Development Studies Staff

The Development studies program at Murdoch University enables students to approach the complex issues related to contemporary processes of globalisation and economic and social development from an interdisciplinary perspective. This page introduces you to some of staff attached to the program.

Dr. Martin Anda
Research Manager, Environmental Technology Centre; Coordinator, Remote Area Developments Group.
Martin Anda has a PhD in the field of technology transfer in indigenous communities. Martin coordinates the Remote Area Developments Group (RADG) and is a founding member of the Indigenous Design Collaborative which is a cross-cultural environmental design program involving indigenous communities, universities, government and industry in Western Australia. Martin is also a project leader in the new Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre. He teaches undergraduate students, supervises postgraduate researchers, and is currently Research Manager of the 1.7-hectare Environmental Technology Centre at Murdoch University.

Dr Nado Aveling
Lecturer in Education. Research interests include social justice issues with particular reference to gender, ethnicity and Aboriginality; feminist research methodologies; culture and schooling; career decision making; educational technology; and feminist spirituality. She has worked in distance education and been actively involved in a number of research projects addressing the interplay between isolation, educational technology, equity and gender.

Dr Ian Barns
Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy. He has taught a range of interdisciplinary units, both at Murdoch and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, particularly in the area of the ethics and social studies of science and technology. Research interests include cultural studies of technology and ethical issues in sustainable development. Recent publications include 'Environment, Democracy and Community' in Environment and Democracy and 'The Earth Charter and the Ethics of Sustainable Development' in Current Affairs Bulletin.

Dr David Brown
Lecturer in Politics. Research interests are in development politics in West Africa and Southeast Asia. Publications include The State and Ethnic Politics in Southeast Asia and his present research focus is on the implications of Asian democratisation for ethnic and national identities. He teaches units in the politics of nationalism, and public policy and development in Asia.

Associate Professor Jan Currie
Associate Professor in Education, specialising in comparative education and the sociology of education. Research interests are globalisation and universities and gendered patterns of work in universities. She has taught in Gabon and Tunisia and has conducted research in Uganda, India and China. Recent publications include a book, Universities and Globalization: Critical Perspectives (Sage, 1998, edited with Janice Newson), and articles in Gender and Education, Comparative Education Review, Discourse and Melbourne Studies in Education.

Catherine Doran
School of Law. Catherine has been an accredited, practicing, family mediator since 1998 and is a member of the LEADR Panel of mediators. She has been an academic at Murdoch University for 8 years and was the inaugural Chair of the Bachelor of Legal Studies. Her practice and teaching interests lie in the broad range of Alternative Dispute Resolution processes and their appropriate and critical application.

Janice Dudley
Lecturer in Politics. Currently a member of the State Chapter Committee of the Constitutional Centenary Foundation, the Schools Constitutional Conventions Planning Group, and the Board of the Centre for Research for Women. Research interests include the role of ideas and 'ideology' in shaping public policy, the politics of Australian education policy (especially higher education policy), political education and the politics of the environment.

Dr Frank Harman
Senior Lecturer in Economics. Research interests include the economics of the public sector, natural resources and energy economics.

Jane Hutchison
Jane Hutchison is a lecturer in Politics and International Studies. She teaches the two units, POL161 Asia-Pacific in the Global System and POL299/499 Changing Global Political Economy. In addition, she is Chair of the Public Policy and Management programme and co-ordinator of the School’s off-shore Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Management and Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management in Hong Kong.

Steve Kinnane
Steve Kinnane lectures in Australian Indigenous Studies and Sustainability. He has worked on a variety of community based cultural heritage projects and has published on history, social justice and sustainability. While much of his work has centred around investigations of Aboriginal history, removal of children and the surveillance and control of Aboriginal community members by various state regimes, other areas of interest include growing Indigenous International movements and the need for incorporation of Indigenous approaches to 'country' in future resource management of our natural-cultural world. Steve Kinnane is a descendent of the Miriwoong people of the East Kimberley. He is author of Shadow Lines and has collaborated on a number of films including The Coolbaroo Club, After Mabo and Whose Land.

Radha Krishnan
Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies. Teaching and research interests include Japanese economic development, Japanese management, contemporary Japanese society, and Indian economic history. His publications include Southeast Asian Managers: Mutual Perceptions of Japanese and Local Counterparts.

Dr Sam Makinda
Senior Lecturer in Politics. He has held research positions at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, the University of Cambridge, and St. Antony's College, Oxford. He was previously a Research Specialist in the Foreign Affairs Section of the Parliamentary Research Service at the Australian Federal Parliament. He currently teaches International Security Studies, Australian Foreign Policy, and Resource Politics. Major research interests include the United Nations in global politics, international security, and international relations theory.

Dr Dora Marinova
Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy. Research interests are innovation and technology transfer, demography, econometrics, information technologies, Eastern Europe and systems science.

Dr Sue Moore
Lecturer in Environmental Science. Coordinates masters courses in environmental decision-making and environmental science methods. Lectures in environmental policy and law, conservation biology, and environmental monitoring. Research interests are natural resource sociology, environmental policy, environmental conflict resolution, public involvement in decision-making, nature-based recreation, and nature conservation management.

Professor Peter Newman
Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Professor of City Policy. Research Professor Newman's interests are in sustainable cities, transport and land use, environmental policy and links to technology transfer, and renewable energy. Professor Newman is the Chair of the WA Government's Sustainability Roundtable. His co-authored publication, Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence, was launched at the White House in Washington DC in mid-1999 and a book for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), 'Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems', was launched in 2004. He teaches units in Global and Regional Sustainability, as well as Sustainability for Professionals, and Advanced Sustainable Development which is a placement unit for practical training in sustainability.

Dr. David Palmer
Dave Palmer teaches in the Sociology and Community Development Programs. He has research interests in local government and youth practice, community work with Indigenous Australians and the history of community work in Western Australia. Dave is also involved in a number of projects with community organisations including projects on young people and public space, children and community schools and the use of community arts practice with young people. He teaches units in community development, community participatory practice and youth studies.

Dr Brad Pettitt
Lecturer in Sustainable Development. Research interests include Australian and international aid policy; non-government development organisations, and links between development and environment theory. He has worked in Cambodia for Oxfam and for the Australian Government Aid Program, AusAID.

Dr John Phillimore
Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy. Research interests include technology and work; public policy for industry, science and technology; education-industry linkages; federalism and R&D in Australia. Recent publications include: Local Matters: Perspectives on the Globalisation of Technology (editor, 1995) and R&D and the State's Economic Development: What Is the Best Fit?

Professor Richard Robison
Director of the Asia Research Centre, Professor in Asian and International Politics. Publications include Indonesia: The Rise of Capital, and two edited volumes, Southeast Asia: Essays in the Political Economy of Structural Change and Southeast Asia in the 1980's: the Politics of Economic Crisis, as well as numerous articles on political economy, the state, and industrialisation in journals such as Indonesia, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Australian Outlook and World Politics. His current research relates to the political economy and ideology of industry planning in Australia and Indonesia, structural change in the international economy, and the relationship between industrial change and politics.

Associate Professor Garry Rodan
Associate Professor in Politics. Author of The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialisation, editor of Singapore Changes Guard, and co-editor of Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism, Democracy and Capitalism. His current research foci include political opposition in Asia's newly industrialising countries and the political impact of emerging middle classes in Singapore. He teaches units on Australia's engagement with Asia, and democratisation in Asia.

Kumar Sathiendrakumar
Lecturer in Economics. Research interests are environmental economics, resource economics, the economic development of small island states, the economics of tourism, sustainable development and microeconomics. He has published widely in international journals. He has performed consultancy work for the International Labour Organisation in Geneva and is a registered consultant for the Asian Development Bank. He was awarded a 'Citation of Excellence' by ANBAR Electronic Intelligence for his article: 'Sustainable Development: Passing fad or potential reality?' in the International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 23, nos. 4/5/6.

Professor Ian Scott
Professor in Politics. Research interests include political and administrative change in Hong Kong, comparative public policy, and public sector reform. Recent publications are The Hong Kong Civil Service: Personnel Policies and Practices, Votes Without Power: the Hong Kong Legislative Council Elections 1991, and Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong. He teaches units on public policy and development in Asia.

Dr Laura Stocker
Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy. Research interests include community based marine and coast care, community science, landcare and rural nature conservation, community-based sustainable development, greenhouse gas and renewable energy policy.

Associate Professor Ralph Straton
Associate Professor in Education. Research interests are programme evaluation; social and educational research methods and design; survey research; individualised, cooperative and small group learning; and educational preferences and choice. He has conducted numerous evaluation studies, workshops and courses on evaluation in several Australian states and overseas, including developing countries in our region. President of the Australian Association for Research in Education in 1984, Foundation Director of the University's Institute for Social Programme Evaluation 1978-1994, and Coordinator of the Programme Evaluation Unit from 1994.

Dr Bev Thiele
Senior Lecturer in Women's Studies. Research interests include feminist theory, women's paid and unpaid work, and reproduction.

Associate Professor David Tripp
Associate Professor in Education. Experienced in qualitative research, action research and evaluation, beginning in 1973 as evaluator for a national curriculum project, and most recently on a 3-year action research project with young street people. Publications include Critical Incidents (1993), a chapter in Being Reflexive in Critical Educational Research (Shacklock and Smyth, 1998), and a paper for the 1998 International Practitioners' Conference on 'Evaluation as Facilitation'.

Dr Malcolm Tull
Senior Lecturer in Economics. Research interests in Asian economic development, economic history and maritime economics. He has written Growth and the Environment: the Case of Taiwan 1940s-1990s. His teaching areas include the economic development of modern Japan and the changing economies of Asia.

Dr Fernand de Varennes
Lecturer in Law. Publications include recent books on Language, Minorities and Human Rights, as well as a two-volume series on basic human rights documents from the Asia-Pacific region. His articles on minorities, indigenous peoples, human rights and ethnic conflicts have appeared in six languages world-wide. He is currently Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Human Rights and the Prevention of Ethnic Conflict at the Murdoch University School of Law.

Sonia Walker
Lecturer in Law. Researches in the areas of feminist legal theory and legal education. She is currently completing a PhD in the area of Aboriginal Women and the Law. She is editor for the WA Committee of the Alternative Law Journal and is a member of the editorial panel for Sister In Law - a feminist law journal.

Dr Carol Warren
Chair of Development Studies, Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies. Has carried out extensive fieldwork on social and economic change in rural communities in Malaysia and Indonesia. Her publications include Adat and Dinas: Balinese Communities in the Indonesian State (1993) and two co-edited collections, Reclaiming Resources: the Political-Economy of Environment in Southeast Asia and The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia: Resources and Resistance (1998). Her current research interests include local environmental politics and customary law in Southeast Asia. She teaches courses in anthropology, social ecology in Southeast Asia, and women in Asia.

Dr Gavin Wood
Lecturer in Economics. Research interests include labour market issues, public finance and urban economics.

Dr Sandra Wilson
Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies. Teaching and research interests are in the social and political history of modern Japan. A past recipient of a Japan Foundation Fellowship, she is currently working on a history of Japanese nationalism. She recently co-edited The Russo-Japanese War in Cultural Perspective, 1904-05 (MacMillan, London, 1999).