Last week, on International Women’s Day (Wednesday 8 March), we hosted our first all-staff Research and Planning Day for the year.

The welcome and opening was given by Alfred Deakin Professor Fethi Mansouri, who shed light on this year’s IWD theme: #EmbraceEquity and reflected on the institute’s impressive cohort of female researchers as well as the incredible women who have shaped his own life. 

The morning commenced with presentations from our ADI stream convenors, who each discussed the highlights and challenges for the stream last year, as well as their research plans for this year and a snapshot of upcoming activities for the year ahead. 

MDM Convenors Prof Anita Harris and Dr Earvin Cabalquinto

GDP Co-Convenor A/Prof Joshua Roose

PPH Co-Convenor Dr Virginie Rey

CES Co-Convenor A/Prof Maurizio Meloni

Overview of ADI research stream activities in 2023: 

Mobilities, Diversity and Multiculturalism (MDM) – led by Professor Anita Harris and Dr Earvin Cabalquinto. 

The Mobilities, Diversity and Multiculturalism stream critically addresses the opportunities and challenges of the movement of peoples, ideas, information and capital in a global, and digital world. 

Key activities 

1. Media, Inclusion and Migration (MIM) Network 

2. Multicultural Communities and Social Cohesion in the Aftermath of COVID-19 

3. In Our Language: Community Media & Migrants’ Social Resilience 

4. MDM Seminar Series 

5. MDM Book Series 

Governance, Development and Peace (GDP) – led by Associate Professor Joshua Roose and Professor Ihsan Yilmaz 

Positioning itself at the intersection of critical interdisciplinary approaches, the GDP research stream is interested in expanding interrogations of ‘development’, ‘governance’ and ‘peace’ in new ways by bringing these areas of inquiry into interdisciplinary conversations. 

Key activities 

1. Land, Sea and Archipelago: the Conflict in the South China Sea and New Directions in Geopolitics 

2. An international Workshop on South Korean and Australian Responses to China’s Economic Sanctions 

3. 10th Annual Workshop on “Natural Experiments in History: Development, Health and Labour” 

4. Roundtable Symposium: Counter-Terrorism in Australia: a 20 year review of Governance, Policy and Law 

5. International Workshop on Authoritarian Governments, Sharp Power, Digital Technologies and Diasporas 

 People, Place, Heritage (PPH) – led by Dr Virginie Rey and Dr Victoria Stead 

Relationships between people, place and the past shape our experience of what it is to be human in the present. The People, Place, Heritage stream supports research from diverse humanities and social science perspectives to address questions of how these relationships change across space, time and material form. 

Key activities 

1. The Pasts, Presents and Futures of Collections 

2. The Future of Food Production seminar series 

3. Engaging with cultural safety in museums 

4. Migration + Place + Architecture Research: What next? 

5. PPH works-in-progress seminar series 

Culture, Environment and Science (CES) – led by Associate Professor Maurizio Meloni and Dr Tamara Browne 

The Culture, Environment and Science stream brings the conceptual tools, methods and approaches of the humanities and social sciences to bear on the challenging questions facing today’s interconnected world. 

Key activities 

1. Vernacular Ontologies and Practices of Care in the Global South. Collaboration with STS scholar and sociologist of medicine Harish Naraindas 

2. Climate ethics and carbon affects 

3. A multilingual glossary for STS 

4. Justice and the microbial determinants of health 

5. Rethinking trusteeship in the Anthropocene 

The day was jam packed with insightful presentations from Professor Stephane Shepherd, Professor Cassandra Atherton and Dr Arif Saba, all new to the institute, about their career highlights, research interests, professional activities and current research projects.  

Prof Stephane Shepherd

Prof Cassandra Atherton

Next we heard from some of our research networks and centres, including Deakin Science and Society Network (presented by Dr Timothy Neale), Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism (AVERT) Network (presented by Professor Michele Grossman and Ms Lydia Khalil) and the Centre for Contemporary History (CCH) (presented by Professor David Lowe).  

Dr Timothy Neale

Prof Michele Grossman

Ms Lydia Khalil

Prof David Lowe

To conclude the day, Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh chaired a Q&A session with Mr Robin Scott, the institute’s first ever Industry Professor. In his role as Industry Professor at the Institute, Robin will be leading our strategic work around impactful partnerships and engagement with end-users of our work. 

Prof Shahram Akbarzadeh (left) and Mr Robin Scott (right)

We hope you will join with us and engage with our impactful research projects and our various engagement and dissemination activities throughout this year. Be sure to sign up to our mailing list to keep up to date with the latest ADI news and upcoming events.