RAS Activities & Events
RAS Postgraduate Conference
RAS Dreamlarge Student Knowledge Transfer Project
RAS Knowledge Transfer Project Briefing Papers and Report
RAS Planning Day 2009
RAS film screening – Refugee Week 2009
If you would like to organise or suggest a project or event for RAS then please email ras-contact@unimelb.edu.au. A member of the RAS Committee will respond as soon as possible.
RAS Postgraduate Conference
The annual RAS postgraduate conference will be held Thursday 26 November 2009, 9:30am – 4:30pm.
The RAS conference is designed for Postgraduate students from Australia and New Zealand to interact and share their current research/work among peers in a friendly and stimulating environment. Research can be Australian or international in scope. Students from all universities welcome.
Keynote speaker: Phil Glendenning, Director of Edmund Rice Centre, involved in the documentary A Well Founded Fear and the publicationDeported to Danger: the continuing study of Australia’s treatment of rejected asylum seekers will give the opening keynote address.
The keynote speaker address will be held between 10am-11am (we ask that you arrive a few minutes before to ensure a prompt start).
Venue:
Multi-function Room, 2nd Floor,
1888 building Graduate Centre,
University of Melbourne,
Grattan Street, Parkville.
See http://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville/building/198?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=m
All welcome to attend! You don’t have to be a postgraduate student to attend. Attendance is free but we ask you RSVP for catering purposes to ras-contact@unimelb.edu.au
Please note: You are welcome to attend part or all of the conference
Researchers for Asylum Seekers: Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, 26th November, 2009 |
9.30 am
|
Registration, presentation set up with arrival coffee |
10.00 -10.20 am |
Prof Nick Haslam, School of Behavioural Science, UoM |
Opening Address |
10.20-10.50 am |
Phil Glendenning |
Guest Speaker |
Edmund Rice Centre, Awareness, Advocacy, Action |
10.50-11.00 a.m. |
|
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
|
Session 1 |
Chair: |
Surjeet Dhanji |
|
11.00-11.20 am |
Amy Nethery
Phd Candidate |
Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights
Deakin University |
Report from Christmas Island |
11.20-11.40 a.m. |
Adele Garnier
Phd Candidate
|
Politics and International Relations
Macquarie University
|
Is refugee resettlement an alternative to asylum?
structural relations between refugee resettlement
and asylum policies in Europe and Australia
|
11.40-12 noon |
Katrina Stats
Phd Candidate
|
School of History and Politics
University of Adelaide
|
Tampa vs. Tampere
Comparing Asylum Policies in Australia and the EU
|
12 - 12.10 p.m. |
|
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
|
12.10-12.20pm |
|
BREAK |
|
Session 2 |
Chair: |
Nikola Balvin |
|
12.20-12.40 p.m |
Dr. Erminia Colucci |
Centre for International Mental Health
University of Melbourne
|
Mental health research and policy for young people of refugee background |
12.40-1.00 p.m. |
Deborah Hocking
Phd Candidate
|
Victoria University |
The Mental Health Profile of Asylum seekers : Characterising the effect of trauma on depressed and anxiety symptomatalogy |
1.00-1.20 p.m. |
Elisha Riggs
Phd Candidate
Research Fellow
|
McCaughey Centre
University of Melbourne |
Cultural competence in child oral health research |
1.20-1.30 p.m. |
|
QUESTIONS AN D ANSWERS |
|
1.30-2.10 p.m. |
|
L U N C H |
L U N C H |
Session 3 |
Chair: |
Nikola Balvin |
|
2.10-2.30 p.m. |
Alexdandra Horwood
Hons |
Political Science
University of Melbourne |
Backpackers vs Queue-Jumpers
Perceptions of Illegal Immigrants in Australia |
2.30-2.50 p.m. |
Karen Block
PhD candidate
|
McCaughey Centre
School of Population Health
University of Melbourne
|
Conducting socially inclusive research: reflectionson working with refugee youth |
2.50-3.10 p.m. |
Zewdu Wege
PhD candidate |
Adelaide University
Dept of Geography n Environmental Studies
|
Social networks and remittances of Horn of Africa refugee migrants: An emerging diaspora |
3.10-3.20 p.m. |
|
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
|
3.20-3.30 p.m. |
|
BREAK |
|
Session 4 |
Chair: |
Jo Tropea |
|
3.30-3.50 p.m |
Nayano Taylor-Neumann
Phd Candidate
|
University of New England |
Integration of the Afghan TPV holders in Murray Bridge |
3.50 - 4.10 p.m. |
Iris Dumenden
PhD Candidate
|
La Trobe University |
The transition to tertiary educatio : How difficult is it for a refugee student to get into University |
4.10 - 4.15 p.m. |
|
Q & A |
|
4.15 - 4.30 p.m. |
|
Closing remarks and thank you note by Jo Tropea |
|
RAS Dreamlarge Student Knowledge Transfer Project
RAS has also been successful in recieving a Dreamlarge Knowledge Transfer Student Project Grant for the project, Building bridges across communities: Creating balanced images of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. RAS will be joined in this project by partner organisation the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) and partner individuals professional photojournalist Dave Tacon and Rachael Bongiorno of the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasting Council.
The recent ALP policy announcement on immigration detention heralds a positive change in Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. However, the continued emphasis on tough border security in this announcement, alongside recent flare-ups of anti-asylum seeker rhetoric in major daily newspapers, points to the continued existence of negative attitudes towards such groups.
At a recent forum Foundation House Director, Paris Aristotle, argued for changing these negative attitudes through the presentation of “normalizing” narratives of refugee and asylum seeker experiences. In line with Mr Aristotle’s idea, research that applied ‘normative social influence’ showed it an effective way to change negative attitudes towards minority groups. Based on this research and sector opinion, this project aims to normalize the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers by sharing their stories via media easily accessible to the general public.
The RAS members involved will work closely with the ASRC to source refugee and asylum seeker participants who may wish to have their stories told. Drawing on their own unique skills gained through their PhD research (including oral history interviewing and documentary film-making), and the expertise of professional media partners, they will record interviews with the participants or facilitate participants to create their own stories. The project aims to tell the stories of asylum seekers and refugees who arrived in Australia over a large time span, showing how refugees have contributed to Australian society over many years.
Expected outcomes include a series of articles which will be pitched, utilizing the assistance and contacts of Dave Tacon, to newspapers and magazines of wide outreach, including the Good Weekend and the Big Issue, as well as community magazines and newspapers. Additional outcomes include a community radio series (with the assistance of Rachel Bongiorno, a radio broadcaster), a multimedia website which will permanently house the archive of articles, radio and video interviews collected. The site will be created by the three students and housed as part of the RAS website (www.ras.unimelb.edu.au). The site and articles will be ready for launch and publication in Refugee Week, June 2009, during which there may be the potential to stage an exhibition of the material.
We now have ethics approval to begin the project which involves interviewing Australians who have been a refugee or asylum seeker in their life and would like to have their ‘AUSTRALIAN STORY’ told.
We want to break down negative stereotypes and myths about refugees and asylum seekers not fitting in Australia.
We want to interview refugees and asylum seekers about their lives in Australia and publish their stories in newspapers, magazines, on our website and broadcast them on the radio.
If you are interested in being part of this project please read on:
You can tell your story your own way, interview a friend that wants to tell their story or have one of our friendly researchers interview you. If you like, you can also attend one of our free workshops on how to conduct radio interviews.
Please contact Nikola on 0418 541 527 or nikolabalvin@yahoo.com.au if you are interested in participating or require further information.
RAS Knowledge Transfer Project Briefing Papers and Report
RAS was successful in receiving two Knowledge Transfer grants from the University of Melbourne to fund future projects, a Knowledge Transfer Project Grant and a Knowledge Transfer Dreamlarge Student grant.
The RAS / A Just Australia joint project, titled Translating asylum seeker research into policy change,aimed to bring policy and research together through the coordination of research reviews to inform a comprehensive blueprint for future asylum seeker policy.
This project brought to fruition a task undertaken after the 2007 Federal election. AJA and the Refugee Council of Australia convened a strategy meeting of sector organizations to discuss refugee issues. A firm agreement was reached on seven high priority issues for the Government to tackle. Meetings with government ministers and officials initiated constructive working relationships, and demonstrated that the government welcomes the NGO sector’s participation in the reform process.
This KT project aimed to provide syntheses of academic research on refugee and asylum-seeker issues to policy makers in a clear, impactful, timely, and accurate manner, through a series of research-based briefing papers. First, RAS and AJA met with key sector stakeholders to identify high priority issues that remain unresolved following recent lobbying efforts around the original seven issues. Strategies for future lobbying were then developed. Second, the expertise of RAS members – specialists in mental and public health, social welfare, and political science – was harnessed to produce authoritative research reviews pertinent to the identified high priority issues. Senior researchers directed this process, which was coordinated by a dedicated research assistant. Finally, policy positions and briefing papers were written, distributed to stakeholders, and have subsequently been used in delegation lobbying efforts by AJA in late 2008/early 2009.
The briefing papers, report on the project and an example of AJA's lobbying efforts are now available for download.
Issues Brief: Community Arrangements
Issues Brief: Detention
Issues Brief: Onshore Determination
Letter to the Minister: 2009 Priorities List
Report on 2008 RAS/AJA KT Project
RAS Planning Day
RAS held a planning day on 24 May 2009. Thank you to all involved!
Key outcomes from the meeting include:
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Rewrite of RAS Mission statement with a focus on research and education
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Development of draft plan of RAS future activities and events
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RAS website will undergo revamp and include additional research resources
Further details will be presented in the next RAS bulletin. To receive the RAS bulletin, become a member by signing up to the RAS email list.
RAS film screening – Refugee Week 2009:
As part of Refugee Week, RAS held a screening of the documentary A Well-Founded Fear. Thank you to all those who attended and assisted on the night. We had a great turn out and raised $130 for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
A WELL-FOUNDED FEAR
http://www.novemberfilms.com.au/films/a-well-founded-fear/about/the-film
"A small group of committed Australians have made it their mission to find the asylum seekers Australia rejected. For five years Phil Glendenning has been travelling the globe in search of rejected asylum seekers. To date he and his colleagues from the small social justice agency he runs have tracked down over 250 returnees in 22 countries. What they've found is truly disturbing."
