Associate Professor Tess Lea

Associate Professor Tess Lea joined the Department in July 2011 after working at Charles Darwin University where she inaugurated the School for Social Policy Research (now The Northern Institute). As an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, she is currently pursuing ethnographic research across housing, infrastructure, community development and education domains to explore the question “can there be good social policy in regional and remote Australia?” She has previously worked as a senior bureaucrat in the Northern Territory Departments of Health and Education, and operated as a ministerial advisor.
Her work focuses on conditions of enduring racial inequality in Australia and the material and affective dimensions of how these conditions are reproduced and inhabited

Her research interests include housing and environmental health reform; the anthropology of audit and policy; development theory and the will to improve; the tactics of post-colonial power and settler liberal governance; institutional ethnography; neo-liberal governance; urban research; Indigenous school-based education reform; development theory; the co-dependencies between Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds; class, race and place.

Other current ARC-funded linkage projects focus on the trials and tribulations of the Housing for Health program; Indigenous parental engagement with schools; and implementation of the first randomised control trial of a literacy software program, ABRACADABRA, in collaboration with the Centre for Studies in Learning and Performance, Montreal.

Supervision

Tess is currently supervising projects at Masters and PhD level. Her current research project also includes opportunities for post-graduate students to work as research assistants, with the possibility of accessing funds for fieldwork or learning how to apply for such. Students seeking supervision whose research interests mesh closely with those set out both Tess’s profile and current projects are encouraged to contact Tess on (02) 9351-6777.

Selected Publications

Books

• Lea, T 2009 Bureaucrats and Bleeding Hearts: Indigenous Health in Northern Australia Sydney: UNSW Press
• Lea, T; Cowlishaw, G; and Kowal, E. (eds) 2006 Moving Anthropology: Critical indigenous studies Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press
• Lea, T and Wilson, B (eds) 2005 The State of the North Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press

Book Chapters

• Lea, T 2010 ‘Indigenous education and training: what are we here for?’ in Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson (eds.) Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Remote Aboriginal Australia UNSW Press, 195-211
  Lea, Tess 2010 “Whose Creative City is it?’ in D. Carson, D. Schmalleggerr, S. Campbell and C. Martel (eds) Whose City Is It? A Thinking Guide to Darwin. Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press, 53-55
  Lea, T 2006 ‘Cars, Corporations, Ceremonies and Cash: The makings of a bureaucratic problem’ in T. Lea, E. Kowal and G. Cowlishaw (eds.) Moving Anthropology: Critical indigenous studies Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press, 37-54
  Lea, T 2005 ‘Learning Lessons: A Retrospective’ in Di Austin-Broos and Gaynor Macdonald (eds.) Culture, Economy and Governance in Aboriginal Australia. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
• Lea, T. 2005. ‘Living Together(?).’ In Tess Lea and Bill Wilson (eds.) The State of the North Darwin: CDU Press.
• Lea, T. 2005. Introduction: The State of the North. In The State of the North Tess Lea and Bill Wilson (eds.) Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press.

Journal articles

• Lea, Tess (2012) Contemporary Antrhopologies of Indigenous Australia Annual Review of Anthropology, 41, 187-202.
• Lea, T; Young, M.; Doran, B. and Holmes, C. (2012) ‘Being moved (on) in Darwin and Alice Springs: walking Australia’s racialized towns’ Radical History Review, 114, 139-163.
• Lea, Tess (2012) ‘When looking for anarchy, look to the state: forces of disorder within the Australian Indigenous estate’ Critique of Anthropology, 32, 109-24.
• Harper, H., Helmer, J., Lea, T., Halkitis, K. Wolgemuth, J. (2012) ‘ABRACADABRA, Magic Under Which Conditions? Case studies of a web-based literacy intervention in the Northern Territory’ Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 35(1): 33-50.
• Wolgemuth, J., Savage, R., Helmer, J., Bottrell, C., Lea, T., Harper, H., Halkitis, K. & Abrami, P. (2011). Using computer-based instruction to improve indigenous early literacy in Northern Australia: A quasi-experimental study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 27(4), 727-750.
• Lea, T., Thompson, H., McRae-Williams, E. and Wegner, A. (2011) ‘Policy fuzz and fuzzy practice: Indigenous education and parent-school engagement’ Journal of Education Policy 26 (3): 321-339.
• Lea, T., Thompson, H., McRae-Williams, E. and Wegner, A. (2011) ‘Policy fuzz and fuzzy practice: Indigenous education and parent-school engagement’ Journal of Education Policy 26 (3): 321-339.
• Lea, T; Wegner, A, Chenhall, R., McRae-Williams, E and Holmes, C. (in press) ‘Problematising school space for Indigenous education: teachers’ and parents’ perspectives’ Ethnography and Education Autumn 2011 6(3) 265-280.
• McTurk, N., Robinson, G., Lea, T., Nutton, G., & Carapetis, J. (2011). Defining and assessing the school readiness of Indigenous Australian children. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 36(1), 69-76.
• Helmer, J, Bartlett, C, Wolgemuth, JR & Lea, T (2011) ‘Coaching (and) commitment: Linking ongoing professional development, quality teaching and student outcomes’, Professional Development in Education 37 (2): 197-211
• Ehrich, J., Wolgemuth, J., Helmer, J., Lea, T., Bartlett, C., Smith, H. & Emmett, S. (2010) ‘Attendance, performance, and the acquisition of early literacy skills: A comparison of Indigenous and non-Indigenous school children’ Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties 14 (2): 131 – 149
• Lea, T. and P. Pholeros 2010 ‘This is not a pipe: the treacheries of Indigenous housing’ Public Culture 22(1), 187-209
• Cowlishaw, G and Lea, T 2010 ‘Development, heroism and the indigenous life project’ Dialectical Anthropology 34 (2), 223-234
• Johnson, V., Lea, T., & Carapetis, J. (2009). ‘Joining the dots: the links between education and health and implications for Indigenous children’ Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 9(4), 692 - 697.
• Luckman, S; Gibson, C and Lea, T 2009 Mosquitoes in the mix: Just how transferable is creative industries thinking? Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30 (1): 47-63.
• Garnett, S. T., B. Sithole, P. J. Whitehead, B. C., F. H. Johnston, and T. Lea. 2009 Healthy country, healthy people: policy implications of links between Indigenous human health and environmental condition in tropical Australia Australian Journal of Public Administration 68(1): 53-66.
• Lea, T 2008 ‘Housing for Health in Indigenous Australia: driving change when research and policy are part of the problem’ Human Organization 67(1): 77-85
  Lea, T. 2005 ‘The Work of Forgetting: Germs, Aborigines and Postcolonial Expertise in the Northern Territory of Australia’ Social Science and Medicine, 61 (6): 1310-1319
• Lea, T. 2001 ‘A BENIGN ARITHMETIC: Taking up facts about Indigenous health’ in the UTS Review: Cultural Studies and New Writing 7(1): 59-73 (now Cultural Studies Review) ERA Rank A

Book Reviews

• Lea, Tess 2011 Review of ‘Aboriginal Family and the State: The Conditions of History’ (Ashgate), Anthropos Feb 2011 Vol 106: 222-3
• Lea, Tess 2010 Review of ‘Black Politics: Inside the Complexity of Aboriginal Political Culture’, Anthropological Forum 20 (2)
• Lea, Tess 2002 Review David N. Gellner and Eric Hirsch (eds) ‘Inside Organizations: Anthropologists At Work’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 13 (3): 355
• Lea, Tess 2000 Review of Marcus 1998 (ed) ‘Corporate Futures: The Diffusion of the Culturally Sensitive Corporate Form’ Oceania 70 (3): 281-3
• Cowlishaw, Gillian and Teresa Lea 1990 On Vicky [sic] Kirby versus Marilyn Strathern Vers(us). Australian Feminist Studies 11: 87-89.

Key reports

• Lea, T; et al 2011 Parent-school engagement: exploring the concept of ‘invisible’ Indigenous parents in three north Australian school communities The Northern Institute, Darwin: Charles Darwin University
• Robinson, G., Lea, T., Rivalland, J., Bartlett.C., Tyler, W., Morrison, P., Cooper, J. Emmett, S., Dunn, B. (2009). The National Accelerated Literacy Program in the Northern Territory 2004 to 2008: Implementation and Outcomes. Volume 1: Final evaluation report. Darwin, NT: School for Social and Policy Research, Institute for Advanced Studies, Charles Darwin University.
• Robinson, G., Lea, T., Rivalland, J., Bartlett.C, Tyler, W., Morrison, P., Cooper, J. Emmett, S., Dunn, B. (2009). The National Accelerated Literacy Program in the Northern Territory 2004 to 2008: Implementation and Outcomes. Volume 2: Final evaluation report – Appendices. Darwin, NT: School for Social and Policy Research, Institute for Advanced Studies, Charles Darwin University.
• Wolgemuth, J., Ehrich, J., Helmer, J., Emmett, S., Bartlett, C., Smith, H., Lea, T., Abrami, P., Savage, R., & Deleveaux, G. (2009). ABRACADABRA! (ABRA) Early Childhood Literacy Project Annual Report No.1: A Pilot Study of the Feasibility of the ABRA Literacy Software in the Northern Territory Indigenous Classrooms. Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT.
• Lea, T; Luckman, S; Gibson, C.; Fitzpatrick, D; Hughes, K 2009, Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative industries School for Social and Policy Research
• Lea, T; Tootell, N.; Wolgemuth, J.; Halkon, C.; Douglas, J. 2008 Excellence or Exit: Ensuring Anangu Futures through Education School for Social Policy Research: Report to the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services
• Tootell, N, Wolgemuth, JR, Eikelkamp, R, & Lea, T (February 2008). Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Land School Self Review Document Summary and Analysis. Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT.
• Walsh, H. and Lea, T. 2008 The Funding of Indigenous Education through Special Purpose Supplementation. SSPR Discussion Paper. Darwin, School for Social and Policy Research, Charles Darwin University. (Independent analysis funded by the Ian Potter Foundation)
• McTurk, N; Nutton, G; Lea, T; Robinson, G; and Carapetis, J 2008 The school readiness of Australian Indigenous children: a review of the literature Darwin: Menzies School of Health Research and School for Social and Policy Research May 2008 (Analytical report co-sponsored by the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DHA); the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth; The Ian Potter Foundation)
• Lea, T. 2007. A Priority Research Action Plan for the Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training. Darwin, DEET.
• Lea, T., W. Martin, and J. Wurm. 2006. Rongiya nhänga, ga ngathil'yurra nhänga, ga mala-djarr'yurrana (Look back, look forward and reflect) Garma 2006 Key Forum Report: Indigenous Education and Training. Charles Darwin University in association with the Yothu Yindi Foundation.CDU e-press
• Lea, T. 2006 An examination of education policies, funding decisions and teaching practices based on evidence rather than ideology Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Report
• Bob Collins and Lea, Tess 1999. Learning Lessons: An Independent Inquiry into Aboriginal Education in the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Department of Education: NT Government Printer
• Lea, T. 1988. ‘48-88’ Northern Territory Women’s Register. UNAA Status of Women Committee: NT Government Printer

Commissioned Reports and Technical Discussion Papers

• Lea, T, and Driscoll, C 2012 Girls at the Centre: An Evaluation of Engagement and Retention Strategies for Indigenous Girls Gender and Cultural Studies: The University of Sydney

Multimedia

• Povinelli, E. and L. Johnson (2012). Karrabing! Low Tide Turning. Australia, Karrabing Indigenous Corporation: Produced by Tess Lea
  Read news story here

Research Grants and Consultancies