Borders and Diversity
Program Co-Convenors: Dr Benjamin Hanckel and Dr Valentina Baú
The Borders and Diversity Research Program conducts critical social inquiry on contemporary cultural diversity and the intensifying presence of borders that govern labour, life and movement.
Conditions of ‘uneven globalisation’ and increasing use of digital technologies are radically shifting our capacities to ‘move’ and participate across various social and political boundaries. In reshaping practices, they offer both new limitations and opportunities for participation in the world. Of particular importance for our research is understanding these as they take place in and across contexts.
Existing practices of diversity and inclusion at local, national and transnational scales are opening up new opportunities. The growing momentum of engagement in issues such as the Black Lives Matters campaign, recognition of Indigenous sovereignty through decolonisation approaches, and climate change-induced displacement, further point to critical ruptures in the logic of internal and external borders. These ruptures require scholarship that questions such logics and examines border regimes as they interact with lived experiences and cultural diversity across place(s).
Drawing on interdisciplinary methods across cultural studies, sociology, geography, development studies, communication and media studies, we are experts in conducting research with diverse populations across a number of strategic contexts: these include education, technology practice, social cohesion, migrants and refugees, gender and sexuality, diversity in media representation, and everyday sites of dis/connection, family and belonging.
We work with national and international partners and end-users in policy, social services, education, health, technology and the media. We focus on projects that amplify institutional and community impact and cross-sector knowledge translation.
Our work aims to:
- answer the most pressing questions that enable and support the expression of diverse communities and the development of institutional practices;
- produce research that surfaces the experiences of those living within and across contexts that are constrained by border regimes;
- advocate for inclusive and supportive outcomes that have an impact in the communities we work with;
- foster collaboration between scholars and communities;
- form a strong network of partnerships with industries, which are key in promoting knowledge and outputs that enhance understanding and address both enabling and constraining structures across society.
Current Members
| Name of the Researcher | Affiliation | Research Focus |
| Valentina Baú | Institute for Culture and Society | Communication for Development; Communicating with Communities; Participatory Communication; Communication for Peace; Communication for Social Change. |
| Shiva Chandra | The Young and Resilient Research Centre, Institute for Culture and Society | Youth; LGBT+; Race; Digital Technology; Personal Life. |
| Alexandra Coleman | School of Humanities and Communication Arts | Class; Place; Western Sydney; Bourdieu; Education. |
| Benjamin Hanckel | Institute for Culture and Society; Young and Resilient Research Centre | Health; Youth; Digital; Gender; Sexuality. |
| Kate Huppatz | School of Social Sciences | Gender; Work; Care; Families; Social Class; Violence. |
| Jorge Knijnik | School of Education | Democracy; Curriculum; Gender; Sports; Education. |
| Quah Ee Ling | School of Humanities and Communication Arts | Migration; Race; Genders; Sexualities; Decoloniality. |
| Liwan Liyanage | Computer Data and Mathematical Sciences | Internal Migration; International Migration; Spatio-Temporal Disease Classification; Migrant Child Health; Data Science and Digital Technology. |
| Jasbeer Musthafa Mamalipurath | Institute for Culture and Society | Misinformation; Disinformation; Digital; Muslims; Caste. |
| Rachel Morley | School of Humanities and Communication Arts | Arts and Cultural Engagement and Innovation; Region Arts; Participatory Storytelling; Life-writing; Ageing and Creativity. |
| Brett Neilson | Institute for Culture and Society | Borders; Logistics; Extraction; Automation; Geopolitics. |
| Lucy Nicholas | School of Social Sciences | Gender Diversity; Sexualities; Masculinities; Right-wing Extremism; Gender-based Violence. |
| Greg Noble | Institute for Culture and Society | Ethnicity; Migration; Multiculturalism; Education; Bourdieu |
| Nukte Ogun | Young and Resilient Research Centre | Children and Young People; Online Safety; Research Impact; Communication; Media. |
| Melissa Phillips | School of Social Sciences | Migration; Displacement; Diaspora; Settlement and Refugees. |
| Corrinne T Sullivan | School of Social Sciences | Indigenous; Gender; Sexuality; Diversity; LGBTIQ+SB. |
| Megan Watkins | School of Education | Affect; Bourdieu; Multicultural Education; Asian Migration; Pedagogy |
| Alexandra Wong | Institute for Culture and Society | Multiculturalism; Migration; Chinese diaspora; Multicultural Education; Ethnoburbs. |
Selected Publications
Books
- Asian Migration and Education Cultures in the Anglosphere (opens in a new window) by Megan Watkins, Christina Ho, Rose Butler
- Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor (opens in a new window) by Sandro Mezzadra, Brett Neilson
- Class, Place, and Higher Education: Experiences of Homely Mobility (opens in a new window) by Alexandra Coleman
- Doing Diversity Differently in a Culturally Complex World: Critical Perspectives on Multicultural Education (opens in a new window) by Megan Watkins and Greg Noble
- Fields, Capitals, Habitus: Australian Culture, Inequalities and Social Divisions (opens in a new window) by Tony Bennett, David Carter, Modesto Gayo, Michelle Kelly and Greg Noble
- Gender, Work and Social Theory: The Critical Consequences of the Cultural Turn (opens in a new window) by Kate Huppatz
'Si nos permiten jugar' (opens in a new window) by Gabriela Garton, Jorge Knijnik - The World Cup Chronicles, 31 Days that Rocked Brazil (opens in a new window) by Jorge D. Knijnik
- Understanding Diaspora Development: Lessons from Australia and the Pacific (opens in a new window) by Melissa Phillips, Louise Olliff
Book Chapters
- Borders (opens in a new window) by Sandro Mezzadra, Brett Neilson
- Diaspora homeland travel: transnational mobilities, material heritage and the re-making of Chinese identities (opens in a new window) by Alexandra Wong
- Exploring Southeast Asian Queer Migrant Biographies: Queer Utopia, Capacitations, and Debilitations (opens in a new window) by Quah Ee Ling Sharon and Shawna Tang
- The ‘career’ of the migrant (opens in a new window) by Greg Noble, Paul Tabar
- The care crisis: a research priority for the pandemic era and beyond (opens in a new window) by Kate Huppatz and Lyn Craig
- The Persistence of Inequality: Education, class and cultural capital (opens in a new window) by Megan Watkins
- When the City Calls: Mapping Indigenous Australian Queer Placemaking in Sydney (opens in a new window) by Corrinne T. Sullivan
- Zhongshan in Sydney’s Chinatown (opens in a new window) by Alexandra Wong
Journal Articles
- ‘Although I had a failed marriage, I won't be a failure as a mother’: An analysis of Vietnamese single mothers' involvement in their children's schooling (opens in a new window) by Tho Thi Vu, Kate Huppatz and Helena Onnudottir.
- ‘People Pay Me for Sex’: Contemporary Lived Experiences of Indigenous Australian Sex Workers (opens in a new window) by Corrinne T. Sullivan
- A Multi-Faceted and Relational Approach to Gay Men’s Identities (opens in a new window) by Shiva Chandra
- Advocates, Implementers or Allies? NGOs between Humanitarian Borderwork and Migration Management in Libya (opens in a new window) by Melissa Phillips
- Ageing, sexualities and place: Aligning the geographies of gerontology and sexualities (opens in a new window) by Andrew Gorman-Murray, Corrinne Sullivan, Emilie Baganz
- Art, Development and Peace Working with Adolescents Living in Internally Displaced People's Camps in Mindanao (opens in a new window) by Valentina Baú
- Civil Society and Migration Governance across European Borderlands (opens in a new window) by Paolo Cuttitta, Antoine Pécoud and Melissa Phillips
- Framing the Representation of Refugee Children and Adolescents: a key informant review of the Italian Media (opens in a new window) by Valentina Baú
- Leaving the Camps Behind: the role of development communication in refugee-host integration (opens in a new window) by Valentina Baú
- Making friends with the family: A fresh look at coming out (opens in a new window) by Shiva Chandra and Jennifer Wilkinson
- Muslim Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Western Sydney: Understanding the Role of Community-Specific Communication Infrastructure (opens in a new window) by Jasbeer Musthafa Mamalipurath and Tanya Notley
- Navigating Emotions at the Site of Racism: Feminist Rage, Queer Pessimism and Fire Dragon Feminism (opens in a new window) by Sharon Ee Ling Quah
- New writing in an aged care setting (opens in a new window) by Melinda Jewell, Rachel Morley and Anthony Uhlmann
- Queer ethics and fostering positive mindsets toward non-binary gender, genderqueer, and gender ambiguity (opens in a new window) by Lucy Nicholas
- Sydney as ‘Sinoburbia’: Patterns of diversification across emerging Chinese ethnoburbs (opens in a new window) by Shanthi Robertson, Alexandra Wong, Christina Ho, Ien Ang, and Phillip Mar
- The capitalist virus (opens in a new window) by Sandro Mezzadra, Brett Neilson
- The woman writer's body: Multiplicity, neoliberalism, and feminist resistance (opens in a new window) by Sharon Ee Ling Quah, Alexandra Ridgway
- Tree-Based Models Using Random Grid Search Optimization for Disease Classification Based on Environmental Factors: A Case Study on Asthma Hospitalizations (opens in a new window) by Prathayne Nanthakumaran and Liwan Liyanage
- When Islam goes to TED: features of a postsecular storytelling on Islam in new media (opens in a new window) by Jasbeer Musthafa Mamalipurath
- Whiteness, Heteropaternalism, and the Gendered Politics of Settler Colonial Populist Backlash Culture in Australia (opens in a new window) by Lucy Nicholas
- Why Do I Need to Talk About ‘Culture’? Realising you are ‘Brown’ in Academia (opens in a new window) by Shiva Chandra
Other Publications
- Examining the Problem of Misinformation among the Indian Diaspora in Australia (opens in a new window) by Jasbeer Musthafa Mamalipurath
- Gender Equity in the Workplace: Intersectional and Gender & Sexuality Diverse Approaches (opens in a new window) by Lucy Nicholas, ShivaChandra, Benjamin Hanckel, Jacqueline Ullman and Tania Ferfolja
- Online Safety in the Pacific: A report on a Living Lab in Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands (opens in a new window) by Amanda Third, Girish Lala, Lilly Moody, Nukte Ogun
- Online safety perceptions, needs, and expectations of young people in Southeast Asia (opens in a new window) by Girish Lala, Shiva Chandra, Nukte Ogun, Lilly Moody and Amanda Third
- Out-of-Home-Care (OOHC) Digital Lives: A Collaborative Investigation into Digital Opportunities for the Personal Narratives of Young People in Care (opens in a new window) by Milissa Deitz, Rachel Morley and Katie Sutherland
- Space and Time Data Exploration of Air Quality Based on PM10 Sensor Data in Greater Sydney 2015–2021 (opens in a new window) by Lakmini Wijesekara, Prathayne Nanthakumaran and Liwan Liyanage
- The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup: Human Rights Legacy and Impact for the Australian Grassroots Sports Gender Equity Agenda: A Pilot Study (opens in a new window) by Jorge D. Knijnik
- The presentation of political actors on the stage of human life : framing complex Australian decisions about Ottoman-Armenian deaths (opens in a new window) by Nukte Ogun