Niro Kandasamy

Niro Kandasamy is a PhD candidate in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of New South Wales in 2013 (Honours Class 1). Before commencing her PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Professor Joy Damousi and Dr Jordana Silverstein, she worked as a social researcher for Western Sydney Information and Research. She also worked as a social researcher for Anglicare Victoria from 2015-2017.

Throughout her PhD candidature, she has been presenting her research at conferences in Australia and overseas. She also has published articles in Medicine, Conflict and Survival, Forced Migration Studies, Australian Social Work, and a book chapter in Disability and Rurality: Identity, Gender and Belonging (Routledge, 2017). In 2016, she was awarded the Prue Torney Memorial Prize to undertake archival research in Sri Lanka. Her broad research interests include forced migrant histories, refugee resettlement and welfare service delivery. She is also currently working as a sessional tutor and research assistant.

Her PhD study explores the resettlement experiences of Sri Lankan Tamil forced migrants arriving in Australia during the late twentieth century. The study draws on oral history interviews and archival materials collected in Australia and Sri Lanka to present new insights into the everyday lives of Tamil children navigating new landscapes. The study reveals how key aspects in Tamil children’s lives such as education, religion and culture were connected to spaces and contexts around histories and ideas that shaped their past.

Publications

• Kandasamy, Niro (2018), "Unravelling Memories of Family Separation Among Sri Lankan Tamils Resettled in Australia, 1983-2000," in Immigrants and Minorities 36, No. 2, pp. 143-60
• Kandasamy, Niro (2017), "An unequal partnership: resettlement service providers in Australia," in Forced Migration Review 54, pp. 41-43