Dr Paul Hodge

I am a non-Indigenous person of this land with ancestral ties to Devon England and Connacht Ireland. I was born on Kamilaroi Country, Tamworth, and spent most of my early life on Worimi Country, Nelson Bay, just north of Mulubinba, Newcastle, the land of the Awabakal and Worimi Nations. I currently live and work on Awabakal, Worimi, Darkinjung and Gumbaynggirr Countries. My research relationships have emerged in the sub-disciplines of Indigenous-led geographies, Geographies of humanitarian settlement; and, Critical development studies.          

Indigenous-led geographies 
Project title - 'Caring for Country: Geographies of Co-existence in Gumbaynggirr Country' (ARC Linkage Grant: July 2016-2021): This research project, led by Aunty Shaa Smith, aims to work with Gumbaynggirr people and Country, to build a better understanding of what Gumbaynggirr-led Caring for Country might look like in the context of Natural Resource Management (NRM), and how it might be practiced, today. The research is a collaboration between Gumbaynggirr people led by Aunty Shaa Smith with Neeyan Smith, the Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance of NRM organisations, UON (Sarah Wright, Lara Daley & myself), and Gumbaynggirr Country on the NSW mid-north coast.

Source: Sarah Wright (Caring for Country - connecting through pippies on Gumbaynggirr Country; Yandaarra representation).

As Aunty Shaa explains:

We call our group Yandaarra, which is Gumbaynggirr for a group going together, shifting camp together. This is also the name for our research and our work together. We see Yandaarra, our research, as a re-creation story. It’s about remembering what was (what is) as part of this re-creating. This work is about honouring Elders and custodians past, present and future. Our guidance from them is so important; it’s timeless, relevant for ever. Stories don’t belong to one time but for all time. This story that we’re doing now, the research, is relevant for then and now and for the future.

Gumbaynggirr Jagun Aboriginal Corporation is led by Aunty Shaa Smith, Neeyan Smith and Gumbaynggirr Country to help heal self, community and Country (Gumbaynggirr Jagun)

Project title - 'Juungambala: More-than-human agreement making with/as Gumbaynggirr Country' (ARC Linkage Grant: Feb 2022 - 2027): This project arises out of Gumbaynggirr Country, its stories, songlines and relationships. It brings together Gumbaynggirr Custodians, NRM practitioners, the Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance and Bellinger Landcare, and the University of Newcastle, to better understand and practice the learning from this, and other stories, songs and songlines of Gumbaynggirr Country, mid-north coast NSW. Gumbaynggirr Country is the homeland of the Gumbaynggirr people, from the Clarence River in the North to the Nambucca River in the south, the Pacific Ocean in the east and the Great Dividing Range in the west. The stories and songs of this Country, such as the story of the koala, Dunggirr, and the whale, Guruuja, are more than a moral fable, they are Law/Lore, statements of more-than-human sovereignty, of legal orders and agreements, and of belonging with place. This research project, led by Aunty Shaa Smith, Uncle Bud Marshall, Neeyan Smith and Gumbaynggirr Country continues the work of Yandaarra building on the previous grant by attempting to practice what it means to live the creation time now.  

Led by Uncle Bud Marshall, the Buluunggul (Mullet) Festival is celebrating its second year Saturday 6 May, 2023. The festival aims to be a welcoming day where Gumbaynggirr custodians can share connections with Country and nourish relations with Buluunggul. The Festival celebrates the sculpture of Gumbaynggirr custodian Uncle Benji unveiled at the inaugural Buluunggul Festival in 2022. The Buluunggul Festival  

  
Source: Yandaarra (Sculpture of Uncle Benji  and dancing during the 2022 Buluunggul Festival, V Wall, Nambucca Heads, Gumbaynggirr Country)

Geographies of humanitarian settlement
Project title - 'Settling Well: A longitudinal study of refugees in regional Australia' (ARC Linkage Grant: Feb 2022 - 2027): This research aims to provide the first longitudinal, comparative assessment of the impacts of humanitarian migrant's settlement in regional Australia, for both humanitarian migrants themselves and the communities in which they settle. The project uses a mixed-method and multi-sited approach to generate new knowledge of the opportunities and challenges for sustainable settlement in regional Australia. The Settling Well project works across six study sites in regional New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD) and Victoria (VIC). Selected case study sites encompass diverse groups of humanitarian migrants and destination communities, and different approaches to regional settlement (e.g. settlement that is government-led, community-led, business-led, or migrant-led). 

The Settling Well project team recognises that First Nations communities have rarely been invited into discussions about regional settlement as part of Australia's humanitarian migration policy despite being the First Peoples of these settlement sites. We feel this has to change. This project acknowledges the enduring presences of First Peoples. A fundamental part of this acknowledgement is for us to respectfully listen and sit with First Nations communities to hear if there are ways and practices of ensuring regional settlement is done the right way. 

Settling Well partner organisations include: AMES Australia, Australian Red Cross Society, Department of Home Affairs, Multicultural Australia Ltd., Multicultural NSW.

Critical development studies
Strengths-based approaches (SBA) and community development in rural India (Research collaboration with colleagues at the TATA Institute, Mumbai, India): This research collaboration aims to draw on strengths-based approaches to highlight what they have to offer in rural contexts in India. Research undertaken in 2019 using participatory asset mapping found that strengths-based approaches, such as asset mapping, revealed self-described vocabularies, reflections and evaluations of participant's life worlds in ways that dominant nation-wide research surveys do not.

Source: Deepshi Arya (Participatory asset mapping exercises, Rural India) 

The research also found that the Gram Sabhas - the locally elected village-level tier of the decentralised Panchayat Raj system - provides the conditions of possibility for realising the benefits of strengths-based methods, especially given the participatory functions of the Gram Sabhas are sanctioned by law. Contributing to a Springer Book Series, the collaboration are working on a book due for release 2024 that outlines what SBA could offer in discerning monitory and evaluation processes as part of calculating India's Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) updates.   

Vegan Geographies
This research is an emerging collaboration with fellow Australian vegan geographers, Associate Professor Andrew McGregor and Dr Donna Houston (Macquarie University), Dr Yamini Narayanan (Deakin University), Dr Richard White (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) and Dr Simon Springer (Victoria University, Canada). 

Critical pedagogy
This research focus (with geography colleagues Associate Professor Sarah Wright and Dr Lara Daley, UON) makes contributions in critical pedagogy in development studies. The research explores experiential student learning when ‘on-Country’ with traditional custodians in the Northern Territory (Hodge et al 2011; Wright & Hodge, 2012; Hodge, Wright, Mozeley, 2014).

Source: Paul Hodge (Students, Patonga Homestead, NT) Source: Paul Hodge (Students climbing Injuluk Hill, NT)

As part of an ARC Linkage Grant (July 2016-2021), Paul, Sarah and Lara, along with Gumbaynggirr knowledge holders Aunty Shaa Smith and Neeyan Smith, the Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance and Gumbaynggirr Country, aim to explore ways in which Gumbaynggirr-led Caring for Country practices could be used to educate students in their future professions. Paul has been drawing on the learnings from Aunty Shaa and Country to inform and guide pedagogies in the classroom.   

Gumbaynggirr custodian Bernard Kelly-Edwards and Awabakal, Kamilaroi and Mandandanji custodian Kevin Gavi Duncan is working with Paul to co-design a longitudinal project, student-centred study entitled, ‘Student co-learning with Country: place-based decolonising pedagogies for work/life in a climate changing world’. The project aims to trace student learning over time when guided by Indigenous custodians and Country. The place-based pedagogies have multiple feedback loops built into project implementation enabling iterative processes for culturally relevant place-based curricula.

Teaching Philosophy 
My teaching and learning philosophy is grounded in nurturing life-long learning. My courses enable and encourage students to develop a keen and critical sense of the world around them. I design courses that foster the importance of relationships and the creation of safe learning spaces that reassure all students of their capacity to actively participate in the class and broader community. By integrating ‘two-way learning’, where students are empowered to draw on their life experiences, the classroom is transformed into a place of constructive, active learning and critical engagement. Cultivating a collaborative pedagogy I provide opportunities for students to become aware of their strengths and capacities and use these to contribute to real solutions in a climate-changing world.

Research collaborations and Community outreach
I am convenor and co-founder of the newly formed (2014) Critical Development Study Group (CDSG) of the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG). In collaboration with a number of national and international colleagues, the Study Group is forming key trans-Tasman alliances with networks including the Political Geography Research Group (Institute of British Geographers - IBG), Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Studies Network (DevNet), the Development Studies Group of the New Zealand Geographical Society (NZGS), the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) University Network, and the Department of Development, Government and International Affairs and Geography, Earth Science and Environment both at the University of the South Pacific, Laucala, Suva, Fiji. Our emerging research agenda involves identifying individual and collective strengths (including, crucially, post-graduate and early career colleagues) to develop strong international links and grant platforms. At the 2014 IAG Conference in Melbourne I chaired a CDSG panel on critical interventions in development studies. I am now assembling the papers as Special Issue Editor for publication in Geographical Research. Between 2011 and 2013 I worked with an active editing team as Book Editor for Asia Pacific Viewpoint, an international journal based in Aotearoa/New Zealand and published by Wiley Asia.      

I have an active community engagement presence in environmental and social justice advocacy. I have been invited to be on Sustainability Q&A Panels (UoN Student Environment Club Environment Week, 2014; Vegan Week – Animal Liberation, 2014), co-founded and coordinated the African Australia Alliance for Peace and Reconciliation Inc (AAAPR) which identifies and builds on the strengths and capacities of newly arrived refugees and their families in Newcastle. I am an active member of Refugee Action Network Newcastle (RANN) participating in organisational processes, fundraisers and events. I am a social and political columnist for the Newcastle Leader Newspaper (Circulation 43 000). In 2011-2013 I was a volunteer Ethics Teacher and one of the original cohort of ethics teachers who rolled out the State-wide Primary Ethics curriculum for years 5 and 6 at Newcastle East Public School.

Administrative expertise
Ethics Policy Officer (SELS): I am currently Ethics Policy Officer for the School of Environmental and Life Sciences, an ongoing role I have had since 2012. As Ethics Policy Officer I coordinate and liaise with researchers throughout the peer review process matching appropriate reviewers within the school to ensure timely and efficient submission of ethics applications.

Discipline of Geography and Environmental Studies Seminar Series Coordinator: Since 2012, I have undertaken the role of Discipline Seminar Series Coordinator. The Seminar Series runs in both semesters and showcases the research of 12 scholars throughout the year. The role involves tapping into exiting networks with international and domestic scholars and developing new cross-institutional relationships to ensure high quality presenters. 

Bachelor of Development Studies Program Management Committee Member: I am currently the Discipline of Geography and Environmental Studies representative to the Bachelor of Development Studies Program Management Committee. This role involves active participation in the management and development of the degree program reporting on curriculum delivery and discussion on student outcomes.