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Associate Professor Catriona Elder

Associate Professor in Sociology
Visiting Professor in Australian Studies University of Tokyo, 2013-14.

A26 - R.C. Mills Building
The University of Sydney

Telephone +61 2 9351 3080

Website Contact Details

Research interests

Dr Elder's areas of research expertise are in 20th- 21st century Australian cultural identity, especially relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia. In particular she has intensively explored some of the ways in which non-Indigenous peoples think about belonging and has analysed both the pleasure and anxiety that inform narratives of national belonging. Specific projects have focused on assimilation in popular fiction; whiteness and government immigration and Indigenous policy in the 1950s and 1960s. This work has drawn on and contributed to the development of Critical Whiteness Studies and Settler Colonial Studies in Australia.

One current research project focuses on race, identity and the Australian historical television mini series (1970-2005). Dr Elder is exploring representations of belonging that are produced through television dramas about colonial history. Other areas of research include (post)reconciliation, nationalism and sexuality, and women and non-professional work in the 1950s-1960s.

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Teaching and supervision

Current Teaching:

  • SCLG6816 Indigenous Rights: Global Issues


Doctoral Supervisions:

Current:

Mai-Maree Hansford (PhD) ?Captivate, Activate: How stories engage people and help form activist publics?

Olga Oleinikova (PhD) ?Ukrainian Post-independence Migrants in Australia?

Roberta Quinn (PhD) - Family Law and Shared Parenting

Lyndel Spence (PhD) ? Durkheim, Religion and Identity


Harriet Westacott (PhD) - Skilled Migrants and Friendship Networks

Leah Veasey-Williams (PhD) - Migrant Mothers and Social Media

Completed:


Kylie McKenna (PhD) Interdependent Engagement: Corporate Social
Responsibility in Bougainville and Papua. (enrolled: ANU).

Taweesak Sangkapreecha (PhD) Tertiary students and Online Searching Strategies

Pataraporn Jaruhirunsakul (Professional Doctorate) - Online Relationships in Thailand

Eun Suk Sa - (Professional Doctorate) Independence in the Contemporary Korean Print Media

Glenda Bonifacio,(PhD) 2003 Filipino Women and Their Citizenship in Australia: in Search of Political Space. University of Wollongong.

Angela Pratt, (PhD) 2003 Indigenous Sovereignty Never Ceded: Sovereignty, Nationhood and Whiteness in Australia. University of Wollongong.

Rosemary Montgomery, (PhD) 2004 Australian Girl Readers, Femininities and Feminism in the Second World War (1939-45): a Study of Subjectivity and Agency. University of Wollongong.

Erin Cahill, (PhD) 2005 Outlaws and their Mortgages: An Analysis of the Property (Relationships) Act 1984 (NSW) University of Wollongong. With Dr Fiona Borthwick.

Barbara Bicego (co supervisor) (PhD) - Australian Women's Experiences in Bali.

Lyn Dickens (PhD) ?On Being Mixed Race: Eurasian Identity, Race and Gender in Australia and Southeast Asia?

Olga Oleinikova (PhD) ?Ukrainian Post-independence Migrants in Australia?Harriet Westacott (PhD) - Skilled Migrants and Friendship Networks

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Current research students

Project title Research student
Joyfully Received: The place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders within the Catholic Church Graeme MUNDINE
Indigenous Youth in Australia and Canada: A Modern Narrative of Settler/Colonial Relationships through Indigenous Rap Music Jonathon POTSKIN
Australian Citizenship: Identity Crisis of Women from the Indian Subcontinent Ume Rubab SHEIKH
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Current projects

  • With Penelope Taylor, Maggie Walters, Daphne Habibis, and Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation. Telling it like it is: Aboriginal perspectives on Aborigines, Euro-Australians and race relations, ARC Linkage Project 2013-2016.
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Invited Addresses

  • Elder C, (2010) ?Memory and the Uses of the Past in Ireland and Australia? IRCHSS/Australian Academies of the Humanities and Social Sciences workshop series, Canberra December, Dublin June.
  • Elder C, (2009) ?Taking stock: the why and how of changing research agendas? Academy of the Humanities 40th anniversary symposium, National Library Canberra November.
  • Elder, C. (2009) ?National Narratives at the Tent Embassy and Reconciliation Place?, The Nation: Narratives and Community, CENS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Elder, C. (2008) ?History on Television? Australian Government Summer School for Teachers of Australian History, ANU, Canberra, ACT.
  • Elder, C. (2007) ?Remembering Women?s Working Lives: Oral History and the Everyday?, Writing Lives Workshop, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT.
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PhD and master's project opportunities

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Selected grants

2015

  • Children of War: Australia and the War in the Pacific 1941 - 1944; Grieves V, Hughes K, Elder C; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Indigenous (IN).

2014

  • Indigenous research network; Elder C; Worldwide Universities Network/WUN Research Development Fund.
  • Telling it like it is: Aboriginal perspectives on Aborigines, Euro-Australians and race relations; Habibis D, Taylor P, Walter M, Elder C; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Linkage Projects (LP).

2012

  • Completing the Circle: Creating an Inclusive and Community-Engaged Faculty; McDonnell M, Hardie M, Hickey-Moody A, Elder C, Jagose A; University of Sydney/Social Inclusion Unit Flagship Grant.

2010

  • Transformation of Space: Whiteness and Diversity; Elder C; Office of Global Engagement/IPDF Grant.

2006

  • Popular history, television and national stories; Elder C; University of Sydney/Research & Development.
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Selected publications

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Books

  • Elder, C. (2009). Dreams and Nightmares of a White Australia: Representing Aboriginal Assimilation. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2007). Being Australian: Narratives of National Identity. Crows Nest (Sydney): Allen and Unwin.

Edited Books

  • Elder, C., Moore, K. (2012). New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Book Chapters

  • Elder, C., Potskin, J. (2018). Interdisciplines and Indigenous Research and Methodologies. In Celia Lury et. al (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods. London: Routledge (Taylor and Francis).
  • Elder, C. (2017). Romance, Drama and History on Australian Television. In Hsu-Ming Teo (Eds.), The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2014). Managing conflict in Canberra: Race relations, national identity and narrating differences. In Norman Vasu, Yolanda Chin and Kam-Yee Law (Eds.), Nations, National Narratives and Communities in the Asia-Pacific, (pp. 169-188). London: Routledge. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2013). Making a good nation: E.V. Timms' The Big Country. In Tanya Dalziell, Paul Genoni (Eds.), Telling Stories: Australian Life and Literature 1935-2012, (pp. 233-239). Clayton, Australia: Monash University Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2012). Gender Feminism and Research Agendas, 1960-2009. In Ian Donaldson and Mark Finnane (Eds.), Taking Stock: The Humanities in Australian Life Since 1968, (pp. 54-63). Crawley, WA, Australia: UWA Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2012). Politics in Australian culture. In Rodney Smith, Ariadne Vromen, Ian Cook (Eds.), Contemporary Politics in Australia: Theories, Practices and Issues, (pp. 106-116). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2012). Re-Enacting the Extreme: History, Bodies, and Mawson's Feats of Endurance. In Catriona Elder and Keith Moore (Eds.), New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies, (pp. 102-117). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Elder, C., Whelan, Y. (2011). Tracing the Past in Dublin and Canberra: Memory, History and Nation. In Katie Holmes and Stuart Ward (Eds.), Exhuming Passions: The Pressure of the Past in Ireland and Australia, (pp. 243-270). Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
  • Elder, C. (2009). Colonialism and Reenactment Television: Imagining Belonging in Outback House. In Daniel Spoth, Vanessa Agnew and Jonathan Lamb (Eds.), Settler and Creole Reenactment, (pp. 193-207). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Elder, C. (2009). Gender, Bodies and Desire: Imagining Assimilation in mid-Twentieth Century Australia. In Catherine Kevin (Eds.), Feminism and the Body: interdisciplinary perspectives, (pp. 134-152). Newacstle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2009). Re-enacting National Histories: Outback House and Naratives of Australia's Colonial Past. In Alexander Dhoest, Hugh ODonnell and Enric Castello (Eds.), The Nation on Screen: discourses of the national on global television, (pp. 217-232). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2008). Race and Ethnicity. In Brian Furze, Pauline Savy, Robert J Brym, John Lie (Eds.), Sociology in Todays World, (pp. 359-389). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.
  • Pratt, A., Ellis, C., Elder, C. (2006). Unity in Diversity: Indigenous Spaces in the Parliamentary Zone. In Gus Worby Lester-Irabinna Rigney (Eds.), Sharing Spaces: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Story, Country and Policy, (pp. 415-433). Perth: API Network.
  • Elder, C. (2005). "I spit on your stone": national identity, Women Against Rape and the cult of Anzac in Australia. In Mikula, M (Eds.), Women, Activism and Social Change, (pp. 71-81). London: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis.
  • Elder, C. (2005). Immigration History. In Lyons, M and Russell, P (Eds.), Australia's History: Themes and Debates, (pp. 98-115). Sydney: University of New South Wales (UNSW) Press.
  • Ellis, C., Pratt, A., Elder, C. (2004). Whiteness In Constructions Of Australian Nationhood: Indigenes, Immigrants And Governmentality. In Aileen Moreton-Robinson (Eds.), Whitening race : essays in social and cultural criticism, (pp. 208-221). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
  • Elder, C., Ellis, C., Pratt, A. (2001). Papering over the Differences: Australian Nationhood and the Normative Discourse of Reconciliation. In Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope (Eds.), Reconciliation, Multiculturalism, Identities: Difficult Dialogues, Sensible Solutions, (pp. 135-147). Altona, VIC: Common Ground Publishing.

Journals

  • Elder, C. (2017). Unfinished Business in (Post) Reconciliation Australia. Australian Humanities Review, 61, 74-93.
  • Elder, C. (2016). Narratives of national belonging: the domestic, the wild, and the mutant in Australian film. Social Identities, 22(5), 521-536. [More Information]
  • Habibis, D., Taylor, P., Walter, M., Elder, C. (2016). Repositioning the Racial Gaze: Aboriginal Perspectives on Race, Race Relations and Governance. Social Inclusion, 4(1), 57-67. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2016). The proposition: Imagining race, family and violence on the nineteenth-century Australian frontier. Ilha do Desterro, 69(2), 165-176. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2016). Watching Bran Nue Dae in Japan. Journal of Australian Studies, 40(1), 109-117. [More Information]
  • O'Brien, R., Elder, C. (2013). New ways for exploring who knows what in a native title case: a sociological approach. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2013 (2), 29-41.
  • Gill, F., Elder, C. (2012). Data and archives: the Internet as site and subject. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(4), 271-279. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2010). Colonialism and Indigenous dispossession in Against the Wind. Continuum, 24(3), 399-409. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2007). 'Diggers' waifs' - Desire, anxiety and immigration in post-1945 Australia. Australian Historical Studies, 38(130), 261-278. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2007). Reconciling a New Australia: Cinematic Representations of Indigenous/non-Indigenous Relations in Post Reconciliation Australia. Les Cahiers du CICLaS, 11(April), 129-144.
  • Elder, C., Pratt, A., Ellis, C. (2006). Running Race: Reconciliation, Nationalism and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41(2), 181-200. [More Information]
  • Elder, C., Duncanson, K., Pratt, M. (2004). Entanglement And The Modern Australian Rhythm Method: Lantana's Lessons In Policing Sexuality And Gender. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 1(1).
  • Elder, C. (2003). Invaders, illegals and aliens: Imagining exclusion in a 'White Australia'. Law Text Culture, 7, 221-250.
  • Elder, C. (2002). Making a Nation White: Representations of Assimilation in Gwen Meredith's Beyond Blue Hills: the Ternna-Boolla Story. Journal of Australian Studies, 16(2).
  • Elder, C. (2001). Ambivalent Utopias: the Project of White Colonization in Olaf Ruhen’s Naked Under Capricorn'. Journal of Australian Studies, 68, 135-143.

Edited Journals

  • Elder, C., Moore, K. (2009). Journal of Australian Studies, Volume 33 Issue 4. Journal of Australian Studies, 33(4).

Other

  • Boucher, A., Castles, S., Elder, C. (2012), Immigration and settlement policy in Australia, presentation to the Norwegian Delegation of the Norwegian Ambassador and Parliamentary Standing Committee, February 2012.

2018

  • Elder, C., Potskin, J. (2018). Interdisciplines and Indigenous Research and Methodologies. In Celia Lury et. al (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods. London: Routledge (Taylor and Francis).

2017

  • Elder, C. (2017). Romance, Drama and History on Australian Television. In Hsu-Ming Teo (Eds.), The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2017). Unfinished Business in (Post) Reconciliation Australia. Australian Humanities Review, 61, 74-93.

2016

  • Elder, C. (2016). Narratives of national belonging: the domestic, the wild, and the mutant in Australian film. Social Identities, 22(5), 521-536. [More Information]
  • Habibis, D., Taylor, P., Walter, M., Elder, C. (2016). Repositioning the Racial Gaze: Aboriginal Perspectives on Race, Race Relations and Governance. Social Inclusion, 4(1), 57-67. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2016). The proposition: Imagining race, family and violence on the nineteenth-century Australian frontier. Ilha do Desterro, 69(2), 165-176. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2016). Watching Bran Nue Dae in Japan. Journal of Australian Studies, 40(1), 109-117. [More Information]

2014

  • Elder, C. (2014). Managing conflict in Canberra: Race relations, national identity and narrating differences. In Norman Vasu, Yolanda Chin and Kam-Yee Law (Eds.), Nations, National Narratives and Communities in the Asia-Pacific, (pp. 169-188). London: Routledge. [More Information]

2013

  • Elder, C. (2013). Making a good nation: E.V. Timms' The Big Country. In Tanya Dalziell, Paul Genoni (Eds.), Telling Stories: Australian Life and Literature 1935-2012, (pp. 233-239). Clayton, Australia: Monash University Publishing.
  • O'Brien, R., Elder, C. (2013). New ways for exploring who knows what in a native title case: a sociological approach. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2013 (2), 29-41.

2012

  • Gill, F., Elder, C. (2012). Data and archives: the Internet as site and subject. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(4), 271-279. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2012). Gender Feminism and Research Agendas, 1960-2009. In Ian Donaldson and Mark Finnane (Eds.), Taking Stock: The Humanities in Australian Life Since 1968, (pp. 54-63). Crawley, WA, Australia: UWA Publishing.
  • Boucher, A., Castles, S., Elder, C. (2012), Immigration and settlement policy in Australia, presentation to the Norwegian Delegation of the Norwegian Ambassador and Parliamentary Standing Committee, February 2012.
  • Elder, C., Moore, K. (2012). New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2012). Politics in Australian culture. In Rodney Smith, Ariadne Vromen, Ian Cook (Eds.), Contemporary Politics in Australia: Theories, Practices and Issues, (pp. 106-116). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2012). Re-Enacting the Extreme: History, Bodies, and Mawson's Feats of Endurance. In Catriona Elder and Keith Moore (Eds.), New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies, (pp. 102-117). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2011

  • Elder, C., Whelan, Y. (2011). Tracing the Past in Dublin and Canberra: Memory, History and Nation. In Katie Holmes and Stuart Ward (Eds.), Exhuming Passions: The Pressure of the Past in Ireland and Australia, (pp. 243-270). Dublin: Irish Academic Press.

2010

  • Elder, C. (2010). Colonialism and Indigenous dispossession in Against the Wind. Continuum, 24(3), 399-409. [More Information]

2009

  • Elder, C. (2009). Colonialism and Reenactment Television: Imagining Belonging in Outback House. In Daniel Spoth, Vanessa Agnew and Jonathan Lamb (Eds.), Settler and Creole Reenactment, (pp. 193-207). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Elder, C. (2009). Dreams and Nightmares of a White Australia: Representing Aboriginal Assimilation. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang Publishing.
  • Elder, C. (2009). Gender, Bodies and Desire: Imagining Assimilation in mid-Twentieth Century Australia. In Catherine Kevin (Eds.), Feminism and the Body: interdisciplinary perspectives, (pp. 134-152). Newacstle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Elder, C., Moore, K. (2009). Journal of Australian Studies, Volume 33 Issue 4. Journal of Australian Studies, 33(4).
  • Elder, C. (2009). Re-enacting National Histories: Outback House and Naratives of Australia's Colonial Past. In Alexander Dhoest, Hugh ODonnell and Enric Castello (Eds.), The Nation on Screen: discourses of the national on global television, (pp. 217-232). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2008

  • Elder, C. (2008). Race and Ethnicity. In Brian Furze, Pauline Savy, Robert J Brym, John Lie (Eds.), Sociology in Todays World, (pp. 359-389). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.

2007

  • Elder, C. (2007). 'Diggers' waifs' - Desire, anxiety and immigration in post-1945 Australia. Australian Historical Studies, 38(130), 261-278. [More Information]
  • Elder, C. (2007). Being Australian: Narratives of National Identity. Crows Nest (Sydney): Allen and Unwin.
  • Elder, C. (2007). Reconciling a New Australia: Cinematic Representations of Indigenous/non-Indigenous Relations in Post Reconciliation Australia. Les Cahiers du CICLaS, 11(April), 129-144.

2006

  • Elder, C., Pratt, A., Ellis, C. (2006). Running Race: Reconciliation, Nationalism and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41(2), 181-200. [More Information]
  • Pratt, A., Ellis, C., Elder, C. (2006). Unity in Diversity: Indigenous Spaces in the Parliamentary Zone. In Gus Worby Lester-Irabinna Rigney (Eds.), Sharing Spaces: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Story, Country and Policy, (pp. 415-433). Perth: API Network.

2005

  • Elder, C. (2005). "I spit on your stone": national identity, Women Against Rape and the cult of Anzac in Australia. In Mikula, M (Eds.), Women, Activism and Social Change, (pp. 71-81). London: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis.
  • Elder, C. (2005). Immigration History. In Lyons, M and Russell, P (Eds.), Australia's History: Themes and Debates, (pp. 98-115). Sydney: University of New South Wales (UNSW) Press.

2004

  • Elder, C., Duncanson, K., Pratt, M. (2004). Entanglement And The Modern Australian Rhythm Method: Lantana's Lessons In Policing Sexuality And Gender. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 1(1).
  • Ellis, C., Pratt, A., Elder, C. (2004). Whiteness In Constructions Of Australian Nationhood: Indigenes, Immigrants And Governmentality. In Aileen Moreton-Robinson (Eds.), Whitening race : essays in social and cultural criticism, (pp. 208-221). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

2003

  • Elder, C. (2003). Invaders, illegals and aliens: Imagining exclusion in a 'White Australia'. Law Text Culture, 7, 221-250.

2002

  • Elder, C. (2002). Making a Nation White: Representations of Assimilation in Gwen Meredith's Beyond Blue Hills: the Ternna-Boolla Story. Journal of Australian Studies, 16(2).

2001

  • Elder, C. (2001). Ambivalent Utopias: the Project of White Colonization in Olaf Ruhen’s Naked Under Capricorn'. Journal of Australian Studies, 68, 135-143.
  • Elder, C., Ellis, C., Pratt, A. (2001). Papering over the Differences: Australian Nationhood and the Normative Discourse of Reconciliation. In Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope (Eds.), Reconciliation, Multiculturalism, Identities: Difficult Dialogues, Sensible Solutions, (pp. 135-147). Altona, VIC: Common Ground Publishing.
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