RSAP grants for RegNet scholars

Congratulations to RegNet scholars Ben Authers, Cynthia Banham, Sharon Friel, Kate Henne, Sarah James, Ibolya Losoncz and Kyla Tienhaara. All six scholars received funding in the most recent round of Research School of Asia and the Pacific grants, giving the go ahead for four exciting projects. Read all about their projects below.

Benjamin Authers

Human rights in Hong Kong anglophone writing

As 2014’s protests over electoral reform demonstrate, the question of human rights remains highly contentious in Hong Kong. This project will consider human rights in Hong Kong through a cultural-legal lens, taking account of how writers working in English have engaged with their legal and colonial context in order to address human rights issues. In particular, it will examine the language of anxiety about rights that is a prominent feature of many novels representing the 1997 Handover of Hong Kong, and ask whether a similar anxiety persists in more recent writing.

Cynthia Banham

Torture after 9.11: the Asia-Pacific context workshop

In December 2014, the US government released the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture, which revealed disturbing details of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program in the war on terror – a war in which Australia was a key ally. This Workshop examines the state of the norm against torture today with a special emphasis on the Asia Pacific region. How have events since 9.11 with respect to torture affected understandings and practice of torture in the region? If torture is still happening today, despite its prohibition under international law without exception, how do we in liberal democracies participate in that? The Workshop will be held over the course of one day. It will comprise a keynote address and three panels, each made up of (approximately) three panellists and a discussant. The keynote address will be delivered by Professor Stephen Toope, Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

Sharon Friel and Sarah James

Creating a healthy and sustainable food system for Australia

This forum will bring together key actors from industry, academia, government and the non-government sector to discuss the challenges and opportunities for creating a healthy and sustainable food system for Australia. Presenting the findings of two cutting edge research projects that have studied Australian food supply and demand from the perspective of consumers and policy makers as well as through future-casting, this forum will enable experts in the field to discuss the implications of the evidence for the development of cross-sectoral policy and action.

Kate Henne and Kyla Tienhaara

Technologies of transparency: exploring non-state surveillance

Studies of surveillance yield important insight into shifting practices and patterns of state surveillance and its impact on citizens. Increasingly, non-state actors and corporations are creating and storing vast amounts of data about individuals, organisations and states. This form of surveillance remains relatively unexplored empirically and vastly under-theorised. This project examines how non-state surveillance operates in four domains: investment, workplaces, health and the Internet. The project will provide rich empirical data and new theoretical approaches to relations between surveillance, transparency and privacy. While the project will speak to an international audience, specific case studies will focus on the Asia and Pacific region.

Ibolya Losoncz

Mapping the process of integration of young people of migrant origin in Australia

Successful integration of immigrants is critically important for Australia, both as a policy goal and as a practical outcome for individuals and society. But sound policy development, program planning, and constructive public debate require clarity concerning the concept of integration and a conceptual framework connecting the main elements of integration, both of which are currently lacking. Ibi’s project attends to these gaps by providing a systematic quantitative analysis of the relationships between the main elements, processes and outcomes of successful integration among immigrant families and their adult children in Australia.

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay under Pixabay Licence