Current research projects
The Asia Institute is distinguished by its active research profile. Faculty and graduate research projects involve not only aspects of our four target areas (Arabic and Islamic Studies, China, Indonesia, Japan) but also, and very importantly, Australia’s relationship to Asia.
A number of projects probe Asia-Australian relations as well as the lives and cultures of Asian migrants to Australia. Other areas of research include computer aided language learning (CALL), endangered languages, dialectology, modern history and various forms of Asian popular culture.
A detailed listing of current research projects being undertaken at the Asia Institute is below.
| Name | Project title | Funding agency | Period | Partners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professor Vedi Hadiz | Islam and the left in Indonesia and Turkey | Australian Research Council (Discovery) | 2018-2020 | |
| Dr Claire Maree and Dr Ikuko Nakane | Thirty Years of Talk: A Panel Study of Kobe Women’s Interview Discourse | Australian Research Council (Discovery) | 2017-2019 | La Trobe University; Monash University; Osaka University |
| Professor Akihiro Ogawa and Dr Claudia Astarita | Embedding the Apology in the Media: How Civil Society Contributes to Reconciliation | Toyota Foundation Joint Research Grant | 2017-2019 | |
| Professor Andrew Rosser | Evaluating How Teacher Reforms in Decentralised Indonesia Can Promote Learning Gains | United Kingdom Department for International Development and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) program. | 2017-2020 | Social Monitoring and Early Response Unit (SMERU) Research Institute |
| Professor Andrew Rosser | Transnationalism and Diaspora: Contributions to Migration and Development | Australian Research Council (Discovery) | 2017-2020 | University of Adelaide, Macquarie University, National University of Singapore |
| Dr Ken Setiawan | Understanding the relationship between leadership and human rights promotion in Indonesian human rights discourses at the regional, national and local levels under President Joko Widodo | McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, the University of Melbourne | 2015-2019 | |
| Professor Christine Wong | China’s Poverty during the Process of Urbanization | Ford Foundation | 2018-2020 | |
| Professor Christine Wong and Dr Sarah Rogers | Remaking Rural China | Australian Research Council (Discovery) | 2018-2020 |
Embedding the apology in the media: how civil society contributes to reconciliation
Project summary
Lasting reconciliation with former enemies after a war is a difficult and often distressful process. Peace is not a top-down practice, and the entire civil society must be involved to make it successful. Official apologies have often been perceived as a symbolic yet effective tool to promote peace and reconciliation, and international regimes are often quoted as the optimal structure to consolidate stability. This project untangles the connections between formal apology, regime building and peace in post-war contexts, illustrating the critical role of media and civil society in influencing collective memory and fostering reconciliation. The case studies of Japan, Germany and Italy provide empirical evidence on how media critically shaped the narration of post-Second World War events and how this interpretation is instrumentally linked to the rhetoric on peace and stability. Interviews and archival research are used to elaborate on new cognitive frameworks and paradigms to transform media, and in particular new media, into powerful tools to spread new values and perspectives, embedding civil society in a virtuous reconciliation process. Findings on media-civil society synergies and their capacity to promote new values for the general public will be discussed in workshops, academic journals, policy papers, and a documentary film.