Prof. Pamela Nilan

Biography

Pam Nilan is Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities and Social Science. She is Assistant Dean of Research and Research Training in the Faculty of Education and Arts. She is also currently the Treasurer of the Asia-Pacific Sociological Association. Dr Nilan is an experienced youth sociologist, who has worked in Australia, Vietnam, Fiji and Indonesia. Her current research endeavors are focused in Indonesia. She is currently the team leader for a project titled Violence in Indonesia and India, funded by an ADRA grant (AusAID). Since 2005, Dr Nilan has also worked for AusAID as a member of the Jakarta Selection Team employed by IDP Australia to annually interview Australian Development Scholarship applicants in Indonesia. She has published numerous articles in refereed journals and contributed many book chapters to edited collections. She has been a co-author on three books. In the past five years, Dr Nilan has been a Chief Investigator on an ARC-funded project on Ambivalent Adolescents in Indonesia, and a Chief Investigator on a DIAC-funded project on obstacles faced by Muslim job-seekers in Australia. She is currently engaged in a pilot project studying the expectations and experiences of young cruise ship workers recruited in Bali and the Philippines. Dr Nilan has supervised 9 Ph.D and Masters degree theses to completion. She was instrumental in developing the Graduate Certificate and Master of Social Change and Development at the University of Newcastle. This program sequence currently has over seventy fee-paying postgraduate coursework students enrolled, including both on-campus international students and online distance education students. In 2010 Dr Nilan spent her sabbatical leave in Europe, where she spent four months teaching undergraduate Indonesian society and culture subjects to students at l'Universite de La Rochelle in France. She was also a research fellow at KITLV in Leiden during this period. Dr Nilan has a prior professional background in secondary teaching and theatre production.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Newcastle, 1994
• Bachelor of Education, University of New England
• Master of Education, University of New England

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Research

Research keywords

• Gender and Development
• Identity and Popular Culture
• School-to-Work Transition
• Social Change in the Asia-Pacific Region
• Youth

Research expertise

Dr Nilan has research expertise in the following fields: youth; gender and development; identity and popular culture; and school-to-work transition. She has expertise in mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) research in Australia and in selected countries of the Asia-Pacific region. She has further expertise in working with large external, non-profit-making, organisations.

Collaboration

Dr Nilan has conducted research collaboration with fellow investigators in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, France and The Netherlands. She has collaborated on research projects and initiatives with researchers from the following academic and research institutions:

Australian National University

University of Western Australia

La Trobe University

Wollongong University

Fiji University of Technology (Fiji)

Universitas Hasannudin (Indonesia)

Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha (Indonesia)

Universitas Sebelas Maret (Indonesia)

Universitas Indonesia

L'Universite de La Rochelle (France)

KITLV (Leiden, The Netherlands)

Dr Nilan has also conducted applied research and scholarship in conjunction with the following:

Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Australia)

Australian Agency for International Development (Australia)

United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

Languages

• French
• Indonesian

Fields of Research

Code	Description	Percentage
160899	Sociology Not Elsewhere Classified	80
200205	Culture, Gender, Sexuality	15
170199	Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified	5

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Humanities Research Institute
• Research Institute of Social Inclusion & Wellbeing

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Member - Asia-Pacific Sociological Association
• Member - Asian Studies Association of Australia
• Member - International Sociology Association
• Member - The Australian Sociology Association

Awards

Research Award.

1990	Award for Outstanding Educational Research New South Wales Institute of Educational Research (Australia)
1989	Commonwealth Postgraduate Study Award for Masters Degree Commonwealth Government (Australia)

Invitations

Suzie Handajani, Globalizing Local Girls: The Representation of Adolescents in Indonesian Female Teen Magazines University of Western Australia, Australia (Research Masters Examiner.)	2005
‘The Construction of Women in Post-New Order Indonesian Cinema’ Curtin University, Australia (Research Masters Examiner.)	2006
‘The Quest for Indonesian Islam: Contestation and Consensus Concerning Veiling’ Australian National University, Australia (PHD Examiner.)	2007
‘In the System but Out of Place: Understanding Street-Frequenting Young People in Suva, Fiji’ University of Queensland, Australia (PHD Examiner.)	2007
‘Muslim Youth in Hong Kong’ University of Queensland, Australia (PHD Examiner.)	2008
‘Riding the Global Wave: Male Youth, Tourist Encounters and Subcultural Formation in Kerala, South India’ University of Wollongong, Australia (PHD Examiner.)	2009
‘Challenging Stereotypes: Young Gays and Lesbians in Indonesia’ Vrije University Amsterdam, Netherlands (Invited Presenter)	2010
‘The Future of Youth Sociology: Global Doubts’ The Australian Sociological Association conference, Macquarie University, Australia (Invited Presenter)	2011
draft Asia-Pacific Human Development Report on Gender, Power and Voice in the Asia-Pacific region UNDP, Thailand (External Reviewer - Programs.)	2009

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Administrative

Administrative expertise

Dr Nilan has had extensive administration and governance expertise in universities. In administration, she was Convenor of the Graduate Certificate and Master of Social Change and Development postgraduate coursework programs for six years. In governance, she has been Deputy Dean (2 years), elected Faculty member of Academic Senate (3 years), Deputy Head of School for Research Training (3 years). She is currently Assistant Dean for Research and Research Training in the Faculty of Education and Arts (2 year appointment).

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Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Development Studies
• Introductory Sociology

Teaching expertise

Dr Nilan has teaching expertise in the subjects of Introductory Sociology, Social Theory, Research Methodology, Youth Studies, Gender and Development, Indonesian Society and Culture.

Courses

• SOCA1010 - Society and Culture: A Sociological Introduction
• SOCA6440 - Supervised Reading 1
• SOCA6670 - Social Change and Development Research Project