4 – 10 September 2023
This event explores how Indigenous social science and humanities scholars engage in activism research and how academics could better advocate for Indigenous communities. Presenters include Dr BJ Newton (keynote), Associate Professor Corrinne Sullivan and Robyn Newitt. Chaired by Associate Professor Corrinne Sullivan and Associate Professor Kate Huppatz. Register now
Ethnographic film-making has long been a medium for ethnographic analysis in Anthropology. In this panel for Social Sciences Week 2022, Anthropology @ Western Sydney University presents a film by Dr Malini Sur (ICS, SoSS) entitled Life Cycle that offers a tribute to the bicycle in uncertain times and its relationship to rapidly changing Indian cities. The film maker will discuss the making of the film and is joined by a panel of discussants in a conversation about the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic film making Panellists: Mary Hawkins, Cristina Rocha, Andrew McWilliam, Kathleen Openshaw and Helena Onnudottir Film Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_y0rxaO7T8&t=10s Life Cycle (42 Minutes) explores the place of the bicycle in the everyday lives of city dwellers in Kolkata. Are Kolkata's bicycles relics of a past to be hastily discarded or are they viable, if complicated cargo vehicles in India’s burgeoning cities? Winding through Kolkata’s roads we follow the city’s daily wage-workers, teachers and environmentalists and their changing relationships to cycling. What happens when new traffic regulations impede two-wheeled travelers from riding on Kolkata’s roads? How do vendors, couriers, newspaper sellers and artists negotiate Kolkata’s roads congested with cars and other motorized transport? Who wins the battle for the road […]
Racism associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected certain groups in Australia, for example Indigenous, Asian, Muslim and migrant communities (Kamp et al. 2021; Elias et al. 2021). The pandemic has highlighted the impact of structural racism in public health emergencies as evident in disparities in exposure, susceptibility and treatment of the novel coronavirus along racial lines (Yearby & Mohapatra 2020). Furthermore, public health measures adopted to mitigate the spread of the virus in NSW were also uneven. This disparity was particularly evident in Western Sydney, home to the largest Indigenous, Muslim and migrant communities in Sydney, which saw some of the strictest and longest lockdown regulations, received the most COVID-related fines, and saw a heightened police and enforcement presence that was not evident in other parts of Sydney. Western Sydney has been subjected to racial logics of inequality as a result of negative COVID-related impacts on employment, income, access to appropriate public health messaging, and mobility, as well as exposure to the virus and related deaths. Elias et al. (2020) talk of the “multidimensional nature of racism”, where those “who already face numerous social, economic and health vulnerabilities” also encountered intensified marginalisation and exclusion during the pandemic. The […]