Denise Cuthbert | RMIT University (original) (raw)

Books by Denise Cuthbert

Global Childhoods draws on the authors’ interdisciplinary backgrounds and original research in th... more Global Childhoods draws on the authors’ interdisciplinary backgrounds and original research in the fields of embodiment, theorisations of childhood, children's policy, child placement and adoption, and family formation. The book critically demonstrates how following from the modern construction of childhood which emerged unevenly from the late eighteenth century, the twentieth century saw the emergence of the conception of the normative global child, a figure finally enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The book offers a wide-ranging critical analysis of approaches to children and childhood across the social sciences. Through stimulating case studies which include the experiences of child soldiers, orphans, the disappeared children of Argentina, forced child migrants, and children and biomedicine, Cregan and Cuthbert critically test the notion of the ‘global child’ against the lived experiences of children around the globe. The book draws on and contributes to debates on children and the idea of the child in a wide range of disciplines: sociology, anthropology, education, children's studies, cultural studies, history, psychology, law and development studies. In its historical coverage of the rise of the concepts of the child and the global child, its critical engagement with the theorisation of childhood, and its detailed case studies, the book is essential reading for the study of children and childhood

"Other People’s Children: Adoption in Australia Edited by Ceridwen Spark and Denise Cuthbert ... more "Other People’s Children: Adoption in Australia
Edited by Ceridwen Spark and Denise Cuthbert

Contributors to this volume provide multiple perspectives on the complex history and development of adoption in Australia and reflect on current issues in domestic and intercountry adoption. They discuss topics as diverse as celebrity adoption intercountry experiences gay and lesbian adoption and Indigenous adoption. Many write from direct experience as birth mothers adoptive parents adoptees or as social workers in the adoption process. This is essential reading for those personally touched by adoption those considering the adoption of a child those working in the field as well as students and researchers and general readers with an interest in Australian social and family life."

The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption tells the history of adoption in Australia f... more The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption tells the history of adoption in Australia from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to its decline at the beginning of the twenty-first. The authors find that a market in babies has long existed. In the early years supply outstripped demand; needy babies were hard to place. Mid-twentieth century demand and supply grew together with adoption presented as the perfect solution to two social problems: infertility and illegitimacy. Supply declined in the 1970s and demand turned to new global markets. Now these markets are closing, but technology provides new opportunities and Australians are acquiring babies through the surrogacy markets of India and the United States.

As the rate of adoptions in Australia falls to a historic low, and parliaments across the country are apologising to parents and babies for the pain caused by past practices, this book identifies an historical continuum between the past and the present and challenges the view that the best interests of the child can ever be protected in an environment where the market for babies is allowed to flourish.

This book comes out of a national research project investigating the history of adoption in Australia. The project examined the distinctive ways in which adoption has reflected and shaped family ideals within Australian settler society. It sought to bring into history the stories of people whose lives have been changed by adoption, in order to acknowledge that experience and to read it against policy change. Those interested in reading more about the history of Australian adoption, primary and secondary, will find a comprehensive listing on the Monash History of Adoption project website at:
http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/historyofadoption/

Articles: Higher Education by Denise Cuthbert

The prevalent knowledge economy discourse has direct implications for higher education policies a... more The prevalent knowledge economy discourse has direct
implications for higher education policies and practices. It is expected that the higher education sector supports national economic competitiveness mainly through promoting scientific research, supporting technological transfer and innovation, and producing ‘knowledge workers’ such as higher degree by research (HDR) graduates. However in the context of changing work requirements and fast paced technological progress, the ‘skills gap’ between the labour market needs and the actual attributes of graduates has emerged as a tangible concern. This paper explores the issue of research graduate employability in Australia. Drawing on critical frame analysis, the paper
particularly problematizes the way research graduate employability has been framed in relevant policy texts, and shows what issues are excluded from the policy agenda and why. By way of demonstrating exclusions from the current
debate on doctoral graduates’ skills and employability, we briefly report on new data on the level of industry-engagement of research students at one large Australian university to argue that assumptions about the need to ‘fix’ the skills deficit of graduates have excluded from view high levels of industry
engagement.

Deane Neubauer and Kamila Binti Ghazali. eds. Technology & Workplace Skills for the 21st Century: Asia Pacific Universities in the Globalized Economy. Palgrave Macmillan

In this chapter, we reflect on current debates on the employability of doctoral graduates and rel... more In this chapter, we reflect on current debates on the employability of doctoral graduates and related concerns about PhD graduates’ work skills (or their lack) using recent Australia policy debates and developments (2008–2014) as a case study. The chapter proceeds in three sections. We begin with a global overview of the political attention being directed to the PhD and frame this politicization of the PhD as one consequence of the rise of knowledge economy discourses. We then survey the broad contours of the employment of PhD graduates debate and its contradictory elements, which simultaneously present cases for there being too many and too few PhDs. We argue that this is due to the operation of different frameworks for understanding the meaning, function and objectives of PhD education. The chapter then turns to Australia and a brief overview of the politicization of the Australian PhD under successive Federal governments since the 1990s. Political attention on the PhD has been intense in Australia since 2008, with the pursuit of an ambitious government-led research and innovation agenda with implications for the framing of the employability of PhD graduates and curriculum responses to address this issue. We conclude with some critical reflections on the way this policy debate has been framed, highlighting some unexamined assumptions, and the failure to incorporate what is known about the diversity and prior work experience of the Australian PhD cohort.

This article examines the lived experiences of women in Ethiopian higher education (HE) as a coun... more This article examines the lived experiences of women in Ethiopian higher education (HE) as a counterpoint to understandings of gender equity informed only by data on
admission, progression and completions rates. Drawing on a critical qualitative inquiry approach, we analyse and interpret data drawn from focus group discussions with female students and academic women in two public universities
in Ethiopia. Individual accounts and shared experiences of women in HE revealed that despite affirmative action policies that slightly benefit females at entry point, gender inequality persists in qualitative forms. Prejudice against
women and sexual violence are highlighted as key expressions of qualitative gender inequalities in the two universities. It is argued that HE institutions in
Ethiopia are male-dominated, hierarchical and hostile to women. Furthermore, taken-for-granted gender assumptions and beliefs at institutional, social relational
and individual levels operate to make women conform to structures of disadvantage and in effect sustain the repressive gender relations.

Higher Education, Apr 2014

A feature of HE reform discourse is the tendency to construct the rationale for reform in terms o... more A feature of HE reform discourse is the tendency to construct the rationale for reform in terms of averting calamity and risk. We refer to this risk talk as ‘crisis discourse’. This study examines the formulation of PhD crisis discourse internationally and in Australia. We find that a key feature of PhD crisis discourse is that universities are producing too many graduates for too few academic jobs; and graduates lack skills that enable them to be productive in jobs outside academia. In Australia, the discourse has shifted from one dominated by efficiency concerns from the late 1990s to the present focus on graduate skills and employability. The policy solution to the efficiency crisis in the Australian PhD resulted in system-wide changes in research training funding focused on increased efficiency. The current unemployability discourse has as yet prompted isolated institutional responses, the introduction of new PhD programs or re-badging existing offerings as pro-skills development offerings. Following an examination of three Australian institutional responses, we conclude that the crisis discourse signals tensions surrounding the PhD: should achievement in doctoral education be measured by outcomes in intellectual excellence or the responsiveness of qualification to the current needs and priorities of society?

"This article begins the work of examining what kind of doctoral experiences positively influence... more "This article begins the work of examining what kind of doctoral experiences positively influence researcher development, and what other attributes may contribute to a successful research career. It reports preliminary findings from the
analysis of survey responses by a sample of successful mid-career researchers. Positive doctoral experiences and the early establishment of research activity are
found to be important to researcher development. Successful researchers were also found to be able to acknowledge the importance of their ‘soft skills’, and to have flexible, responsive and adaptive dispositions. We term this disposition ‘an entrepreneurial subjectivity’ and argue that it is an important and under examined characteristic of the successful researcher.

Keywords: doctorate; mid-career researcher; productivity; researcher development; success"

This article addresses an under-researched area of graduate studies: the role of writing groups i... more This article addresses an under-researched area of graduate studies: the role of writing groups in developing the research and publication potential of university graduates. Drawing on focus
group discussions with participants from a pilot program conducted in the Arts Faculty at Monash University in Australia, the authors investigate the outcomes of graduate participation
in writing groups through reference to three key themes: demystification, writing for an audience and support versus pressure. In the light of the finding that graduate participation in
writing groups has a variety of positive outcomes, the authors suggest the need to develop appropriate ways to expand the current emphasis on research development to include graduates.

Studies in Higher Education, 2012

This article reports on research into the development, teaching and student experiences of a one-... more This article reports on research into the development, teaching and student experiences of a one-semester subject designed to provide an undergraduate research experience in the social sciences. The subject was offered for the first time in 2009 in a large sociology program at a major research-intensive Australian university. Our findings are significant because they confirm findings from research with students engaged in undergraduate research experiences from the science, technology, engineering and medical disciplines, and add a much-needed social science perspective to the important international conversation on undergraduate research in higher education. We conclude by suggesting that whether or not a subject of this kind is successful in motivating students to pursue research careers, it is clearly successful in raising levels of research literacy.

Studies in Higher Education, 2008

... the outcomes of graduate participation in writing groups through reference to three key theme... more ... the outcomes of graduate participation in writing groups through reference to three key themes: demystification ... away from the completion of their thesis, it was hoped that success in publishing ...book proposals, turning theses into books and writing for the non‐academic media. ...

Higher Education Research & Development, 2009

This article addresses multi‐disciplinary writing groups in supporting writing for publication fo... more This article addresses multi‐disciplinary writing groups in supporting writing for publication for higher degree by research candidates in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Drawing on focus group discussions with postgraduate research students from the Faculty of Arts at Monash University in Australia who participated in the writing groups, it investigates the participants’ perceptions of the multi‐disciplinary nature of the groups and some of the benefits of sharing writing with fellow postgraduate research students from different fields of study. Discussing both the strengths and weaknesses of the multi‐disciplinarity of the groups as identified by participants, the authors suggest that such groups can provide a forum for postgraduates to develop their ‘professional’ academic identity and develop their writing beyond the context of their theses and can have some unexpected benefits to participants’ sense of themselves as disciplinary proponents. The multi‐disciplinary context is thus considered as providing a level playing field in which postgraduates may approach the writing process as a shared methodology, encompassing a suite of specialised but generic skills that cross‐disciplinary boundaries.

Journal of Studies in International Education 12.3: 255-75, 2008

Australia has been a significant provider of international education in the Asia-Pacific region s... more Australia has been a significant provider of international education in the Asia-Pacific region since 1950 with the inception of the Colombo Plan. Thus, graduates from these early days would by now be mature professionals in a variety of fields, with several decades of professional and academic attainment enabled by their Australian education. Yet we actually know very little about the outcomes over time of the graduates of Australian international higher education. In this article, the authors review the scholarly literature on the outcomes of international education, education provided by Australian universities and by others, and critically consider some of the limitations of the data and the methodologies that have dominated this area of research. Finally, in an effort to put current debates on international education on a more informed basis, the authors outline a prospectus for future research to redress some of these shortcomings.

"Other People’s Children: Adoption in Australia Edited by Ceridwen Spark and Denise Cuthbert ... more "Other People’s Children: Adoption in Australia
Edited by Ceridwen Spark and Denise Cuthbert

Deane Neubauer and Kamila Binti Ghazali. eds. Technology & Workplace Skills for the 21st Century: Asia Pacific Universities in the Globalized Economy. Palgrave Macmillan

Higher Education, Apr 2014

Keywords: doctorate; mid-career researcher; productivity; researcher development; success"

Studies in Higher Education, 2012

Studies in Higher Education, 2008

Higher Education Research & Development, 2009

Journal of Studies in International Education 12.3: 255-75, 2008

Current indications are that increasing numbers of Australians are moving to commercial offshore ... more Current indications are that increasing numbers of Australians are moving to commercial offshore surrogacy arrangements—in places including India and Thailand—to satisfy their desire to become parents. This is in line with international trends (Rotabi & Bromfield, 2012). This new phenomenon raises issues of concern
to researchers, particularly related to the position of women who act as surrogate mothers (Bailey, 2011; Crozier & Martin, 2012; Deonandan, Green, & van Beinum, 2012). It also raises practice issues for professionals such as lawyers and social workers that are yet to be fully charted. In this chapter, we draw on our experience and perspectives as researchers in the field of adoption, focusing on intercountry adoption, to reflect on the rise of commercial offshore surrogacy as a mode of family formation.

American Indian Quarterly, Special Issue: Native Adoption in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. 37.1-2: 178-202, 2013

From the mid- 1990s to the present, the politics of reconciliation and apology in Australia, once... more From the mid- 1990s to the present, the politics of reconciliation and apology in Australia, once exclusively focused on Indigenous people, have been progressively de-Indigenized and, as we discuss in the final section of the article, de-specified in other ways as well. In considering how this has come about, we look
first to the political foregrounding of child removal as the Indigenous issue par excellence in the discourses
of settler- Indigenous reconciliation from the late 1990s to 2008.
We suggest that while highly effective on one level in bringing Indigenous Australia to center stage in Australian politics, this issue simultaneously worked to sideline other Indigenous issues (most particularly land rights) from the agenda. At the same time, the focus on child removal and family separation in the politics of Indigenous reconciliation opened a political space for non- Indigenous groups with like grievances to assume a position alongside the Stolen Generations. Our thesis is that the progressive Indigenization of forced child removal and the concomitant sidelining of other political claims of Australia’s Indigenous people in the period between 1992 and 2008 has perversely allowed for the replacement of politics by sentiment around the issue of child removal. At the same time, it has opened a political space for non- Indigenous people with similar claims of forced removal as children, resulting in the de- Indigenization of child removal in Australian politics. Th e consequences of this for the future of the Indigenous- settler reconciliation project are at best uncertain.

Journal of Australian Studies, 1998

One of the measures of the cultural, if not political, success of sustained Aboriginal activism o... more One of the measures of the cultural, if not political, success of sustained Aboriginal activism on the issue of the forced removal of children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, leading up to the instigation of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’ s inquiry into the issue and the widely disseminated publication of its findings in 1997, is that it now appears nearly impossible to tell the story of indigenous child removal in terms other than those provided by the powerful Aboriginalised tropes and narrative modes that have come to shape both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal understandings of issue. This paper presents preliminary analysis of research undertaken with a small group of these women in 1997 and 1998.

Resources for Feminist Research 28. 1.2.: 209-228. , 2000

In this essay, I reflect on the experience of interviewing a small group of non-Aboriginal women ... more In this essay, I reflect on the experience of interviewing a small group of non-Aboriginal women who adopted or fostered Aboriginal children in Australia, particularly focusing on the difficulties I faced as a white feminist, and considering my own methodology in light of its divergence from methods advocated in feminist research literature. As feminist researchers we need to be wary of formulating and adhering to a too rigid orthodoxy about what kinds of research are "feminist." Any hierarchy of feminist research methods may ultimately serve to delimit feminist inquiry in ways that we should resist.

Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2012

This essay places the long-standing campaign for redress and apology of women separated from thei... more This essay places the long-standing campaign for redress and apology of women separated from their children through adoption in an historical and political context, tracing the rise of the
single mother as a political voice through the Council for the Single Mother and her Child and the emergence of birth mother advocacy groups. The political actions of these mothers must be
seen alongside the two national apologies already delivered and the political activism which led to them. Activism for apologies for past wrongs ought be understood in terms of the contemporary Australian politics of apology in which, in the words of Hannah Arendt, “pity is elevated to the level of a political principle”. However, in the case of these mothers, the Australian story of national regret and apology is complicated by issues of gender and sexuality. The women, unlike the Stolen Generations, child migrants and institutionalised children, do not easily or readily fit within the terms of national apology as formulated in the apologies of 2008 and 2009 which were addressed primarily to wronged and innocent children. If and when an apology is addressed to these women, its terms will necessarily differ from the
earlier apologies.

Journal of Australian Studies, 2010

... DOI: 10.1080/14443051003721171 Kate Murphy a * , Sarah Pinto a &amp;amp; Denise Cuthb... more ... DOI: 10.1080/14443051003721171 Kate Murphy a * , Sarah Pinto a &amp;amp; Denise Cuthbert a pages 141-161. Available online: 23 Apr 2010. ...

Australian Feminist Studies, 2009

In 2004 the sociologist Rosemary Pringle remarked that the ‘climate of apology’ surrounding adopt... more In 2004 the sociologist Rosemary Pringle remarked that the ‘climate of apology’ surrounding adoption in Australia, linked with understandable shame regarding past adoption practices and the ‘stolen generation’ of Aboriginal children, meant that it had
become ‘almost impossible’ to endorse adoption as a policy option (Pringle 2004). In 2004, this was an apt call for all the reasons outlined astutely by Pringle. Then in 2005 and
2007 two reports of the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, the first on inter-country adoption (Overseas Adoption in Australia: Report on the Inquiry into the Adoption of Children from Overseas) and the second on the impact of illicit drug use on families (The Winnable War on Drugs: The Impact of Illicit Drug Use on Families), challenged Pringle’s position. The two inquiries, both chaired by the Honourable Bronwyn Bishop MP, advocated adoption not only as a viable social policy option but also as the preferred or ‘default’ placement option for certain children; and both reports attempted to reverse what they described as an entrenched anti-adoption bias in Australian child welfare and placement policy.
In this paper, we examine these recent developments in Australia with some regard to parallel developments in adoption legislation and policy in the United Kingdom and the United States, and we describe these developments as ‘new adoption’. By this, we do not
mean the reform movement pushing for open modes of adoption which emerged in the 1980s and which, in many jurisdictions, including several states in the United States and in the Australian State of Queensland, is still underway.3 By ‘new adoption’, we refer to more recent developments in adoption policy and practice, appearing most notably in the United States through the Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997), and in the United
Kingdom as initially framed in the paper Adoption: A New Approach (Secretary of State for Health 2000) and enacted in the 2002 Adoption and Children Act (ACA). In both administrations, adoption is reframed actively by the state as a solution to the chronic problem of children in long-term state or ‘out-of-home’ care.

Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. 9.1: 239-302, 2002

Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. 10.1: 259-332, 2002

Year's Work in Critical and CulturalTheory. 5.1: 304-368, 1995

Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. 6.1: 251-314, 1996

The year 1996 sees the continuation of a number of debates which we have covered in earlier revie... more The year 1996 sees the continuation of a number of debates which we have covered in earlier reviews. The consideration of the impact and meaning of the High Court's landmark Mabo decision continues, with less emphasis on its meaning for Aboriginal land rightsper se and a ...

Thamyris. 3,1: 18-36, 1996

The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. 4.1: 281-316, 1994

While there are clear lines of continuity between works published in 1997 and the work discussed ... more While there are clear lines of continuity between works published in 1997 and the work discussed in previous reviews (YWCCT 4,5,6), there is also a number of striking lines of departure which mark the profundity of the change in political climate in the year following the election in ...

The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 1997

Media Culture Society 35: 435. DOI: 10.1177/0163443713483796, 2013

Since the early 1990s, Malaysian society has displayed a deepening concern over steady increases ... more Since the early 1990s, Malaysian society has displayed a deepening concern over steady increases in reported cases of child abuse in the country. For many Malaysians, knowledge
of this issue comes from the mainstream media. This research analyses media coverage of child abuse in two mainstream English-language daily newspapers throughout 2010.
The analysis focuses on how this issue is presented and ‘framed’ in the media. Through the use of simple episodic framing and a distorted focus on extreme cases of child abuse, media coverage internationally obscures the reality of child abuse as it occurs
within the context of contemporary social, cultural, religious or political systems. This hinders any genuine understanding of the problem, leading to flawed solutions. We find these international patterns largely replicated in Malaysia. Furthermore, gendered
socialization processes in Malaysia make women and mothers principally responsible for family life and there is a tendency to blame and punish mothers for child abuse even when they are not the perpetrators. Internationally, child welfare experts and
academics have advised the media to focus reporting on the underlying causes of abuse so that the issue can be better understood and addressed and this advice is pertinent
for Malaysia today.

Cultural Studies. 103: 430-88., 1996

The products and practices of The Body Shop, both material and rhetorical, can be inserted into a... more The products and practices of The Body Shop, both material and rhetorical, can be inserted into a number of competing discourses along the axes of feminist interests in the body and its relation to culture. We focus here on The Body Shop's Mamatoto range as it relates to contemporary Western discursive formations
of maternity, alterity, and the vexed constructions of 'difference' and 'globalism' that emerge from them. Among the meta-products of Mamatoto are discursive formations of the body itself which, while they appear to endorse, even to celebrate, an active engagement with transcultural specificity and difference,
actually reinstate the Western, white body of 'woman' as the 'gold standard' against which the exoticized currency of other women can be classified, appropriated and disowned. Within this framework, maternity itself is deployed by The Body Shop as a richly suggestive trope that serves to represent the problematics of body-as-nature, body-as-culture and body-as-identity that continue to preoccupy feminists across a wide range of political and cultural agendas.

Medical Anthropology Quarterly. DOI: 10.1111/maq.12070, 2014

Australian Journal of Adoption, 2010

Women's Writing, 1998

RE-ORIENTING WESTERN FEMINISMS The agenda of contemporary western feminism focuses strongly on wo... more RE-ORIENTING WESTERN FEMINISMS The agenda of contemporary western feminism focuses strongly on women&amp;amp;#x27;s equal participation in work and education, reproductive rights and sexual freedom. But what does feminism mean to the women of rural India who work long hours ...

Research report prepared for beyond blue. Melbourne.

Global Childhoods: Issues and Debates

Business and Human Rights Journal, 2022

Cross-border surrogacy is a global industry that offers intended parents options for family forma... more Cross-border surrogacy is a global industry that offers intended parents options for family formation by providing foreign surrogate mothers remuneration, directly or via an intermediary, in excess of their actual out-of-pocket expenses. It is a multi-million-dollar business with no international regulation.1 In most countries, limited domestic regulation or oversight is in place. Many countries − such as Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong and South Africa − only permit altruistic surrogacy, while Germany and France ban surrogacy entirely.2 Fully legalized commercial surrogacy is the model followed in some states in the United States of America (USA), as well as Georgia and Ukraine.3 This unregulated cross-border market has produced a lucrative business, with surrogacy arrangements growing by nearly 1,000 per cent between 2006 and 2010.4 The for-profit surrogacy sector has expanded and fertility not-for-profit organizations have also entered the market.5

Global Childhoods: Issues and Debates

Meanjin, 2007

The manner in which tools of Western dominance used by colonisers in their colonies, such as the ... more The manner in which tools of Western dominance used by colonisers in their colonies, such as the English language and Western education, are adapted and redeployed by former colonies in the post-colonial era, is discussed. It is suggested that the English language, originally meant to oppress colonials, is now being used as a primary method of communication in a multilingual society, while Western education is being pursued to advance knowledge in various colonial academic disciplines.

Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, 1997

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal

PurposeScience, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) workplaces worldwide re... more PurposeScience, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) workplaces worldwide remain stubbornly resistant to gender equality initiatives. Leaders are vital to driving change, but the extent to which their capabilities lead to change remains unknown. This article examines STEMM leaders' gender competence to achieving transformative changes in gender inequality.Design/methodology/approachThis article examines the capability of STEMM leaders to act as change agents through an in-depth, qualitative analysis of perceptions of gender inequality, sexual harassment, sex discrimination and gender bias within their organisations. Findings are analysed using a customised tripartite gender competence schema, comprising commitment, knowledge and method (or know-how).FindingsThe findings suggest that while STEMM leaders may express a commitment to addressing gender inequality, misapprehensions about the nature and scope of the problem are likely to hamper efforts. Two key mis...

Journal of Intercultural Studies

Critical Studies in Education

The PhD at the End of the World, 2021

We live in a world in which post-truth rhetoric and challenges to the role of higher education in... more We live in a world in which post-truth rhetoric and challenges to the role of higher education institutions as arbiters of knowledge are commonplace. When faced with sustained attacks on the authority of evidence-based knowledge, unease is widespread. As Latour’s haptic analogy so vividly suggests, there’s nothing like a crisis to focus the mind on what really matters. In this case, Latour argues, it is a matter that matters more than ever: Earth. No less at stake in the Anthropocene is the survival of life on earth. Turning our gaze to the floor means inquiring into the fundamentals: the viability of life on earth when the impacts of one species (ours) are on a planetary scale.

Women's Studies International Forum

"Over the last twenty years, unprecedented national and international policy attention has conver... more "Over the last twenty years, unprecedented national and international policy attention has converged on doctoral education and its capacity to drive and transform economic and national development. This ‘knowledge economy optimism’ has been a key influence in pushing doctoral education and research development to the forefront of education and innovation policies; it has also inspired enthusiastic imaginaries of the capacity of the doctorate and doctoral graduates to transform national and regional economies and marginalized earlier scholarly or disciplinary imaginaries. At the same time, much research on the doctorate remains centred on the personal dimensions of the doctoral endeavour imagined as a site of intensely personal challenge and transformation with epistemological, ontological and psychological dimensions which rarely or only fleetingly address the political economy which underpins doctoral work. Surprisingly little work critically engages with the doctorate across these fields.

We seek to initiate a critical conversation that speaks about and across these imaginaries and to engage with questions which include:

 Has the heightened policy focus translated to a convergence of policy, pedagogy and practice in doctoral education?
 Do those involved in doctoral education, from university leaders to doctoral candidates, share and participate in the knowledge economy imaginary of the PhD and its potentialities, or are other imaginaries at work?
 As researchers, how do we work to frame the ways in which the doctorate is imagined and these imaginaries shape practice, policy and funding regimes?
In this symposium, we are particularly keen to encourage explorations across and between these various strata (i.e. the doctorate imagined as the key to personal, national or economic transformation) with the aim of identifying hitherto unnoticed or under-theorised gaps or connections.

This event will provide an international and cross-disciplinary forum for a small group of dedicated researchers to share research and practice on doctoral education. Participation entails commitment to a strict timetable for the production of advanced draft material in advance of the symposium for sharing with other participants.

We are delighted to advise that several prominent scholars have already accepted this invitation and will deliver papers and act as discussants for other papers. They include: Professor Barbara Kehm (University of Glasgow), Professor Pham Thi Ly (National University of Viet Nam), Professor Morshidi Sirat (Universiti Sains Malaysia), and Associate Professor Barbara Grant (University of Auckland).
"

AIM: This half-day event will bring together Higher Education leaders and researchers and policy ... more AIM: This half-day event will bring together Higher Education leaders and researchers and policy makers from Australia, Viet Nam and the ASEAN region for a focussed discussion and exchange of views on some of the challenges being faced in Viet Nam in the delivery of high quality research training to the level of the PhD; and to explore the opportunities for co-operation and collaboration in graduate education to increase Vietnam’s research and research training capabilities.
Intended audience: University research and research education leaders from a range of disciplines, government representatives.
Please note: Sessions will be presented in English and Vietnamese. An interpreter will be present.

 This submission characterises commercial surrogacy as the latest chapter in the global trade in... more  This submission characterises commercial surrogacy as the latest chapter in the global trade in children for family formation  We find that the rights and interests of children are marginalised in most discussions of commercial surrogacy with the interests of commissioning parents seeking children for family formation dominating public discourse  Equally, the rights and interests of women who act as surrogates in surrogacy arrangements are marginalised  Lessons learned from research into the long term effects of adoption and donor conception with respect to a range of issues affecting children subject to these arrangements must be heeded as public policy on surrogacy is developed  We commend the current position of state and territory legislatures on domestic commercial surrogacy and propose a more active role for the Commonwealth in legislating for procedure including the screening of commissioning parents before surrogacy arrangements are transacted with heavy penalties for the failure to do so.

Fronek, P. (2016). Adoption. In ACRT, UNICEF Australia, & NCYLC (Eds.), CRC25 Australian Child Ri... more Fronek, P. (2016). Adoption. In ACRT, UNICEF Australia, & NCYLC (Eds.), CRC25 Australian Child Rights Progress Report: A report on 25 years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Australia (pp. 20-21). Australia: Australian Child Rights Taskforce, UNICEF Australia,National Children's and Youth Law Centre.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0312407X.2013.777970#.UwahnmKSySo. 2012 marked histori... more http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0312407X.2013.777970#.UwahnmKSySo. 2012 marked historic events in the practice of adoption in Australia. Government focus was on the formulation of apologies to those people affected by past forced adoption practices. A critical reflection on these and other Australian apologies, highlight assumptions that differentiate past domestic adoption practices from past and contemporary practice in intercountry adoption. The importance of social work, founded in the values of social justice and human rights, to ensuring the same practice standards apply to all people who give birth to children regardless of where they live is highlighted. Expanding knowledge on intercountry adoption indicates that Australia should prepare for another apology.
"

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00799.x/abstract The only existing i... more http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00799.x/abstract
The only existing international framework for inter-country adoption (ICA) is a legal one. Current legal and welfare approaches have limitations in that ICA tends to be conceptualised in individualistic terms, while strategies that prevent ICA by strengthening communities and addressing structural inequalities in the first instance are neglected and divorced from ICA practice. A vision and an overarching framework based on a socioecological approach that informs other arenas, such as health promotion, are proposed. The article concludes that the development of collaborative, intersectoral approaches, the reorientation of public and private resources and international leadership from academics, legislators, policy makers, practitioners and communities are necessary for a paradigm shift for this century.

For full text - http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/handle/10072/46105 This review surveys sociol... more For full text - http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/handle/10072/46105
This review surveys sociological literature on intercountry adoption from 1997 to 2010. The analysis finds a preponderance of literature from the United States, reflecting its place as a major receiving country, and a focus on adoption experience organised by reference to the adoption triad: adoptive parents, adoptees, birth families. Reflecting the power imbalances in intercountry adoption, the voices and views of adoptive parents dominate the literature. There is an emerging literature generated by researchers who are intercountry adoptees, while birth families remain almost invisible in this literature. A further gap identified by this review is work which examines intercountry adoption as a
global social practice and work which critically examines policy.

For full text - http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/handle/10072/46122 Disasters are prevalent wi... more For full text - http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/handle/10072/46122
Disasters are prevalent with devastating effects on vulnerable populations that include the elderly, disabled, women and children. Historical responses to vulnerable children
and families post-disaster raise questions concerning further harms to children rescued by adoption in the aftermath of devastation. This article offers critical and historical
perspectives on child removal for adoption in the context of disaster and the psychosocial care of children affected by disaster. It brings into question whether removal, especially
permanent removal for adoption, is in their interests. This article concludes that efforts are needed by the international community to ensure that past abuses do not recur.

The only existing international framework for inter-country adoption (ICA) is a legal one. Curren... more The only existing international framework for inter-country adoption (ICA) is a legal one. Current legal and welfare approaches have limitations in that ICA tends to be conceptualised in individualistic terms, while strategies that prevent ICA by strengthening communities and addressing structural inequalities in the first instance are neglected and divorced from ICA practice. A vision and an overarching framework based on a socioecological approach that informs other arenas, such as health promotion, are proposed. The article concludes that the development of collaborative, intersectoral approaches, the reorientation of public and private resources and international leadership from academics, legislators, policy makers, practitioners and communities are necessary for a paradigm shift for this century.

A recent Conversation article that said our current laws prohibiting commercial surrogacy are not... more A recent Conversation article that said our current laws prohibiting commercial surrogacy are not working was correct. Some states outlaw overseas commercial surrogacy, but people are working around the laws or simply ignoring them...
Cuthbert, D., & Fronek, P. (2016). Legalising commercial surrogacy won't stop people going overseas. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/legalising-commercial-surrogacy-in-australia-wont-stop-people-going-overseas-55126

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-intercountry-adoption-debate Fronek, P., Cuthbert, D., & Wi... more http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-intercountry-adoption-debate
Fronek, P., Cuthbert, D., & Willing, I. (2015). Intercountry adoption: Privilege, rights and social justice. In R. L. Ballard, N. H. Goodno, R. F. Cochran & J. A. Milbrandt (Eds.), The intercountry adoption debate: Dialogues across disciplines (pp. 348-365): Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
For a review by Mirah Riben, The Huffington Post see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirah-riben/the-intercountry-adoption_b_8174088.html?ir=Australia

HIgher Education , 2022

Crisis makes bold policy actions possible. In responding to socioeconomic and technological ruptu... more Crisis makes bold policy actions possible. In responding to socioeconomic and technological ruptures, policymakers create new imaginaries or revitalise existing ones. With the Australian Government's Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) reform during the COVID-19 pandemic as an empirical case, this paper shows how crisis instrumentalism and policy imaginaries intersect to effect swift policy changes. Drawing on a thematic analysis of key documents that constitute the JRG reform, we highlight three findings. First, the reformers used a new crisis context to repackage pre-existing policy agendas. Second, in justifying the timeliness of the reform, rather than constructing new imaginaries, the Government reactivated old neoliberal visions of society and the economy. Finally, the reform agendas are characterised by reductionist accounts of the value of university education, a nativist view of the future workforce, and the omissions of key issues: research training, social justice, and the urgency of decarbonising the economy. We close the paper by arguing that crisis makes swift reform possible to the extent that key actors can mobilise new or pre-existing policy imaginaries.

Policy Review in Higher Education, 2019

The demands of Industry 4.0 (the Fourth Industrial Revolution) for a future-ready skilled workfor... more The demands of Industry 4.0 (the Fourth Industrial Revolution) for a future-ready skilled workforce have placed significant political pressure on PhD programs to deliver different sorts of graduates. The paper documents the prevalent ‘skills gap’ narrative of global policy actors and, and using a multi-scalar policy lens, examines global and national research-training policy debates and Australian institutional responses to calls to transform the PhD to make it more amenable to the new economic conditions. We provide a survey and analysis of recent institutional changes to the PhD in Australia and find that these fall into three overlapping categories: increased employability skills training; the development of industry- and end-user engaged programs; and flexible pathways to the PhD. Following this analysis, we step back to ask some critical questions of these developments both in terms of how effectively they answer the challenges put out in Industry 4.0 discourses and the problematic assumptions, silences and omissions in the policy debates and university responses. Drawing on a capability approach to human development we argue that PhD graduates should not only be prepared to meet the demands of Industry 4.0 but also to lead us through the socio-economic transformations this revolution may entail.

Africa is being re-imagined as a knowledge economy, and higher education (HE) systems have been p... more Africa is being re-imagined as a knowledge economy, and higher education (HE) systems have been propelled into the centre of national economic plans and strategies. This paper provides an analysis of four recent major initiatives directed to the revitalisation of HE in sub-Saharan Africa: the Pan African University (2010), the Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (2014), The Kigali Communiqué on Higher Education for Science, Technology and Innovation (2014), and the Dakar Declaration and Action Plan on Revitalising Higher Education for Africa’s Future (2015). Guided by critical frame analysis, we examined assumptions and expectations of these regionally/globally structured HE development agendas. The findings show that, while there is a convergence of thinking on the promise for economic transformation held by invigorated HE sectors in Africa, there are uncritically adopted premises about how this transformation is to be achieved. In particular, we find that the promise held out for economic transformation through HE is at risk of failing through the inadequate contextualisation of global policy orthodoxies to African conditions, and that some of the premises about the nature and scale of the economic transformation required to make the re- imagined Africa a reality need to be reconsidered.

2016

After decades of decline, African higher education is now arguably in a new era of revival. With ... more After decades of decline, African higher education is now arguably in a new era of revival. With the prevalence of knowledge economy discourse, national governments in Africa and their development partners have increasingly aligned higher education with poverty reduction plans and strategies. Research capacity has become a critical development issue; and widening participation to doctoral education is seen as an instrument for enhancing this capacity. Against this backdrop, this paper presents a review of emerging initiatives and policies that have some bearing on the PhD in select sub-Saharan African nations, namely Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa. The findings show a shared optimism about the economic value of higher education, and explicate divergences and convergences in the framing of problems and policy responses related to doctoral education across the three nations. In the conclusion we reflect on challenges and policy omissions in the pursuit of the African PhD.

Journal Article, 2014

This article examines the lived experiences of women in Ethiopian higher education (HE) as a coun... more This article examines the lived experiences of women in Ethiopian higher education (HE) as a counterpoint to understandings of gender equity informed only by data on admission, progression and completions rates. Drawing on a critical qualitative inquiry approach, we analyse and interpret data drawn from focus group discussions with female students and academic women in two public universities in Ethiopia. Individual accounts and shared experiences of women in HE revealed that despite affirmative action policies that slightly benefit females at entry point, gender inequality persists in qualitative forms. Prejudice against women and sexual violence are highlighted as key expressions of qualitative gender inequalities in the two universities. It is argued that HE institutions in Ethiopia are male-dominated, hierarchical and hostile to women. Furthermore, taken-for-granted gender assumptions and beliefs at institutional, social relational and individual levels operate to make women conform to structures of disadvantage and in effect sustain the repressive gender relations.

A feature of HE reform discourse is the tendency to construct the rationale for reform in terms ... more A feature of HE reform discourse is the tendency to construct the rationale for reform in terms of averting calamity and risk. We refer to this risk talk as ‘crisis discourse’. This study examines the formulation of PhD crisis discourse internationally and in Australia. We find that a key feature of PhD crisis discourse is that universities are producing too many graduates for too few academic jobs; and graduates lack skills that enable them to be productive in jobs outside academia. In Australia, the discourse has shifted from one dominated by efficiency concerns from the late 1990s to the present focus on graduate skills and employability. The policy solution to the efficiency crisis in the Australian PhD resulted in system-wide changes in research training funding focused on increased efficiency. The current unemployability discourse has as yet prompted isolated institutional responses, the introduction of new PhD programs or re-badging existing offerings as pro-skills development offerings. Following an examination of three Australian institutional responses, we conclude that the crisis discourse signals tensions surrounding the PhD: should achievement in doctoral education be measured by outcomes in intellectual excellence or the responsiveness of qualification to the current needs and priorities of society?

The prevalent knowledge economy discourse has direct implications for higher education policies a... more The prevalent knowledge economy discourse has direct implications for higher education policies and practices. It is expected that the higher education sector supports national economic competitiveness mainly through promoting scientific research, supporting technological transfer and innovation, and producing ‘knowledge workers’ such as higher degree by research graduates. However in the context of changing work requirements and fast paced technological progress, the ‘skills gap’ between the labour market needs and the actual attributes of graduates has emerged as a tangible concern. This paper explores the issue of research graduate employability in Australia. Drawing on critical frame analysis, the paper particularly problematises the way research graduate employability has been framed in relevant policy texts, and shows what issues are excluded from the policy agenda and why. By way of demonstrating exclusions from the current debate on doctoral graduates’ skills and employability, we briefly report on new data on the level of industry-engagement of research students at one large Australian university to argue that assumptions about the need to ‘fix’ the skills deficit of graduates have excluded from view high levels of industry engagement.

The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 10, 2002

The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 11, 2003

Medical Anthropological Quarterly, 2014

Our objective was to explore the ways in which displaced Karen mothers expressed emotions in narr... more Our objective was to explore the ways in which displaced Karen mothers expressed emotions in narrative accounts of motherhood and displacement. We contextualized and analyzed interview data from an ethnographic study of birth and emotions among 15 displaced Karen mothers in Australia. We found that women shared a common symbolic language to describe emotions centered on the heart, which was also associated with heart “problems.” This, along with hypertension, collapsing, or a feeling of surrender were associated responses to extremely adverse events experienced as displaced peoples. A metaphoric schema of emotional terms centered on the heart was connected to embodied expressions of emotion related to illness of the heart. This and other embodied responses were reactions to overwhelming difficulties and fear women endured due to their exposure to political conflict and global inequity.

In narratives of displaced Karen women from Burma, both before and after resettlement in Australi... more In narratives of displaced Karen women from Burma, both before and after resettlement in Australia, women framed their birthing experiences with those of persecution and displacement. Although grateful for the security of resettlement in Australia, social inclusion was negligible and women's birthing experiences occurred in that context. Women described the impact of the lack of interpreting services in Australian hospitals and an absence of personal and communal care that they expected. Frequently, this made straightforward births confusing or difficult, and exacerbated the distress of more complicated births. Differences in individual responses related to women's histories, with younger women displaying more preparedness to complain and identify discrimination. The problems identified with health care, coupled with the inability of many of the women to complain requires attention, not just within the health care system, but more widely as part of social attitudes concerning Australia's obligations to those who seek asylum.

Popular discourse that describes intercountry adoption (ICA) has changed little since the 1950s. ... more Popular discourse that describes intercountry adoption (ICA) has changed little since the 1950s. Increasingly evidence is mounting that necessitates a paradigm shift in how the international community conceptualises and responds to ICA. Outmoded thinking focuses solely on individual solutions for individual children rather than approaches that address the structural issues that separate children from their families in the first instance. Currently the only overarching international framework for ICA is a legal one which is limited when applied to prevention. A socioecological perspective and lessons learned from other arenas suggests a new international vision and intersectoral collaborations are needed.