refugee Research Centre’s fifth year and was a year of completion and new directions. We successfully !nished two major research studies of young people with that focused on promoting the wellbeing of youth refugee backgrounds. with refugee backgrounds. We launched a range of In particular these new research materials including DVDs, reports and short !lms explore journal publications. We introduced a new name the experiences for the centre, now the La Trobe Refugee Research of integration Centre (LaRRC), which highlights the broadening and settlement, of our research focus. We had two PhD students discrimination, identity graduate and continued in our support of students and becoming ‘at home’. with refugee backgrounds who are undertaking %e launch provided a university studies. forum for the project’s researchers, !lm-makers and young people who collaborated in the production During 2009 the research activities of the LaRRC of the !lm to discuss the issues and themes with a have been greatly informed by the broader challenges public audience. of refugee resettlement in Australia and elsewhere. A key issue we have tackled is that of racism and other All of our work during 2009 has been heavily forms of discrimination that are experienced by in$uenced by the outcomes of our recent studies, many recently arrived individuals. Here as in other with particular reference to Good Starts, Good countries, these many forms of discrimination act Starts Arts and SettleMEN, where racism and social as major barriers to resettlement and to wellbeing. exclusion have emerged as key barriers to wellbeing %ese are issues that we have addressed in our and settlement in Australia. Our !ndings regarding research and in the everyday lives of those with these issues were re$ected in numerous pieces of whom we work and collaborate. work throughout the year, including an opinion piece and a LaRRC collaborative submission on human During 2009 the Good Starts for Refugee Youth rights and social inclusion to the Australian Human study was completed. %e last round of data Rights Commission on African Australians. collection was !nished in early 2009 and by the end of the year we had produced a !nal report which We congratulate Dr Tulsi Bisht who completed highlights both the high hopes and optimism that his PhD during the year entitled ‘Displacement these youth bring to their resettlement and the resettlement and everyday life: an ethnographic study challenges they face in making their dreams come of people displaced by Tehri Dam in India’. We also true. congratulate Dr Meredith Levi for completion of her Doctor of Health Psychology, with her thesis %e Good Starts Arts project was brought to a close entitled ‘Changing experiences of motherhood: during the year with the screening of the DVD 4us: the impact of refugee experiences on parenting Young people with refugee backgrounds living in adolescents’. Australia at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Federation Square, Melbourne on World Dr Ignacio Correa-Velez and his Queensland-based Refugee Day. %is was a public showcasing of four team of researchers completed the third round of documentaries focusing on the everyday experiences data collection for the SettleMEN project during 2 AB10/120 11 August 2010 Annual Report 2009 DIRECTOR'S REPORT (continued) 2009. %e project is a collaborative e"ort between Sociology Program. %is innovative project is LaRRC and the Queensland Program of Assistance exploring how digital TV and other media might to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT). play an important role in helping youth maintain %is team has been working successfully throughout social connections across national borders. Ms the year to collect data and report on the !ndings of Robyn Sampson, a former Research O#cer with this broad-reaching study into refugee men’s health the Good Starts Study, began her PhD research on and wellbeing. alternatives to immigration detention in partnership with the International Detention Coalition. Our Sadly, LaRRC mourned the tragic death of one of collaboration with Dr Savitri Taylor and Ms Brynna the members of the SettleMEN team, Mr Stephen Ra"erty from the La Trobe University School of Yanga, who drowned while on holidays at the Gold Law continued with the study of Australia’s border Coast. We lend our support and sympathies to control policy on the human rights of asylum seekers Stephen’s family and friends, as well as to his close in Indonesia and PNG – the !nal report of which colleagues in this project. will be forthcoming in 2010. Mr Yusuf Sheikh Omar (LaRRC postgraduate 2009 also saw Dr Celia McMichael and Dr Sue student) and Ms Saharla Hassan (third year Chaplin working on issues of climate-related Bachelor of International Relations student displacement. Celia’s focus was on the health impacts, placement) organized a very successful one-day while Sue explored the gaps in social science research Somali youth conference, the focus of which was relating to climate-related displacement in South Asia. education and intergenerational issues facing Somali Dr Celia McMichael also continued to publish on youth living in Australia. %e Somali community issues of sexual health among recently arrived youth. was well represented at this event and they were joined by representatives from state and federal LaRRC continues to enjoy being part of a robust bodies including the Australian Federal Police, and exciting environment in the School of Social service providers and community organizations. Sciences at La Trobe University and a core a#liate %e conference provided a forum for community of the University’s Institute for Human Security. discussion and debate about many di#cult issues During 2009 this new positioning for LaRRC was facing the Somali community and lead to the cultivated, fostering student supervision, teaching development of a number of strategies designed to opportunities and interdisciplinary research tackle these in the future. partnerships across the University. LaRRC’s recognized strength in working in close Finally, LaRRC participated in the UNHCR collaboration with other organizations continued Regional Consultations with academics and NGOs throughout 2009 and remains a core mission during which we were able to push forward an of the centre for the future. During the year we important research agenda for forced migration in completed a study of family reunion in partnership Australian and the region. with Foundation House, under the leadership of Dr Brooke Wilmsen-McDonald. We also worked We are looking forward to an exciting year in 2010 closely with the Centre for Multicultural Youth, with new projects coming on line and important the City of Melbourne and the Association for opportunities for translating our research !ndings Progressive Communications to kick o" the new into practice and policy. study, Home Lands, which is being co-lead by Dr Raelene Wilding from