UNE Asia Pacific Network (APN)

Populism in Asia Pacific

Populism is a growing phenomenon that is challenging the dynamics of all forms of government right around the world. Countries in the Asia Pacific region are not immune from this challenge as populist politics of different forms and styles have emerged rapidly in the last one decade or so. The “Populism in Asia Pacific” project employs comparative social and political perspectives to understand the anomalies of populisms and its effects on democracy in the Asia Pacific region. This project will result into journal articles and the Routledge Handbook of Populism. The handbook will, for the first time, bring thematic analysis and several country case studies together to identify the processes and patterns with which populist politics, leadership and mobilisations have manifested in the Asia Pacific region.

Research team: Dr DB Subedi, Professor Alan Scott, Professor Howard Brasted, Dr Tony Lynch

Cultural Hybridity and Resilience in the Goto Islands: An Oral History Project

By examining the experiences of a minority community and heritage sites in liminal spaces in history and memory, through an interdisciplinary methodology and lens which draws on oral history, discussion of material objects and trauma studies, this project promotes a new postcolonial historiography. Although some communities have been studied by researchers from time to time in the region of the Goto Islands, Japan, comparative historic studies of Hidden Christian, Catholic and apostate communities have been neglected. This research will contribute to the ongoing retrieval of histories of marginalised and excluded groups and assist in understanding the interaction on the boundaries of Japan between varied people groups. Through this historical research, I aim to contribute to understanding the interaction on the boundaries of nations and states between varied people groups. By interviewing local people about their understanding of history and memory, the project promotes an indigenous and localised view. A UNE faculty grant (2022) has supported the project by the employment of a local research assistant, and Japan Foundation (2022) and the National Library of Australia (2022-2023) have contributed generous fellowships that will enable the research to progress. Additionally, Associate Professor Nishimura Akira of the University of Tokyo, has provided support within Japan, as well as the Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture.

Investigator: Dr Gwyn McClelland and Co-Investigator- Akira Nishimura from University of Tokyo)

The Permaculture Institute – Myanmar (PIM)

PIM was founded in 2019 as a collaborative project. It is the first permaculture Institute in Myanmar aiming to protect and conserve the environment, promote sustainable living and peace.

Contact: Dr Johanna Garnett

Iqthyer Uddin Md Zahed: The Politics of Forced Migration in the 21st Century: The Case of the Rohingya

Sazzad H. Siddiqui:  Post-liberal Hybrid Peace (building): Examining the role of peace infrastructure, positive peace and indigeneity in the post-accord Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Godwin Yidana: A Critical Analysis of Women’s Participation in the Myanmar Peace Process

Prashneel Ravisan Goundar: Writing Skills for Undergraduate Students in Fiji:  Tackling Educational Inequalities, Facilitating Epistemic Access.

Kashif Hussain: The impact of violent extremism in Pakistan on public goods: health. education, security.

Zahid  Ahmed: Counter-terrorism in Pakistan: The Swat Valley as a Case Study.

Iqthyer Uddin Md Zahed: The Politics of Forced Migration in the 21st Century: The Case of the Rohingya

Sazzad H. Siddiqui:  Post-liberal Hybrid Peace (building): Examining the role of peace infrastructure, positive peace and indigeneity in the post-accord Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Godwin Yidana: A Critical Analysis of Women’s Participation in the Myanmar Peace Process

Prashneel Ravisan Goundar: Writing Skills for Undergraduate Students in Fiji:  Tackling Educational Inequalities, Facilitating Epistemic Access.

Kashif Hussain: The impact of violent extremism in Pakistan on public goods: health. education, security.

Zahid  Ahmed: Counter-terrorism in Pakistan: The Swat Valley as a Case Study.

Nuclear Weapons after the ban: Remembering Nagasaki

The international webinar, 'Nuclear Weapons after the ban: Remembering Nagasaki'  co-hosted by Japanese, Peace Studies, Peace Boat Japan and the Asia Pacific Centre UNE, was a resounding success while being a sobering reminder of the need to eliminate nuclear weapons. There were 75 registrants from Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, UK, USA and China.

Mr Tanaka, who spoke on the webinar from Japan, was exposed to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which took the lives of five of his family members. When the atomic bomb was dropped, he was upstairs in his house, 3.2 kilometres from the hypocenter. Mr Tanaka is one of the many Hibakusha who have dedicated large parts of their lives to anti-nuclear activism. The vivid memories of the catastrophic effects that the nuclear bombing had on his family and his community, have driven Tanaka's continued efforts to make sure no one would have to suffer through such an event again. At the webinar, Mr Tanaka frequently repeated that he felt he was not as heavily impacted as others and that is the reason he wishes to continue to tell his story.

Participants asked excellent questions about why Nagasaki was not as well remembered as Hiroshima, how the survivors were cared for after the bombing and how Australian educational institutions could remember these events.

One attendee, Professor Frank Hutchinson, summed up the event as follows:

'The webinar raised important  issues about honest history-telling, war trauma, empathy, moral imagination, shared humanity, and working to  create a better  world for future generations free from nuclear weapons.' We hope to run a similar webinar during next year's conference to celebrate forty years of Peace Studies at UNE.

If you would like to view the webinar and listen to Tanaka Terumi's testimonial, follow the link here.

Tanaka Terumi Testimonial | Nuclear Weapons after the ban: Remembering Nagasaki webinar

• Article: Myanmar's military has used surveillance, draconian laws and fear to stifle dissent before. Will it work again? Featured in The Conversation, by DB Subedi and Dr Johanna Garnett (5 February 2021)
• Analysis: How Huntington and Fukuyama got 21^st Century wrong, featured by Aljazeera, with Professor Howard Brasted and Dr Shafi Md. Mostofa (19 December 2020).
• Article: Reflection on the PhD journey at UNE, with Dr Shafi Md. Mostofa
• Analysis: Myanmar’s election, featured in The Conversation, by DB Subedi (6 November 2020).
• Analysis: How the Philippine’s Anti-Terrorism Law closes the space for peacebuilding, published by Australian Outlook, by DB Subedi and Balazs Aron Kovacs (18 June 2020).
• The Conversation article: DB Subedi (2020). Why Myanmar’s election is unlikely to herald major political reform or support transition to democracy.
• The Conversation article: DB Subedi (2017). Myanmar’s Rohingya issue is a regional refugee crisis – ASEAN must intervene.
• Article: Subedi, DB & Garnett, J (2021). How is Myanmar's Military Coup Revealing the Youth's Changing Political Culture? Australian Outlook, 18 February 2021.

• Dr Jo Coghlan, University of New England
• Dr Xiang Gao, University of New England
• Dr Bert Jenkins, University of New England
• Dr Arvind Iyengar, University of New England
• Dr Gwyn McClelland, University of New England
• Dr Jane Ahlstrand, University of New England
• Dr Mun-Keat Choong, University of New England
• Dr Cindy Schneider, University of New England
• Dr Karin von Strokirch, University of New England
• Dr Shafi Mostofa, University of New England
• Dr Kiyomi Yamada, University of New England
• Dr Christina Kenny, University of New England
• Dr Laura Clark, University of New England
• Dr Marty Branagan, University of New England
• Dr Prashneel Gounder, University  of New England

• Dr Shailendra Singha, University of the South Pacific
• Dr Gordon Nanau, University of the South Pacific
• Dr Jack Maebuta, The Solomon Islands National University
• Prof. Siri Hettige, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Colombo University, Sri Lanka
• Dr Mosmi Bhim, Fiji National University
• Dr DB  Subedi, University of Queensland

We welcome academics and practitioners from the Asia Pacific region to join the centre as affiliated members and research associates. We also welcome short-term visiting fellows, who are working within the remit of the centre. The UNE-APC also offers Higher Degree Research supervision in a wide range of areas including Sociology, Peace Studies, Political and International Studies, Education, History, Archaeology, Philosophy, and Geography and Planning.

Interested to join the UNE-APN?

Contact Dr DB Subedi: dsubedi2@une.edu.au