Senior Research Fellow

Email: amanda.wise@mq.edu.au
Phone: (02) 9850 8835
Fax: (02) 9850 4432
Office: C5C Research Hub West, Room 383

Research Interests

Amanda is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of sociology, cultural studies and human geography. Her research into issues surrounding multiculturalism and migration draws primarily on ethnographic and qualitative methodologies.

Amanda's research interests include multiculturalism (especially 'everyday multiculturalism'); racism and interethnic relations; ethnicities; national and cultural identities; cultural attachments to and formations of place, hope and belonging in suburban Australia especially in relation to multicultural neighbourhoods; cities and diversity; diasporic, transnational and migrant communities; and experiences of low wage migrant labourers.

Current Research Projects

Everyday Multiculturalism at Work
If funded, this project will explore how culturally different workers get on and negotiate difference at the everyday level, including experiences of racism both in Australia and Singapore. Everyday cross-cultural contact in the workplace is one example of 'micro-publics'-situations of inter-ethnic encounter & engagement. These are sometimes held up as the solution to the 'cultural separatism' attributed to traditional models of multiculturalism. We aim to explore these claims through a  conceptually innovative approach we term 'everyday multiculturalism' which draws on the sociology of everyday life. We also investigate complicating factors such as how broader national discourses and media representations mediate intercultural relationships at the workplace.

Transnational Affect and the Moral Economies of Temporary Skilled Migration of South Indians to Australia
ARC Discovery with Dr Selvaraj Velayutham - 2006-2008 - and ongoing independent research
This ethnographic project began by looking at 457 Visa temporary workers from India, working in Australia in the IT, hospitality (cooks etc) and blue collar manufacturing and construction sectors. Since 2009 we have extended the study to Singapore looking at low wage migrant labourers from India. The focus of the study has been on how issues of temporariness, masculinities, emotions and affect in a transnational social field structure the experience of being a labour migrant. The study also focused on the moral economies of exploitation, looking at how this occurs co-ethnically, and also how systems of exploitation are shaped by receiving states. Theoretically, the work of Richard Sennett has been important in shaping how we think about these issues.

Inhabiting Multiculturalism
Inhabiting Multiculturalism is the working title of my slowly evolving manuscript in progress. It is an ongoing writing project which explores the nature of quotidian multiculturalism and the implications for how we imagine and manage culturally diverse western societies today. The book explores everyday diversity from various points of view, including; 'Sensuous Multiculturalism', Diversity Hope, and Reciprocity; Diasporic vs Local modes of Inhabitance; Riots and other moments of multicultural rupture; The Politics of (In)Civility; Cross-Cultural Habitus; The future of Multiculturalism; and 'new' Anti-racisms.

Selected Previous Projects

Political Participation of Muslims in Australia (with Marion Maddox) 2009-10
Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Engaging Muslim Communities: A research project on community based strategies to promote engagement and dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians.
Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2007-8

Building Neighbourhood Harmony: Social Cohesion and Anti-Racism Strategies for Local Government (Phases One & Two) (Resulting in Anti-racism resource www.stepone.org.au)
Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2006-8

CONTACT ZONES: Experiences of cultural diversity and rapid neighbourhood change among Anglo-Celtic and long term elderly residents in Ashfield.  (2002-ongoing)
The project explored everyday interethnic interactions between Anglo-Celtic elderly, long term migrant groups and new Chinese immigrants to Ashfield. The project employed ethnographic research and interviews on specific 'contact zones' (such as the local shopping street, local clubs and neighbourly relations) to explore both disjunctures and affinities among those living in multicultural areas and how these interactions translate more broadly into perceptions and experiences of multicultural Australia. The project also explored the aesthetic, embodied, sensory and habitual dimensions of living intercommunally, and assessed how age related isolation and change fatigue among Anglo-Celtic residents factored into dispositions of discomfort toward new migrants. 

Exile & Return Among the East Timorese (1998-2002)
My PhD (completed in 2002) explored pre and post-exile forms of belonging and identity among East Timorese refugees living in Sydney. The resulting book Can be purchased here.

Publications PhD Supervision

Amanda supervises a number of students on issues surrounding migration, transnational communities, migrant labour, multiculturalism (especially everyday multiculturalism), race, racism, ethnicity, 'place', diversity and the city.

Selected Publications

Books

Inhabiting Multiculturalism. Manuscript in progress.

2006. Exile & Return Among the East Timorese. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Forthcoming, 2009. (eds.) with Selvaraj Velayutham. Everyday Multiculturalism. Houndsmills, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal Articles

Forthcoming. (with Selvaraj Velayutham) Affect and Emotion in Migration Research', in Area.

Forthcoming 2011 'Foreign' Signs & Multicultural Belongings on a Diverse Shopping Street', in Journal of Built Environment

Forthcoming. 'Moving Food: Gustatory Commensality And Disjuncture In Everyday Multiculturalism', in New Formations: journal of culture/theory/politics (under review).

2010. 'Sensuous Multiculturalism: Emotional Landscapes of Interethnic Living in Australian Suburbia', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

2008. with Selvaraj Velayutham. 'Second Generation Tamils & a Cross Cultural Marriage: Managing the Translocal Village in a Moment of Cultural Rupture', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 34(1) 113-131

2005. 'Hope and Belonging in a Multicultural Suburb', Journal of Intercultural Studies, 26(1/2): 171-186.

2005. with Selvaraj Velayutham. 'Moral Economies of a Translocal Village: Obligations and Shame Among South Indian Transnational Migrants'. Global Networks 5(1): 27-47.

2004. 'Nation, Transnation, Diaspora: The Transnational Dimensions to East Timorese Political & National Identities', Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 19(3).

2004. 'Embodying Exile: Protest, Performance, Trauma and Affect in the Formation of East Timorese Refugee Identities', Social Analysis: The International Journal of Cultural & Social Practice, 48(3).

2001. with Selvaraj Velayutham. 'Dancing with Ga(y)nesh: Rethinking Cultural Appropriation in Multicultural Australia', Postcolonial Studies, 4(2):143-160.

Forthcoming. (with Selvaraj Velayutham) Affect and Emotion in Migration Research', in Area. 

Forthcoming 2011 'Foreign' Signs & Multicultural Belongings on a Diverse Shopping Street', in Journal of Built Environment. 

Book Chapters

2011 '"You wouldn't know what's in there would you?": Homeliness & 'Foreign' signs in a translocal suburb', in Brickell, Katherine and Datta, Ayona, eds. (2011) Translocal geographies: spaces, places, connections. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK.

2010 "Everyday Multiculturalism : Transversal Crossings and Working Class Cosmopolitans", in Wise, A & Velayutham S (eds). Everyday Multiculturalism. Houndsmills, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

2009. '"It's Just an Attitude That You Feel": Inter-ethnic habitus before the Cronulla riots', in G. Noble (ed.) Lines in the Sand: The Cronulla Riots and the Limits of Australian Multiculturalism. Institute of Criminology Press.

2005. 'East Timor', in P. Poddar and D. Johnson (eds.) A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English, University of Edinburgh Press.

2003. 'Embodying Exile: Trauma, Protest & Identity and the formation East Timorese identities in Exile', in M. Leach and F. Mansouri (eds.) Critical Perspectives in Refugee Policy in Australia, Deakin University Press.

2003. 'On youth, hybridity and the politics of representing the East Timorese community', in M. Butcher and M. Thomas (eds.) Ingenious: emerging youth cultures in urban Australia. Sydney: Pluto Press.

Exhibition Catalogues and Research Reports

2010 (with Maddox et al), 'Political Participation of Muslims in Australia'. Canberra: Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

2008 (with Kylie Sait) Getting to Know the Locals: Researching the Impact of the Mentor Program for Tibetan Refugees

2008 StepOne: Community Cohesion & Anti-Racism Toolkit 

2008 MUSLIM-AUSTRALIANS & LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Grassroots strategies to improve relations between Muslim and non-Muslim-Australians. (300 pages) Report to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University.

2006. 'Building Neighbourhood Harmony: Strategies for Local Government'. Report prepared for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.

2004. 'Contact Zones: Experiences of Cultural Diversity and Rapid Neighbourhood Change among Anglo-Celtic and Long-term Elderly Residents in Ashfield'. Report to Ashfield Council, October 2004.

2001. 'Leaving the Crocodile: The Story of the East Timorese community in Sydney'. A 45 page exhibition catalogue, published by the Liverpool Regional Museum & the Centre for Cultural Research.

Professional Societies & Editorial Boards

Australian Sociological Association

International Sociological Association

Managing Editor of Communal/Plural: Journal of Transnational and Cross-Cultural Studies (2000-2002)

Consulting and Advisory work

Amanda has undertaken significant amounts of consultancy, contract and advisory work for federal, state and local government, as well as the not for profit sector. Mainly this has been related to multiculturalism, anti-racism, 'community cohesion', and migrant/refugee settlement.