Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation
Faculty of Arts and Education
The Australian Middle East Research Forum (AMERF) is a cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary research forum focused on research into the Middle East from an Australian perspective. AMERF is a research network open to researchers and anyone interested in the region.
AMERF was launched in 2007 as a research network affiliated to the Centre for Citizenship Development and Human Rights, and the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne. The network is co-convened by Professor Fethi Mansouri, Director of the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation and Coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies, and Dr Sally Totman, Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Deakin University. AMERF is a cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary research forum focused on research into the Middle East from an Australian perspective. It is open to researchers, research students, policy makers, media professionals and anyone interested in the region.
The aim of AMERF is to facilitate interactions among researchers in this interdisplinary area and to be a forum of excellence for the academic study of the modern Middle East and North Africa. It encourages research on topics related to the modern Middle East and North Africa and supports innovative undergraduate teaching and the supervision of higher degree work in this field. AMERF conducts seminars with a focus on the needs of Australia’s academic community in its scholarship of the Middle East and North Africa.
Through regular emails to our members, AMERF hopes to keep individual researchers informed on the latest news and analyses. It is hoped that this forum will facilitate a robust exchange of ideas and encourage collaboration among researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds. AMERF will organise regular public seminars and symposiums aimed at advancing our understanding of the Middle East and North Africa.
To subscribe to the Australian Middle East Research Forum mailing list, please email with your request.
AMERF was launched in 2007 as a research network affiliated to the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation , Deakin University, Melbourne. AMERF is co-convened by Associate Professor Fethi Mansouri, Director of the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, and Dr Sally Totman, Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Deakin University. AMERF’s extensive member list includes researchers and organisations from around Australia and overseas.
Islam and Political
Violence: Muslim Diaspora and Radicalism in the West
Shahram Akbarzadeh & Fethi Mansouri (eds) (2006), Library of International
Relations, vol.34, Tauris Academic Studies/Palgrave Macmillan (London/ New York)
How do we engage with the pressing challenges of xenophobia, radicalism
and security
in the age of the ‘war on terror’? The widely felt sense of insecurity
in the West is shared by Muslims both within and outside Western societies. Growing
Islamic militancy and resulting increased security measures by Western powers
have contributed to a pervasive sense among Muslims of being under attack (both
physically and culturally). Islam and Political Violence brings together the
current debate on the uneasy and potentially mutually destructive relationship
between the Muslim world and the West and argues we are on a dangerous trajectory,
strengthening dichotomous notions of the divide between the West and the Muslim
world.
Political Islam and
Human Security
Fethi Mansouri & Shahram Akbarzadeh (eds) (2006), Cambridge Scholars
Press,
Newcastle, UK.
In the wake of the September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks, the academic and media commentaries on Islam the religion and Islam the basis for political ideology haves received an unprecedented high level of exposure and attention. The acts of political violence by extremist groups and the omnipresent war on terror have added fresh uncertainties to an already complex global order. Just as terrorism and counter-terrorism are locked in a mutually re-enforcing symbiosis, the sense of insecurity felt by Muslims and non-Muslims alike is mutually dependent and has the potential to escalate. The present volume is anchored in the current debates on the uneasy and potentially mutually destructive relationship between the Muslim world and certain West countries. It brings together leading international scholars in this interdisciplinary field to deal with such inter-related questions as the nature of Islamism, the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on the spread of militancy, the growing sense of being under siege by Muslim Diasporas and the many unintended ramifications of a security-minded world order. This volume deliberately focuses on these issues both at a broad theoretical level but more importantly in the form of a number of prominent case studies including Indonesia, Algeria and Turkey.
Australia and the
Middle East: A Front-line Relationship 
Edited by Fethi Mansouri (2006), Library of International Relations,
vol. 28,
Tauris Academic Studies/Palgrave
Macmillan (London/ New York)
Australia’s encounters with the Middle East have historically been defined
initially through its membership of the British Empire, later as a key Commonwealth
player and more recently through Australia's close strategic relationship with
the US. This book traces the nature of the Australia-Middle East relationship,
from an insular ‘White Australia’ ideology through to the global
impact of September 11th. A comprehensive analysis of this complex relationship
provides an essential basis for understanding past encounters, evaluating present
policies and developing a framework for future interactions. The various authors
seek to draw together the various dimensions and themes of this relationship – from
trade and migration, to Australia’s increasing strategic interest and current
military involvement in the region.
Click here to download
Order Form
Lives in Limbo: Voices of Refugees Under Temporary Protection
Michael Leach and Fethi Mansouri (2004), UNSW PRESS,160pp.
In this book, 35 refugees,
all temporary protection visa (TPV) holders and mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan,
talk directly about their quest for asylum in Australia. They provide poignant
details of persecution in their home country, their journey to Australia,
prolonged periods of mandatory detention, and life under Australia's controversial
temporary protection regime. The book has been nominated for the 2004 Human
Rights Medal and Awards (Community Section).
Order
form(open a new window)
To order research report above, contact CCHR
Ph: (03) 5227 2113
Fax (03) 5227 2018 (attention CCHR)
Mansouri, F. (2007) 'Unlocking Australia's Relationship with the Middle East', Australian Journal of Political Science, Volume 42 Issue 1, 129.
Author Posting. (c) Taylor & Francis, 2007.
This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Taylor & Francis for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Australian Journal of Political Science, Volume 42 Issue 1, March 2007. doi:10.1080/10361140601158583
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10361140601158583)
Mansouri, F and S, Cauchi (2007) 'A Psychological Perspective on Australia’s Asylum Policies'International Migration Journal, 45(1):123-150.(pdf -120KB)
Mansouri, F., M. Leach & S.
Traies. 2006. Acculturation Experiences of Iraqi Refugees in Australia: The
Impact of Visa Category. Journal of Intercultural
Studies 27(4): 393-412. (Coming soon).
Leach. M., and A. Zamora. 2006. Illegals / Ilegales: Comparing anti-immigrant/
anti-refugee discourses in Australia and Spain. Journal of Iberian and Latin
American Studies, 12(1): 51-64. (Coming soon).
Mansouri, F. 2004, 'The Temporary Protection Visa Must Go', Perspective, ABC Radio National Article.
Leach, M.
and F. Mansouri. (2003) 'Strange
Words: Refugee Perspectives on Government and Media Stereotypes'. Overland19-26.
(pdf - 536KB)
Leach,
M. 2003. Disturbing
practices: Dehumanising asylum-seekers in the refugee crisis in Australia, 2001-2. Refuge 21(3): 25-33.
Mansouri, F.
2002, The legacy
of Australia's treatment of onshore asylum seekers. MOTS
PLURIELS, Refereed Electronic and International Journal, No 21. May 2002
Leach, M and Mansouri, F. (ed) 2003. 'Critical Perspectives on Refugee Policy in Australia' Deakin University, Geelong.
The Citizenship and Globalisation
ICG is hosting a forum in which advocates representing both sides of the
Israel-Palestine
conflict will speak on its causes, dynamics and international consequences.
The aim of the forum would be to stimulate interest in an issue of international
importance among the student body of Deakin University, invited guests and
the general public.
When: Thursday 20 September 2007 starting at 5pm
Where: Lecture Theatre 13 (Building HC, Level 2, Room 005) Deakin University, Melbourne Campus at Burwood
Participants:
For more information please contact Dr Sally Totman on (03) 9244 3926.
16 April 2007 Professor
James Piscatori from Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Wadham College,
Oxford University visited us to present a paper titled: |
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Professor Piscatori's research interests include Islam and politics as well as Modern Islamic political thought and movements. His current research projects include transnationalism and translocality in pan-Islam; ESRC-funded project on Connection and Imager Transnational Culture-Flows and the Arab Gulf. His publications include:
25-26 November 2005 Islam, Human Security, and Xenophobia |
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