Conflict, Development
and Justice
Cluster convener
Dr Rachael Diprose
Development Studies
Email: rdiprose@unimelb.edu.auRachael's research focuses on the political economy and sociology of conflict, state-building and development as well as processes of escalating conflicts (mobilisation) and deescalating through bottom-up peacebuilding processes, conflict management strategies and conflict transformation efforts. In particular, her research looks at patterns of violence and understanding why violence tends to occur in some places and not others. This includes examining underlying escalation and deescalation dynamics, power divides and elite politics, the decentralisation of state authority to subnational level, broader inter-group inequalities, and the inclusion and exclusion of actors from socio-economic and political opportunities. Her work on group dynamics and identity politics explores ethnoreligious communal conflicts in Asia and West Africa, with detailed mixed-methods research conducted in Indonesia and Nigeria.
Rachael is also engaged in a number of recent projects that examine conflict management strategies, and formal/informal actor networks in conflicts occurring in multi-level governance contexts, particularly in areas with significant natural resource and land conflicts (including from climate change mitigation initiatives). Through her work on the States, Frontiers and Conflict in the Asia Pacific with colleagues at Melbourne, SOAS, the University of Gadjah Made and others, she also explores the borderland and frontier dynamics and political order. Her prior work has also investigated the dynamics of contention in development policy/program formulation and implementation and contested development processes. Rachael is also a member of various research networks with colleagues from York, LSE, ANU, Columbia, UGM, Leuvin, Oxford and other universities in Europe, the US, Australia and Asia.
Academic members
Assoc. Professor Jennifer Balint
Senior Lecturer in Socio-Legal StudiesJennifer's research interests revolve around State crime, post-conflict justice, transitional and structural justice. In particular, some of her work centers on the place of law in addressing state crime. She is interested in the differing practices and understandings of justice and accountability in times of conflict and post-conflict, particularly what we may understand as a 'structural justice' that pays attention to the causes and legacies of conflict.
Dr Clayton Chin
Lecturer in Political TheoryOne of Clayton's research interests is about how pluralistic societies lead to particular types of socio-political conflict and how these engender real barriers and problems for democratic institutions and practice. Clayton's research interests have revolved around the methodology of political theory. Specifically, his research is focused on the implications of social, cultural and intellectual pluralism on how we think and act politically, and how we make normative claims across difference. Currently, he has emerging interests in democratic theory, and how pluralism and the specific forms of social conflict require new thinking about democratic concepts and institutions. Additionally, he is formulating a new project on democratic multiculturalism, and how multicultural sense of belonging can inform new forms of solidarity and unity in national identities.
Assoc. Professor Julie Evans
CriminologyJulie's research addresses the colonial (and postcolonial) histories of sovereignty, law, and race, and their past and continuing effects on the governance and lived experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in settler societies. Two central questions shape her research/practice agenda: What are the obligations of scholars working in settler societies not only to understand but also to make known the enduring impacts of historical/structural injustices in the local contexts in which we live and work? In what ways is it possible for scholars to shift from relatively detached academic critique to a more applied and collaborative way of working both within and beyond the academy?
Professor Johnathon Goodhand
International Development, Anthropology and Development StudiesProfessor Goodhand's research interests include the political economy of aid and conflict, NGOs and peacebuilding and 'post conflict' reconstruction. He has experience of managing humanitarian and development programmes in conflict situations in various regions that include Afghanistan/Pakistan and Sri Lanka. John has extensive experience as a researcher and adviser in South and Central Asia for a range of aid agencies and NGOs that include United Nations Development Programme, International Labor Organization and the Department of International Development among others.
Dr Diana Johns
Lecturer in CriminologyDiana's research focuses on men's post-prison experiences and barriers to reintegration, young people in conflict with the law, and therapeutic and restorative modes of justice, particularly youth justice. She has previously researched young people’s alcohol misuse and restorative justice conferencing in a youth justice setting. She is writing a book, Being and Becoming and Ex-Prisoner, for the Routledge International Series on Desistance and Rehabilitation, to be published in 2017.
Dr Dolly Kikon
Lecturer in Development Studies
Anthropology and Development StudiesDr Kikon’s research interests includes: anthropology of the state and human rights; extractive resource economies; violence and militarization; indigenous movements and identity politics; food, consumption, and transgressions. Her PhD dissertation focussed on social relations among traders and landowners in the coal mining hubs along the Assam-Nagaland foothill border. Dolly's postdoctoral research investigated the increasing trend of indigenous migration from the militarized regions of Northeast India to other parts of the country.
Dr Bart Klem
Lecturer in Development Policy
Anthropology and Development StudiesBart's research and teaching focuses on the interconnections between development and violent conflict. He is interested in development processes, aid, politics, de facto sovereignty and public authority in (violently) contested environments and transitional contexts. Bart’s predominate focus is on South Asia (and Sri Lanka in particular), with a developing interest in Southeast Asia (Indonesia in particular). In the past, he has also worked in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Professor John Langmore
International Relations and Development Studies
Political ScienceProfessor John Langmore spent 13 years in Papua New Guinea as a public servant and lecturer in economics at the University from 1963. He has 20 years experience in Australian politics, the first eight as an economic advisor to the Parliamentary Labor Party, and then 12 years as an elected Member of the House of Representatives. He has spent seven years at the United Nations in New York, the first five as Director of the Division of Social Policy and Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the UN Secretariat and then two as Representative of the ILO to the UN. Most recently, he has spent the last 12 years as a Professorial Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Adrian Little
Head of School of Social and Political Sciences
Political TheoryAdrian's research interests are in political and social theory especially as they pertain to the politics of conflict and democracy in divided societies.
Professor Sarah Maddison
Research Chair School of Social and Political ScienceSarah’' primary research interests pertain to the role of social conflict in democratic governance, particularly in divided and post-conflict societies as well as settler colonialism, Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations, and justice. These interests cover research themes of: reconciliation and conflict transformation, indigenous politics and governance, agonism, dialogue, social movements, Australian politics, public policy, gender and politics.
Dr Kate Macdonald
Lecturer in Public Policy
Political ScienceKate's research focuses on the politics of transnational production and business, with a particular focus on social, labour and human rights regulation of global business. Recent publications include The Politics of Global Supply Chains: Power and Governance Beyond the State (Polity Press, 2013), New Visions for Market Governance: Crisis and Renewal (with Shelley Marshall and Sanjay Pinto, Routledge, 2012), and articles in Ethics and International Affairs, Review of International Studies, Governance, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of International Law and Third World Quarterly. Kate is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, having held previous positions at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Australian National University, and Oxford University.
Dr Dave McDonald
Lecturer in CriminologyDave McDonald carries out research that examines quasi-legal mechanisms of justice in the context of historical and institutional child sex abuse. His research engages with the role of commissions of inquiry in redressing enduring criminal legal failure, their potential for in addressing the suffering of victims, and their scope to identify institutional culpability and ensure enduring institutional accountability and organisational change.
Dr Nesam McMillan
Lecturer in Global CriminologyNesam's research engages with international crime, law and justice from an interdisciplinary perspective. She is particularly concerned with the way in which events of mass harm and their broader global and ethical significance is conceptualised and addressed. Her current research focuses on, first, how the 'internationality' of international crime and justice is understood and operationalised and, second, the complex ethical, legal and criminological issues raised by the encounter between peacekeepers and victim/survivors of mass harm. Previous research projects have focused on the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks.
Dr Sana Nakata
ARC Discovery Indigenous Fellow & Lecturer in Political ScienceSana is trained as a lawyer and political theorist whose broad research interests capture themes of citizenship and justice, particularly from post-structural and agonistic perspectives. Her current research is centred upon developing a mode for thinking politically about childhood through an exploration of representative claims made about Indigenous Australian and asylum seeking children in Australia and at its border.
Assoc. Professor Juliet Rogers
ARC Early Career Research Fellow
CriminologyJuliet's research is largely on issues of violence and trauma in conflict situations, both military, political and interpersonal. She has a background as a trauma therapist, community worker and legal scholar and brings this understanding to the issues of lawful relations in the context of prolonged periods of military or political violence.
Dr Pradeep Taneja
Lecturer in Asian Politics
Political SciencePradeep has an enduring interest in peace and conflict studies that dates back to a summer school in peace research he attended at the University of Oslo very early in his career. His particular area of interest is the geopolitical dynamics between Asia’s two biggest powers, China and India, and their efforts at maintaining peaceful coexistence despite numerous disagreements.
Professor Alison Young
Francine V McNiff Chair in CriminologyAlison's work engages with the concept of territories and their contestation. In particular, her research investigates contested urban territories, and the ways in which particular social groups are both excluded from them and deploy social, cultural and legal tactics to resist that exclusion. Her focus is on zones of transition and decline within contemporary Westernised cities with a history of division and conflict.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr David Duriesmith
Political ScienceDavid’s current research focus is on gender and organised violence. He looks at the role of masculinities in constructing robust peace after periods of war and violence and on masculinities as a structuring factor within armed conflict. This work has looked at the gendered ideology of armed groups and the role of unstable gender hierarchies in propagating certain kinds of organised violence.
Dr Aran Martin
Political ScienceDr Martin specialises in international relations, conflict resolution, organisational strategy and qualitative evaluation. He is a Research Fellow at the School of Social and Political Sciences at The University of Melbourne, Director of Stakeholder Relations at the Future Business Council, an Associate with the management consultancy Alexandria Agenda, and a Development Editor at the La Trobe Law School, La Trobe University.
Dr Tania Miletic
Political ScienceTania is a researcher on the Australian International Conflict Resolution Project examining state support to peace processes. Tania’s research interests include peace and conflict studies, peacebuilding, peace psychology and refugee policy. Tania is a trained negotiator and mediator and an experienced facilitator. She has over a decade of international experience working on innovative peacebuilding programs that value the Asian experience of peace and conflict especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and China.