Panel Days — Solidarity in Diversity Conference
There are daily online panels featuring scholars, practitioners, and community members from Australia and around the globe from Tuesday 20 July — Friday 23 July.
Register once to receive access to all sessions. Entry is free, but a donation is encouraged for those who are able. All times are in Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC/GMT +10 hours).
Download the full Conference Programme
Tuesday 20 July — Academic Panels Day 1
10:00–10:30 Welcomes and Introductions
Welcome to Country (Wurundjeri Elder Tony Garvey)
Welcome from the 2021 ASG Conference Chair (Kennedy Liti Mbeva)
Welcome from Head of School of Social and Political Sciences (A/Prof. Jennifer Balint)
10:30–12.00 Panel 1: On Development
Chair: Dr. Kwabena Mintah (RMIT University)
Vince Dogbey (University of Melbourne) — Development for whom? The past, present and future of a people displaced by large-scale development project
Dr Charles Gyan (McGill University)– Women’s participation in community development process: lessons from rural Ghana
Farahnaz Sharifi (Swinburne University)– Accessing green space in Melbourne: measuring inequity and household mobility
13:00–14:30 Panel 2: On Interventions
Chair: Dr. Carlos Eduardo Morreo (IPCS)
Akuch Anyieth (La Trobe University) — Decolonising family violence intervention orders in the South Sudanese community in Victoria
Dr Dan Jess (Often Digital/University of South Queensland) — Australian advertising futures: ostracism and barriers to including marginal voices in a ‘Cancel Culture’.
Dr Matthew Mabefam (University of Melbourne) — Bounded solidarity: universal limits of expression and activism
15:00–16:30 Panel 3: On Belonging
Chair: Simeon Gready (University of Melbourne)
Kofi Bediako (University of Melbourne) — Towards a paradigm of relationality: separating facts from the fiction that sustains the paradigm of difference
Dr. Gerald Onsando (University of Melbourne) — Sense of belonging and inclusion of African students at the University of Melbourne
Kennedy Mbeva (University of Melbourne) — African Studies Group at the University of Melbourne
17:00–18.05 Panel 4: On Solidarity
Chair: Charlene Edwards (Melbourne Social Equity Institute)
Dr Eunice Abbey (University of Ghana) — The ‘Silent Voices’: The position and constraints of rural women in Siniensi community in Northern Ghana
Solidarity Watch (France) — Solidarity crimes and ‘crimmigation’: an exploration of solidarity and community in French activist networks giving aid to undocumented migrants
Wednesday 21 July — Academic Panels Day 2
10:30–12.00 Panel 5: On Research
Chair: Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe (ABC, Melbourne)
Simeon Gready (University of Melbourne) — Who gets in the room? ‘Expertise’ and the politics of knowledge production in Transitional Justice contexts on the African continent
Kriti Bhuju & Donatien Niyonzima (Communications University of China) — Presenting voices of the marginalised through communication research
Dr Festus Moasun (University of Regina) — Colonised Ethics: Researching vulnerable populations in the Global South under Western ethical directions
13:00–14:30 Panel 6: On Diaspora
Chair: Dr Tebeje Molla (Deakin University)
Guido O. Andrade de Melo (Victoria University) — The challenges of being an Afro-Brazilian living in Australia and how migrating while black brings challenges for Afro Brazilians and Afro Latinos
Franka Vaughan (University of Melbourne) — Negotiating ‘at homeness’ among diasporic Liberians: (dual) marginalisation & the demand for formalised identity in-country
Dr David Mickler, Farida Fozdar & Dr Tinashe Jakwa (University of Western Australia) — Development, diplomacy and the diaspora: examining how African-Australians are engaged in Australia-Africa relations
15:00–16:30 Panel 7: On Narratives
Chair: Monica Forson (Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission)
Stani Goma (Melbourne) — Is there an African-Australian sound?
Amran Abdi (Deakin University & Islamic Museum) — The importance of storytelling or changing our narratives.
Dr Elsa Lichumba (University of Newcastle) — Migrants in the identity conflict process in the new land: Who has got the power to include or integrate them?
17:00–18.30 Panel 8: On Communities
Chair: Dr Diana Johns (University of Melbourne)
Kofi Bediako (University of Melbourne) — Ubuntu in practice: evaluating the Black Rhinos Basketball Project
Dr Tebeje Molla (Deakin University) — Partial inclusion: how racial othering undermines the integration of African Australian youth
Rebecca Mqamelo (Grassroots Economics) — Community inclusion currencies as crisis response: results from a randomised control trial in Kenya
Thursday 22 July — Practitioner and Community Panels Day 1
10:30–12:00 Panel 1: On Support
Chair: Anthea Hancocks (CEO, Scanlon Foundation)
Prof. Julie Willis (University of Melbourne) — Diversity and inclusion in the University
Dr Carlos Eduardo Morreo (Institute for Postcolonial Studies) — Building spaces for solidarity, inclusion and diversity
Stephen Ho (Melbourne) — Solidarity, inclusion and diversity — is there more?
16:00–17:30 Panel 2: Book Discussion — Neither Native Nor Settler
“Making the radical argument that the nation-state was born of colonialism, this book calls us to rethink political violence and reimagine political community beyond majorities and minorities.”
A special panel discussion of Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities featuring the books’ author, Professor Mahmood Mamdani (Columbia University/Makerere University), together with:
A/Prof. Sana Nakata (University of Melbourne — Chair)
Dr Hamza Bin Jehangir (University of Melbourne)
Prof. Karen Farquharson (University of Melbourne)
Friday 23 July — Practitioner and Community Panels Day 2
10:30–12.00 Panel 3: On Community Engagement
Chair: Dr Gerald Onsando (University of Melbourne)
Patience Onuogu (University of Melbourne) — Evaluation of the Ubuntu Empowering African Australian Mothers Project
Selba Luka (Afri-Aus Care) — Ubuntu in community interventions: the Ubuntu Empowering African Australian Mothers Project and other Afri-Aus Care projects
Mamadou Diamanka (AAFRO) — Peace and Coexistence through AAFRO Ubuntu-Restorative practice
13:30–15:00 Keynote Lecture — Ms Abiola Ajetomobi
The Role of Allyship and Advocacy in Amplifying Marginal Voices. Learn more about this Keynote Lecture.
The keynote address will be moderated by A/Prof Stephane Shepherd (Swinburne University) and Franka Vaughan (University of Melbourne).
16:45–17:00 Introduction of new African Studies Group Leader Team
Chair: Jean-Pierre Ndabakuranye
17:00–18:30 Panel 4: On Networks
Interfaces of Research, Solidarity and Decolonial Care in African and Afro-Diasporic Contexts (Bayreuth Africa Network)
Chair: Dr. Christine Vogt-William (University of Bayreuth)
Dikko Muhammed (BIGSAS, University of Bayreuth)
Valerie Gruber (BIGSAS, University of Bayreuth)
Eileen Jahn & Patricia Nkete Ndlovu (BIGSAS, University of Bayreuth)
18:30–19:10 Cultural Performance and Closing Remarks
Performance by Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe
Conference closing remarks by Dr Matthew Mabefam (University of Melbourne)
19:30–21:30 Conference Dinner
To be held at The Adonai in Carlton (Melbourne). Tickets are $20 each (children under 12 are free). Learn more and register for the Conference Dinner
