October 2006 Projects Funded

Early this year, the Centre invited applications from all Australian universities with established Asian and Pacific Studies programs to submit applications for project funding under three Grant Programs - the Regional Collaboration, Cross-Sectoral Linkage and Institutional Linkage Programs. Applications closed on 8 October 2006.

Eleven applications were received. The Centre's Grants Committee recommended that the Director support Six of the applications which met the the Centre's funding guidelines.

Details of the projects supported follow

Applications Supported (October 2006)

Applications Submitted & Supported (Round Three 2006)

 

Regional Collaboration Program

Professor Amar Galla

The University of Queensland

Project Title: Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence for Museums and Sustainable Heritage Development: Symposium/Conference and Workshops

Project Aims & Outcomes: This project aims to facilitate virtual and real time research, training and capacity building platforms for the exchange of ideas and documented case studies among practitioners in Asia Pacific museums, art galleries and other heritage collecting institutions, and to consolidate them through a sustainable and self-funding Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence.

Funding: $20,000

Dr Tana Li

The Australian National University

Project Title: Chinese in the Pacific: Where to now?: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: The emphasis of one-day workshop will be on establishing a collaborative network between Southeast Asian and Pacific scholars at the ANU, in Australia and the Pacific Islands and to highlight the implications of Chinese immigration to the Pacific and set a research agenda for understanding the process. Select workshop papers will be published as a special symposium on Chinese in the contemporary Pacific, in the Centre's forthcoming e-journal, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies later in 2007.

Funding: $7,000

Dr John Makeham

The Australian National University

Project Title: The Transition from Traditional Knowledge Schema and Knowledge Practices to New Epistemologies: Chinese Philosophy Node: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: The project will bring scholars from the Asia-Pacific region to the ANU to participate in international, multidisciplinary, innovative research. The Chinese Philosophy node will contribute a volume to a series of edited volumes based on a selection of papers from the Workshops (2007-2009). Participation in the 2007 Workshop will enable preparation for this volume to begin. To produce a video recording of the Chinese Philosophy node presentations to be used as a teaching resource in the ANU Asian Studies course, Chinese Philosophy: Formation and Development.

Funding: $13,800

Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki

The Australian National University

Project Title: Northeast Asia: Re-Imagining the Future: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: The proposed project gives an opportunity to bring together leading experts on Japan and the other countries of the region to reconsider the prospects for future regional cooperation and to discuss the tensions between the major countries of Northeast Asia which have emerged as one of the most significant international issues of the early twenty-first century.

Funding: $8,262

Cross-Sectoral Linkage Program

Professor Joseph A. Camilleri

La Trobe University

Project Title: International Conflict, Religion and Culture: Implications for Asia Pacific and Australia: Conference and Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: This project aims to develop inter-sectoral collaborative activity around the role of culture and religion in Asia Pacific. More specifically the proposed exchanges between scholars, policy makers and civil society actors in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India and China (including Hong Kong).

The key objectives of the overall project are to clarify and evaluate the adequacy of the response to the recent international tensions for multi-ethnic, multi-faith societies with either majority or minority Muslim populations, in Australia and a number of Asian countries. How well have these societies handled the tensions that have surrounded relations between Islam and the West and to consider, in the light of that experience, the contribution that the dialogical approach can make to the easing of societal and international tensions – how to cultivate practice and discourse that are sensitive to the tensions generated by international conflict and capable of promoting, both domestically and internationally, mutual respect, enrichment and co-operation across cultural and religious divides.

Funding: $26,700

Professor Louise Edwards

University of Technology Sydney

Project Title: Australia and China: Collaboration on Combating Depression

Project Aims & Outcomes: This project aims to: Bring experts on depression based in China and Australia into close collaboration in order to enhance anti-depression programs in China and among Chinese communities in Australia, undertake the translation of materials currently available only in English and designed for Australian cultural conditions into Chinese and adapt them to Chinese cultural conditions.

Funding: $19,250

Professor Richard Tanter

Nautilus Institute at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technologies

Project Title: Australian Security Forces in Southeast Asia and the Pacific - Briefing Books

Project Aims & Outcomes: The aim of this project is to create an internet-based resource that will redress this lack of readily available information on Australian security forces in South East Asia and the Pacific.

Funding: $15,000

Dr Pamela Thomas

The Australian National University

Project Title: Cross-sectoral participation in international Colloquium on Addressing Poverty: Pro-poor Growth and Financial Inclusion in Asia Pacific: Conference

Project Aims & Outcomes: The principal objective of this project is to build regional and cross-disciplinary understanding of ways to approach economic growth that supports the poor, poverty reduction and development by establishing linkages and networks for on-going discussion to further the knowledge of new initiatives in addressing poverty and the practical utilisation of pro-poor economic policies.

Funding: $9,920

Institutional Linkage Program

Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh

Monash University

Project Title: Australia in the "Arc of Instability": setting policy on Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: This project will address crucial ‘issues of strategic importance to Australia’ by investigating the significance and implications of Australia’s military and strategic involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as policy towards Iran.

Funding: $16,320

Professor Kent Anderson

The Australian National University

Project Title: New Courts in the Asia-Pacific Region: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: The workshop proceedings will be published as a book which will make an important contribution to the understanding of courts, court-related legal reform and innovation, reception of transplanted laws, and law and development policies, including developing evaluative approaches for court-related reform and case-studies.

Funding: $8,600

Professor Jenny Corbett

The Australian National University

Project Title: Economic Relations between Japan and China: Will they hold?: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: The main objective of this project is to contribute to the English-language research on the Japan-China economic relationship by presenting state-of-the-art economic research on the Japan-China economic relationship and its regional implications and to identify remaining gaps in research to provide research opportunities for postgraduate students and postdoctoral young researchers.

Funding: $10,000

Professor Margaret Jolly

The Australian National University

Project Title: Pacific Cultural Heritage in Australian Museums and Galleries: A Regional Dialogue: Workshop

Project Aims & Outcomes: This regional dialogue is designed to highlight the riches of Pacific cultural heritage in Australian museums and galleries, to develop new connections with Pacific communities from which these collections derive and to stimulate a regional conversation with innovative curators and directors from the Pacific region.

Funding: $20,000

Professor William Maley

The Australian National University

Project Title: Diplomacy skills training for civil servants in Fiji: Training program

Project Aims & Outcomes:This project aims to obtain seed funding to enable the development of a comprehensive training program for Fijian officials which can be incorporated into regular curriculum training by Fiji. The training will provide Fiji public servants with the skills and knowledge essential to successfully perform in a rapidly changing global environment including in relations with Australia.

Funding: $10,000

Professor Michael Wesley

Griffith University

Project Title: Asia Pacific New Writing Summit on National Identity & Globalisation: How is national identity mediated through the fictional narratives of the Asia-Pacific region?: Summit

Project Aims & Outcomes: The Summit’s aims are to bring together key representatives of academic writing, translation and literary studies programs in Asia and the Pacific, as well as publishers of regional literature, to initiate international research and activate programs enhancing literary dialogue and exchange between Australia and the region. The Summit aims to develop first steps towards establishing a Centre of Asia Pacific Literary Translation and to further develop peer support networks for new and established writers in Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

Funding: $5,000