Classroom of Many Cultures (2015-2017) classroomofmanycultures.net

• Position Title: Research Associate
• Research Team: Associate Professor Kate Lloyd, Professor Greg Downey, Dr Rebecca Bilous, Dr Laura Hammersley, Dr Felicity Rawlings-Sanaei, Dr Michaela Baker, Dr Maria Amigo, Samantha Gilchrist, Eryn Coffey
• Funder: Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching ($350,000)

This cross-departmental collaboration (between Human Geography and Anthropology) was awarded a $350,000 Office for Learning and Teaching grant (2015-2017) to co-create an innovative online cross-cultural curriculum with eleven international community-based organisations from seven different countries (including Peru, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Fiji). The co-created curriculum reflects the values of collaboration, intercultural sharing and respect for other people’s ways of knowing and will prepare anyone participating in an international community-based engagement program.

• Publications:

Bilous, R., Hammersley, L.A., Lloyd, K., Rawlings-Sanaei, F., Downey, G., Amigo, M., Gilchrist, S. & Baker, M. (2018). ‘All of us together in a blurred space’: principles for co-creating curriculum with international partners, International Journal for Academic Development, DOI: 10.1080/1360144X.2017.1412973

Hammersley, L.A., Bilous, R. & Lloyd, K. (2018). Rethinking the expert: co-creating curriculum to support international work-integrated learning with community development organisations, Asia Pacific Viewpoint.

Bilous, R., Hammersley, L.A. & Lloyd, K. (2018). Co-creating reflective practice as research method for co-creating curriculum development in work integrated learning.

Downey, Greg, Kate Lloyd, Rebecca Bilous, Laura Hammersley, Felicity Rawlings-Sanaei, María Florence Amigó, Samantha Gilchrist, Michaela Baker, and Eryn Coffey. 2018. ‘“Classroom of Many Cultures”: Educational Design Opportunities in Intercultural Co-Creation.’ In Developing Global Perspectives: Higher Education Research and Practice. Timothy Hall, Tonia Gray, Greg Downey, and Michael Singh, eds. Pp. 45-59. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Downey, G., Lloyd, K., Bilous, R., Hammersley, L., Rawlings-Sanaei, F., Amigo, M., Gilchrist, S., Baker, M. and Coffey, E. (2018). Classroom of Many Cultures: Co-creating support curriculum with international community partners: Final report. Canberra: Office of Learning and Teaching

‘A love of Country: mapping and re-imagining a UoW Geography Curriculum’ (2018 – ongoing)

• Position Title: Research Associate
• Research Team: School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, UoW
• Funder: University of Wollongong, Jindaola: Indigenous Knowledge Grants ($30,000)

Australian Indigenous histories and contemporary Indigenous lives and relationships with Country are at the heart of Geography. They inform understandings of Australia’s colonial history and its legacy, environmental and heritage management, national identity, racism and structural marginalisation, and urban politics. In the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, a broad range of Indigenous contexts, perspectives and teaching practices are already in place across multiple subjects. As a School, we seek to continue to contribute to ongoing efforts to decolonise the discipline of Geography. However, we acknowledge that this requires recognition of and challenge to colonial forms of knowledge, pedagogical strategies and research methodologies. This project creates an opportunity for us to pay more systematic, explicit and careful attention to the ways in which geographic knowledge is produced and practiced, and to further embed Indigenous knowledges and perspectives into the curriculum.

Negotiating Livelihoods on the Margins of Geography: Mapping the landscape of post-doctoral geographers (2018 – ongoing)

• Position Title: Self-funded academic precariat
• Research Team: Dr Matalena Tofa; Dr Karina Luzia; Dr Rebecca Bilous; Dr Laura Hammersley

This research seeks to generate a space through which the so-called ‘precariat’ (Standing, 2011) can articulate their understandings of what it means to work in the margins of academic teaching and research, and the impacts it has on individuals, on the academic workplace and on community. It is guided by the following aims:

• To create a space where PhD graduates that are currently precariously employed or have insecure work can safely voice their perspectives on their professional lives, the conditions under which they work, and on universities, research, and teaching;
• To develop a nuanced understanding of what academic precarity is, and how precarity is experienced and navigated, in the Australian context;
• To explore the implications of insecure and precarious work for professional identities, research and teaching, and universities;
• To contribute to building an understanding of precarity amongst the academic community (particularly those in ongoing or tenured positions).

The expected outcomes of this research include a stronger understanding of what precarity is and how it is  experienced in academia, and its implications for research, teaching and disciplinary identities. The findings will be disseminated through academic publications and conference presentations, as well as through blogposts and social media.

Harming/restoring waters: Researching water cultures along the Cudgegong and Goulburn Rivers (2016 – ongoing)

• Position Title: Research Assistant
• Research Team: Mudgee Local Aboriginal Land Council; Dr Jess McLean, Dr Emily O’Gorman, Dr Fiona Miller, Dr Laura Hammersley
• Funder: Macquarie University

This collaborative, interdisciplinary project examines contested understandings of and relations with water along the Cudgegong and Goulburn Rivers in NSW, Asutralia. Through a focus on water cultures this project engages with Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings, values and practices associated with water. We consider how different uses and values of water influence social-ecological resilience and justice of relevance to future water management.

• Publications:

McLean, J., Lonsdale, A., Hammersley, L., O’Gorman, E. & Miller, F. (in press). Shadow waters: making Australian water cultures visible, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12248

Learning to share, sharing to learn: More-Than-Human Sharing/Learning as Bawaka Country (2016 – ongoing)

• Position Title: Research Associate
• Research Team: Bawaka Country including Ritjilili Ganambarr, Djawundil Maymuru, Rrawun Maymuru, Djawa Burarrwanga, Sandie Suchet-Pearson, Laura Hammersely, Lara Daley, Kate Lloyd, Sarah Wright and Maartje Roelofsen

This research is led by our embodied experiences at, with and as Bawaka. We start by considering how we as a group co-became as Country during our 6 days together.