Current Position:

Lecturer

Research Interests:

Dr. Bugg’s research interests are the intersection of religion, place and welfare governance. She is particularly interested in the experiences of new immigrant groups in the establishment of places of worship and religious schools, and the ways in which contestations around minority places of worship and schools are mediated and controlled by local governance processes. Recent research projects have examined forms of social organization and belonging in transnational migrant religious communities in Australia and comparative research on faith-based asylum-seeker welfare organisations in Australia and the UK that examines the way in which FBOs address the religious experience and cultural specificity of asylum seekers in program delivery.

Teaching:

• SCLG2604 Social Inequality in Australia
• SCLG2626 The Sociology of Religion

Doctoral Supervisions:

• Curtis Dickson (PhD) - Queer Identity and Religion in Australia
• Christine Campbell (PhD) - Re-imagining moral virtues for 21st Century Religious Communities
• Lyndel Spence (PhD) - Religious anomie: revisiting Durkheim's functionalist theory of religion
• Elsa Koleth (associate supervisor) (PhD) "Multiculturalism in an Age of Transient Migration"
• Estella Carpi (associate supervisor) (PhD) – Ethnography of everyday life in the war-stricken areas of Beirut: local responsiveness to humanitarian intervention
• Jarrod Pendlebury (associate supervisor) (PhD) - The Enemy in our Midst? Perceptions of identity in the Australian Defence Force
• Mohammad Salehin (associate supervisor) (PhD) – Islamic NGOs and the Welfare State in Bangladesh

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards

• Sydney Social Justice Network, The University of Sydney, "The University Beyond Bars: Social Justice Through Transformative Education"
• The Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching, The University of Sydney (Early Career)
• Visiting Research Fellow, The University of Leeds, School of Sociology and Social Policy

• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching (Design and Practice) Award, The University of Sydney
• International Program Development Fund, “Welfare Governance, Faith-Based Organisations and Asylum Seeker Provision”
• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Support Scheme, The University of Sydney, “Transnational Religion, Community and Belonging: A Case Study of a Swaminarayan Hindu Community in Sydney and Gujurat”

• Faculty of Arts Research Support Scheme, The University of Sydney, “Religion on the Fringe”: Planning for Minority Religious Space at Australia’s Rural-Urban Interface”
• Interdisciplinary Research Cluster Seed Funding Grant, The Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney (Dr Duanfang Lu – Lead - with Assoc. Prof. Nicole Gurran, Dr. Krishna Shrestha and Dr Chun-Fen Shao), “Making Migrant Spaces”
• Irmgard-Coninx Stiftung Twelfth Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality: Cultural Pluralism Revisited, Religious and Linguistic Freedoms. Berlin, Germany, International juried essay competition, “Religious Freedom and the Right to the City: Local Government Planning and the Rejection of Islamic Schools in Sydney, Australia” http://www.irmgard-coninx-stiftung.de/241.html

Refereed Articles and Chapters in Edited Volumes:

• Bugg, L. (accepted – in press 2013) ‘Space, representation and belonging: a Swaminarayan temple in Sydney, Australia’, in S. Marwani and A. Manjoom (eds). Globalisation, Migration and Identity. Jaipur: Rawat Publishing.
• Bugg, L. (in press) Citizenship and belonging in the rural fringe: a case study of a Hindu temple in Sydney, Australia’, Antipode.
• Bugg, L. (in press) "Collaborative planning in a complex local context: The case of an Islamic school in Sydney, Australia", Journal of Planning Education and Research.
• Bugg, L. (2012) Religion on the fringe: the representation of space and minority religious facilities in the rural-urban fringe of metropolitan Sydney, Australia’, Australian Geographer 43 (3): 273-289.
• Bugg, L. and Gurran, N. (2011) ‘Urban Planning Process and Discourses in the Refusal of Islamic Schools in Sydney, Australia’, Australian Planner 48(4).
• Gurran, N., Milligan, V., Bugg, L., Baker, D. (2007) “International Practice in Planning for Affordable Housing: Lessons for Australia”, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Final Report No. 120, AHURI: Melbourne.
• Gurran, N. Milligan, V., Bugg, L. and D. Baker (2007) ‘International Practice in Planning for Affordable Housing: Lessons for Australia,’ Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Positioning Paper No. 99, AHURI: Melbourne.

Refereed conference proceedings:

• Bugg, L. (2008) ‘Learning from Camden: a Pedagogical Framework for Engaging with Religious Diversity’, Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools Conference, Sydney, 26-28 September, 2008.

Opinion pieces, book reviews, etc.:

• Bugg, L. (2012), 'A Pope of 'firsts' emerges from behind the smokescreen', ABC The Drum Opinion.
• Bugg, L. (2010) ‘Catholic women need to challenge hierarchy for good of the church’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October.
• Bugg, L. (2008) ‘Planning Policy Must Be Used to Heal Divisions’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 May.

Media Interviews and Professional Activities:

• ABC Radio National “Late Night Live”, interview on religion and development. Podcast available at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/religion-and-developmental-aid/3590460
• Sydney Ideas Forum / One Just World, “Faith and Development: Should they go hand in hand?” 19 October 2011 (http://www.onejustworld.com.au/forums/faith-and-development?Speaker=Laura-Beth-Bugg)

Invited Addresses:

• Bugg, L. (2010) ‘Too Visible in the Landscape: Minority Religious Facilities on the Rural-Urban fringe’. Biennial Australian Studies Conference, Sydney.

Conference Papers and Seminars:

• Bugg, L. (2012) ‘Planning discourses and the refusal of a Swaminarayan temple on the Rural Fringe of Sydney, Australia”, Gujarati Studies Association Biennial Conference, Dubai, UAE.
• Bugg, L. (2011) ‘Religions on the Fringe: Minority Religious Groups and Local Government Planning Policy in Peri-urban Sydney’, Workshop on Religion and Social Policy in Australia and Neighbouring Countries, Workshop Program of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW, Sydney.
• Bugg, L. (2011) ‘It’s not about religion’: Multicultural Policy, Local Government Planning and the Refusal of a Hindu Temple in Sydney, Australia’, Recognition and the Politics of Identity and Inclusion in the 21st Century. Hong Kong University Law School, Hong Kong.
• Bugg, L. (2010) ‘It’s not a Religious Issue: Local Government Planners and the Refusal of Islamic Schools’, American Sociology of Religion Association, Atlanta, GA, USA
• Bugg, L. (2009) ‘Incompatible Use: The Negotiation of Sustainability in a Case Study of Rejected Islamic Schools on the Fringes of Sydney, Australia’, Asia Pacific Sociological Association, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia.
• Bugg, L. (2008) ‘Learning from Camden: a Pedagogical Framework for Engaging with Religious Diversity’, The Australian and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools (ANZAPS) Conference, Sydney, NSW.