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Current and Past Fellows
2008
Two fellowships were awarded in 2008:
Lucinda Hartley
Landscape Architect
Lucinda will take up an internship with the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) Secretariat in Bangkok and work on an ACHR field project in Vietnam with the objective to establish a Future Design Leaders Studio in Melbourne which will focus young design professional with a regional, comprehensive and triple bottom line approach to urban poor development.
Anne Helme
Multimedia Advocate
Anne will partner with Komas in Malaysia and Ruangrupa in Indonesia to build these organizations' capacities to distribute their videos on human rights, social and environmental issues utilising open source software in maximising the new space created by the internet.
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2007
Three fellowships were awarded in 2007:
Dr Ben Saul
Lawyer and academic
Ben travelled to Cambodia to teach (pro bono) an international law course to 45 students in the Bachelor of Law Degree in English at The Royal University of Law and Economics. Whilst in Phnom Penh he directed students on an original research project on the Constitutional Council’s jurisprudence on the 1993 Constitution.
Hugo Moline
Architect
Hugo travelled to Thailand to gain experience collaborating with local architects who are working creatively, sensitively and above all collaboratively with communities of informal settlers on the improvement of their housing and living conditions.
View report
Jonathon Ehsani
Public Health Specialist
Jonathan also travelled to Thailand to gain familiarity with strategies and approaches in injury prevention through experiential learning at The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) headquarters. This included: assisting with capacity building activities, transferring knowledge, developing proficiency in the use of statistical methods relevant to country level surveys conducted by TASC and identifying gaps in knowledge to refine a PhD topic.
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2006
Jointly awarded to Ms Olivia Georgina Lavis, Ms Tanzi Smith
Ms Olivia Georgina Lavis
Teacher - Irene McCormack Catholic College
Ms Lavis will work in East Timor with NGO "Leewin Care" which offers services including a youth training centre, a medical clinic, youth programs and a distribution services for basic aid materials.
Her project aims to assist Leeuwin Care strengthen its capacity to achieve a level of sustainability; consolidate its current work and strategically plan for the future; increase the skills of staff members and benefit the local community of Eraulo by increasing the capacity of Leeuwin Care to meet their identified needs.
Ms Tanzi Smith
PhD Candidate - Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF), University of Technology, Sydney
Ms Smith's project will focus on helping validate the impact of Green Productivity of Integrated Community Development (GP-ICD). This organization has had great success in alleviating poverty and assisting communities to achieve sustainability through over 100 GP- ICD rural villages in 23 provinces.
She will do this by directly providing institutional support to the Centre for Sustainability (CERD) which acts as a Resource Centre for GP-ICD in Vietnam.
Her project will include identifying new opportunities to build CERD's local, regional and international networks and funding sources, and collecting and analysing research data in order to find ways to make CERD and GP - ICD more effective.
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2005
Ms Jeni Crump
Social Support Coordinator
Jenny's project will involved the issue of women's health in the poorest rural areas of Nepal, particularly in relation to gynaecological issues, such as prolapsed uterus and cervical cancer. These are the leading causes of death for Nepali women and are a major contributor to infant mortality in this country.
Through her project, Jenny will undertake further research into these issues, undergo a needs assessment, provide education and training in rural areas at health camps as well as raise the profile of the issue in Nepal.
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2003/4
Jointly awarded to Ms Lia Kent and Mr Brendan Boucher
Ms Lia Kent
Researcher - University of Melbourne, Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law
Lia’s project is concerned with East Timor’s Commission for Truth Reception and Reconciliation (Commission), an independent statutory body in East Timor.
Her project will focus on documenting the experience and views of those who have testified before the Commission and will interview reconciliation panel members, Commission staff and government representatives at district and national level.
The project aims to document lessons, both positive and negative, in order to provide recommendations to assist the Commissions’ future work as well as provide useful insights to other societies considering appropriate mechanisms to assist them recover from periods of political violence.
Mr Brendan Boucher
Coordinator & Manager - Cambodian Rural Development Team
Brendan’s project proposes to implement an environmentally sustainable rural development package that seeks to dramatically improve the living standards of the most impoverished and remote subsistence farmers.
The project centres around the installation, construction and provision of biodigesters, pump wells, fruits and vegetable gardens. When in used combination this rural development packages provides a catalyst to break the local cycle of poverty.
The project aims to increase disposable incomes by replacing wood fuel, coal purchases and transportation costs, improve rice harvest quantity and the quality of yields (village/local benefits); enhance farming techniques, conserve local fauna and prevent soil erosion (direct district benefits); and improve and protect the natural environment and contribute to poverty alleviation (indirect national benefits).
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2002/3
Jointly awarded to Brendan Ross and Sangeetha Chandra Shekeren
Mr Brendan Ross
Mining Advocacy Research Assistant for Oxfam Community Aid Abroad
Brendan's project will focus on "Indigenous Communities and Mine closure: A case study of the Kelian Gold Mine".
Increasingly mines are coming to the end of their operation life in the Asia Pacific Region creating enormous human rights, socio-economic and environmental challenges for communities, governments and the miming industry. Limited research has been undertaken as to what this means for communities living near the mines and how they should deal with it. Brendan will research, record and document the preparedness of the community for mine closure at the Rio Tino/PT Kelian Equatorial Mining Gold Mine in East Kalimantan, Indonesia and provide the communities impacted by the mine with realistic information on the potential impact of mine closure obtained through other mine closures.
Brendan will assist in formulating methods to achieve the best possible outcome for the communities impacted by the Kelian mine closure process and develop recommendation for mine closure processes that respect human rights, paying particular attention to gender issues and indigenous rights.
Ms Sangeetha Chandra Shekeren
Research and Policy Officer (Sexual Offences Reference) for the Victorian Law Reform Commission
Sangeetha's project will involve working with two organizations based in Jakarta, the National Commission on Violence Against Women and the Women's Justice Section of the Legal Aid Institute. She hopes to share some of her experiences of the benefits of working with police to protect women from violence and also learn about the unique problems facing women reporting sexual assault in Indonesia.
The primary benefit of Sangeetha's project will be an enhanced understanding of the challenges facing the Indonesian legal system in dealing with violence again women and the building of links within Indonesian civil society who are working on the reform of the legal system. Legal agencies throughout the region benefit greatly from a constructive dialogue on democratic reform and governance.
Jointly awarded to Michael Crestani and Lauren Bain
Mr Michael Crestani
PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne
Michael’s project is an ethnography of a community of agricultural scientists in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. It is about many things: how researchers understand what they do as opposed to how it may be represented; how the Institute sees itself in relation to modernity and change; and the different sciences - academic, State and commercial - each with their peculiar rewards, traditions and rituals. What of the next ‘generation’ of researchers? How is their work gendered? What of a socialist or Asian science? Do the social aspects of ‘the project’ and ‘the experiment’ influence them as fact generating spaces? The work seeks to capture the voices of a little heard of community in considering what is Vietnamese about the agricultural sciences today. One chapter focuses on farmers and the Institute. Farmers and the farming life are central to Institutional ideology and its mandate. Their relationship presents as an interesting social space, inscribed with meanings, that nobody calls home.
While farmers are often depicted as a disempowered and needy collectivity, and not least by their research partners, the lives of scientists largely remain a mystery outside the collegial and familial circles in which they move. This becomes all the more fascinating when one considers the ultimately public and influential nature of their work. Agricultural scientists can be partly credited with shaping notions of progress, tradition and value in their societies. To date anthropologists have focused on hi-tech fields (the ‘new’ biology, particle physics, information systems), and then ostensively in Western settings. Surprisingly little work has been done with scientists in societies of strikingly different cultural and political traditions, much less the more ‘humble’ agricultural sector. This research is new for Vietnam and the agricultural sector more broadly. It is best considered basic research - conclusions are those the reader finds meaningful.
Ms Lauren Bain
PhD researcher at the University of Tasmania and a tutor in the Politics Department at the University of Melbourne.
Lauren will undertake her Fellowship project in partnership with the Kelola Foundation in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia, researching and developing initiatives in the area of cultural policy. This builds on work which Lauren has been doing with the Kelola Foundation over the last eighteen months.
Lauren says "The Cultural Policy project aims to contribute to the building of an Indonesian society which is tolerant of difference, confident in its plurality and supportive of creativity. Central to the Cultural Policy Project is the idea that 'culture' is inseparable from the debate about the development of civil society in Indonesia. We will be working with communities and provincial governments in several provinces in Indonesia to begin the process of articulating a cultural policy agenda at the local level".
With a relatively new government and Cabinet in place and various key reforms underway, the timing is now right for Lauren's project. She says "our fear is that is we do not act soon, the momentum of change will be lost and a return to a government imposed and Jakarta- centric approach to cultural 'development' becomes more likely".
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2000/1
William Young
PhD researcher at The University of Melbourne, consulting engineer, and Director of Project Management Services Pty Ltd.
William's fellowship will be carried out over a nine-month period in Indonesia and Vietnam, where he intends to identify strategic ways to improve the management of engineering projects in these countries. William is a strong advocate of the huge benefits of effective management and how it can help governments, communities, corporations and individuals transform ideas into fruitful outcomes. His project addresses the need for effective management training in the developing regions of Asia. Two areas that will be targeted in his project are the institutional strengthening of professional engineering and engineering management associations, and the development of widespread educational programs both at University and industry practitioner level.
William will share the knowledge and findings of his PhD research "Engineering Project Management in developing countries - focused on the Republic of Indonesia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" with those most capable of implementing recommendations, namely leaders in the engineering and business sectors. He will facilitate discussion with key local participants; conduct practical workshops; and help develop vision, strategies and networks to enable the process to be sustainable.
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1999
John Dore
Phd candidate, The Australian National University
Fellowship Project Outline:
John's fellowship will attempt to resolve one of the most critical issues facing Southeast Asia into the future - the management of water resources.
John is also undertaking a detailed analysis of transboundary organisations involved in the management of the Mekong River Basin including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The project aims to contribute to international cooperation between the six sovereign nations with the Mekong River Basin, namely Cambodia, Yunnan Province in China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.
As the project's Research Manager, John will be working with the World Resources Institute and Stockholm Environment over a five-year period.
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1998
Ms Hazel Lang
Phd candidate, Department of International Relations at The Australian National University
Fellowship Project Outline:
The Future of the Burmese Refugees in Thailand Hazel's project extends on her doctoral work, and looks at the prospects for the Burmese refugees along the Thai-Burma border. Hazel plans to gather the perspectives of the broad spectrum of organisations and governments involved in resolving the situation, including the Thai civil and military authorities, the Burmese authorities, the UNHCR, indigenous refugee committees, the consortium of non-governmental organisations working for the refugees and displaced people. She will review prospects for the future in view of each of these, incorporating the principles of international refugee protection and future peace building in Burma.
At present some 115,000 displaced Burmese live in Thai-based camps. The first camps were established in 1984 when some 10,000 displaced people were unable to return to their homes in Burma following the dry-season military campaign in their hometowns. Whilst some refugees have been repatriated, Thailand has become a long-term host for the refugees and is eager to see a solution to their plight. There is now substantial pressure for the refugees to return to Burma and since 1995 cross-border raids have made shelter in the camps increasingly difficult and dangerous.
Hazel has spent considerable time visiting the Thai-Burma border over the past five years and is personally involved in the issue at a community level. She plans to make the results of her project widely available to policy makers and those charge with responsibility for determining the future of the refugees.
Mr David O'Brien
Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning, The University of MelbourneDavid works as a volunteer designer for projects funded by Australian aid organisations including Ausaid.
Fellowship Project Outline
Low Income Housing in rural Thailand
David's aims to develop housing prototypes for low-income families in Buri Ram Province, Southeastern Thailand. Buri Ram is one of the least developed provinces in Thailand. His project aims to help develop housing that responds to environmental, climatic, economic and cultural needs of rural Thai communities.
Due to the depletion of timber used in the construction of traditional wooden housing, contemporary houses are constructed of concrete block and are unable to engage with the traditional climatic, environmental and cultural housing typology. This in turn has a substantial impact on rural lifestyles. David is interested in developing alternatives to traditional wooden and contemporary concrete housing and in empowering rural communities through innovative and appropriate architectural design.
David will conduct research and development in collaboration with Silpakorn University and Population and Community Development Association, a local NGO chaired by Khun Mechai Viravaidya that undertakes projects aimed at strengthening rural communities. David is optimistic that once developed these housing prototypes may be able to be used in other countries in the region.
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1997
Ms Robyn Slarke
Paralegal trainer
Has been running paralegal training for village women in Papua New Guinea for several years. Aims to give women the ability to understand and utilise, where necessary, legal avenues for protection against domestic violence in PNG.
Ms Sue Downie
Journalist and author
Will conduct training for journalists in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Will focus on the reporting of environmental, health and gender issues and also encompass human rights and journalism ethics. Aims to upgrade the skills of experienced journalists and information officers in Indochina and to encourage closer linkes between journalists in these countries and Australia.
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1996
Ms Kate McGregor
Doctoral candidate, The University of Melbourne
Researching the representation of the Indonesian military and its heroes found in museums, films, monuments, oral history, and military historical works. Also interviewing military figures and examining how the military view themselves and how they wish the public to see them.
Mr Dave Burrows
Deputy Director for Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations
Worked with a number of projects in India assisting in the planning and providing of educational initiatives for AIDS and HIV prevention. This is based on work done in Australia and Manila with injecting drug users. Attending the 4th International Conference on AIDS in Manila.
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1995
Mr David Kilkullen
Researched a case study of the development of local government infrastructure and political culture in West Java, Indonesia following a period of twenty-eight years of war and insurgency.
Mr Peter Bartu
Doctoral candidate
Researched the campaign history of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Cambodia between 1991 and 1993.
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1994
Ms Sophie McIntyreMasters candidate, Dept. of Fine Arts , The University of Sydney
Language study and research into contemporary Taiwanese art post-1980 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Ms Jenny Ann Lee
Doctoral candidate, Dept of Farm Animal Medicine & Production, The University of Queensland
Epidemiological study of smallholder pig production in the Philippines.
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