2021 Conversations - connection and disconnection (Webinar 1: Relationality in a complex world)

Presented by ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

This is the first webinar in the 2021 Conversations - connection and disconnection webinar series.

Webinar 1 - Relationality in a complex world

This panel will interrogate the role of relationality across a range of domains and theoretical jumping-off points. From restorative justice to peacebuilding to development to glyphosate regulation, RegNet scholars have sought to understand the role relationships and relationality play in the creation of meaning, identity and behaviour. Through an animated conversation, the panel will develop emergent and existing theories to better analyse connection and disconnection in today's complex world.

Speakers:

(Facilitator) Associate Professor Miranda Forsyth has worked on law and justice in the Pacific islands region for the past two decades. The central analytical question animating Miranda's scholarship is how people's diverse justice needs can best be met in contexts of multiple legal and normative orders. Her geographical focus has been primarily in the Pacific Islands region, particularly Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Previous projects include the relationships between state and customary justice in Vanuatu and a pluralistic approach to the regulation of intellectual property in the Pacific Islands.

Dr Mary Graham is a Kombumerri person (Gold Coast) through her father's heritage and affiliated with Wakka Wakka (South Burnett) through her mother's people. Mary has worked across several government agencies, community organisations and universities including: Department of Community Services, Aboriginal and Islander Childcare Agency, the University of Queensland and the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA). Mary has also worked extensively as a Native Title Researcher for FAIRA and was also a Regional Counsellor for the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Mary has been a lecturer with The University of Queensland, teaching Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy. She has also lectured nationally on these subjects, and developed and implemented Aboriginal Perspective's, Aboriginal Approaches to Knowledge and at the post-graduation level Aboriginal Politics into university curricula.

PhD Scholar Felicity Gray joined RegNet in 2017 to examine how nonviolent practices contribute to the protection of civilians in situations of violent conflict. The project explores the possibilities and limitations of alternative forms of nonviolent practice that are being used to protect civilians, with a particular focus on 'unarmed civilian protection' methodologies. She has a particular interest in the role this plays in the conflict in South Sudan. Prior to joining RegNet, Felicity worked as a senior policy and parliamentary adviser to leaders of the Australian Greens, Senators Christine Milne and Richard Di Natale, with a focus on foreign affairs and parliamentary strategy. She has also worked as a research assistant to Professor Richard Eccleston at the University of Tasmania, publishing research focused on international tax transparency policy mechanisms.

PhD Scholar Mary Ivec holds post-graduate degrees in social policy, social work and counselling having completed her Bachelor of Arts (Sociology and Politics) at the ANU. Mary has over thirty years experience in human services ranging from the not-for-profit sector, government policy development, social work education and clinical practice as a mental health social worker. Mary has been working at RegNet since 2007 on regulatory research including child protection, occupational health & safety and radicalisation. Mary convenes the Canberra Restorative Community Network which has over 600 members interested in sharing and learning about the applications of restorative justice practices and processes across social issues.

Dr Ibolya (Ibi) Losoncz is a Fellow at RegNet. Her research on the relationship between individuals and institutions examines how policies and institutional processes that are unresponsive to human needs can lead to defiance, rebellion and a breakdown of social bonds between the people and the state. Ibi will argue for de-centering our understanding of Australian Far Right Extremism as just bounded formal social movement groups and consider it in relation to the growing right-wing ideologies in the cultural and political landscape of our mainstream places, everyday lives, and social institutions. Shifting our focus on the interaction between extremist groups and the mainstream and how the adaptable movements of individuals and ideas between these two spaces reinforce and sustain each other can contribute importantly to our understanding of the growth of Far Right Extremism in Australia. Ibi has published in a range of international journals and her recent book Institutional Disrespect explores the destructive consequences of democracies relying on institutional processes that are deaf to human needs.