
Dr Stephanie Gilbert
Senior Lecturer
Indigenous Education and Research (Indigenous Cultural Studies)
- Email:stephanie.gilbert@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:+61249216863
Ways of Seeing: an insight into Aboriginality
Dr Stephanie Gilbert is exploring Aboriginality - both within a tertiary education framework and in relation to the Stolen Generations and how it may impact on future generations.
A background in social work has added a distinctive lens to Stephanie’s academic research, providing a nuanced insight to an important cultural study. Stephanie’s experience in the field of adoption is brought to the fore when she’s exploring the forced removals, fostering and adoption of Aboriginal children of the Stolen Generations and how it has impacted on people practicing Aboriginality.
Stephanie’s sharply focussed postgraduate research has helped inform her ongoing research, exploring into how ‘child protection’ policies have impacted on the development of a sense of identity.
An honours degree from North Queensland’s James Cook University saw Stephanie examine the Stolen Generations through the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century.
For her Masters in Women’s Studies, Stephanie explored a gendered angle on child removals: “There’s a particular way that these removals played out with the female experience and I wanted to make sure that the story was told .”
Then, when undertaking her PhD, Stephanie investigated how people who were removed from their Aboriginal families of origin chose to relate to their Indigenous heritage.
This is a topic that still fuels her research to this day. Stephanie’s current focus is more particularly body dysphoria, and she’s interested in testing out whether this notion is experienced by other Indigenous peoples around the globe.
The shadow memory and communal wounds
Stephanie’s interest in epigenetics was sharpened whilst attending a conference at Stanford on Soul Wounds. “It explored the concept that a community can experience a communal wound from an event. I heard Dr Michael Skinner speak at this conference on “Ancestoral Ghosts in Your Genome” and it spoke to a concept that I was already thinking about.”
“You’ll have an individual who actually experiences something that they’ll then pass on to their children. My question is: what is the connection between the body and identity as part of their inheritance?”
Research indicates that the damage caused by forced removals in the past is still felt by present generations, which is the focus of Stephanie’s latest research exploring ‘soul wounds’ and epigenetics. “It’s thought that up to seven generations can be impacted upon by what’s happened to the generations before. This has been explored through research through the Jewish populations where people are still experiencing trauma from generations earlier,” Stephanie explains.
“I’m keen to explore what gets implanted in the genome and passed on to the next generations,” Stephanie says.
Stephanie has also been inspired by research where there was a realisation that trauma in early life can actually change the shape of the brain. With the Stolen Generation, there is a sense of disconnect between the body and the identity which forms part of the psyche through the assimilation policies. “Body dysphoria in children of the Stolen Generation is strong, with Aboriginal children being told they’re white – but others seeing them as brown,” Stephanie explains.
“The problem is that there’s no easy way to negotiate Aboriginality in public – I think it’s considered a ‘political act’. If you’re not taught the Aboriginal ways of being and don’t have a connection to country can you consider yourself Aboriginal? There’s a disparity between people who get to have these things and those who don’t.”
A global perspective on an Indigenous issue
Having immersed herself in this research in Australia, Stephanie’s next step is to see what she can learn from other cultures.
In March 2017, Stephanie was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Indigenous Scholarship which she’ll use to examine the possibility that trauma can become embedded in people’s bodies in such a way that it can be transmitted across generations. “There’s an idea of a shadow memory which can exist in up to seven generations,” Stephanie says. “But can you get to a point where it doesn’t express?”
Stephanie will be exploring the dichotomy between children being raised as white, and the disconnect between what they’re told they are and what they see. “What if a Stolen Generations person were to look down at themselves, see brown skin and feel nothing but disgust?” Stephanie asks. “This has happened because many had no exposure or experience of Aboriginal culture or family and were taught that they were not Aboriginal at all.”
With her Fulbright scholarship, Stephanie will visit the US and Canada to compare and contrast Indigenous peoples such as Native Americans and the Indigenous Canadian people to see if a similar experience exists. “I’ll be looking at these issues from an archived and a living perspective. The archives won’t answer everything, but will hopefully reveal similarities of experience. We know that in the US the cutting of hair played a major role in identity, which wasn’t the case in Australia. But what are the similarity of experiences in knowing who you are?”
Aboriginality and academia
This raises the question, and highlights the second stream of Stephanie’s work – how can we help students and academics support the multiplicity of circumstances around Aboriginality. “What do universities do to provide support for this multiplicity? That’s why I have this interest. We’re challenged all the time to understand how Aboriginality can operate – but do we understand it? There’s a misconception that Aboriginality is about what you look like, but it’s also about what you feel like. There’s a multiplicity of circumstances that people find themselves in and we need to engage with that.”
When Stephanie first came to the University of Newcastle it was to improve the entry for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to higher education through the Yapug pathway to University. “Back then Yapug was medicine-only, but now it’s housed at Birabahn and proudly gives Indigenous students entry into all sorts of studies,” Stephanie explains.
Over her time at UON, Stephanie’s seen students graduate across many undergraduate degrees, PhD or Masters by research degrees. “Indigenous peoples have long been underrepresented in the higher education system and my goal is to make a space in institutions for Indigenous people in knowledge and ways of learning. And to ultimately lift participation numbers.”
As coordinator of Teaching Quality and Development at The Wollotuka Institute, Stephanie manages to balance her research and academic workload astutely. “You’ve just got to focus on what’s important and allow yourself to push some things to the side,” she says.
With her Fulbright Indigenous Scholarship, Stephanie will bring an even greater global focus to an issue that’s still poorly understood by many. It’s giving a voice to those who were silenced in the Stolen Generation and will bring a new perspective on an important, ongoing issue in Australia. It’s a tough conversation – but one we need to have.
Ways of Seeing: an insight into Aboriginality
Reflecting on our country’s past and critically thinking about its future, Associate Professor Stephanie Gilbert is seeking to bring disparate communities toget
Career Summary
Biography
Dr Stephanie Gilbert
(2018 Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of California Los Angeles)
Dr Stephanie Gilbert has been involved in the higher education sector since the early 1990s. During that time, she has developed expertise in her professional area of social work including social work on and by Indigenous people/social workers. This included developing and publishing the first ever book published by Australian Indigenous social workers in 2012: Our Voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work.[1] On page 46 her fellow editors noted her contribution to this field saying she has ‘a national profile and is highly sought after…She is a professional woman, as well as social worker, with an empathetic nature and a tireless commitment to improve and change the education system to better include and represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people…. Gilbert is highly regarded as a role model, a mentor and an amazing friend by those who are privileged to know her.’
Dr Gilbert is also considered an expert in the area of enabling education and more specifically for Indigenous students across Australia. She has developed, implemented and taught in educational programmes for higher education students across enabling, undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Initially employed at James Cook University of North Queensland in a specific entry program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into Community Welfare and Social Work her work in curriculum and pedagogy development started with the development of the Tertiary Access Program one and two. Stephanie, a colleague and Professor Errol West implemented this new program that university and across four sites of which two included correctional centres. Stephanie, herself, taught into that program in the Townsville Correctional Centre. The fourth site was based within the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community south of Cairns. Stephanie was involved with development, teaching and support at all of these sites.
Dr Gilbert has spoken and presented locally, nationally and internationally on the topics of Indigenous social work, Stolen Generations, body dysphoria, and ways of teaching and practicing excellence in Aboriginal education. More explicitly this work has centred around recognising and embedding Indigenous knowledges, cultural protocols and pedagogies throughout all University functionalities. More recently her work assisted in the production of The Wollotuka Institute’s Cultural Standards and the successful accreditation of the Wollotuka Institute through the World Higher Education Consortium; and she presented at the World Higher Education Conference in Hawaii (2014) and the linked article ‘Teaching Practise Utilising Embedded Indigenous Cultural Standards’ now published in the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education.
Dr Gilbert holds a Doctor of Philosophy in History (UoN). Dr Gilbert initially explored the basis for legislative actions of Aboriginal child removals in Queensland in her Bachelor of Social Work honours (JCUNQ) and both her Masters of Arts (Women’s Studies)(Deakin) and PhD (History) have focused on the gendered experience of child removals. This work questioned the re-membering processes available to those now women whom had been removed on the basis of their ‘race’. Crucially this work feeds into the wider project of the construction of Aboriginality in Australia. Her examiners commented that her work would serve to assist to “direct the discourse into a more agentic and empowering stance of inquiry”. This is the work Dr Gilbert is now furthering in her current placement at UCLA for her postdoctoral Fulbright Scholarship.
In addition, Dr Gilbert brings a critical level of expertise to the fields of ethics and working with Aboriginal communities. This is work she has published in Our Voices in addition to providing high level advice to the Expert reference group on the implementation of COAG on improving mental health capacity in Indigenous Communities Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, and the University of Newcastle’s Human Research Ethics Committee. Dr Gilbert is a Cluster leader in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research and Innovation Cluster (ATSIRIC). She has served her profession on its National Board for more than seven years, on the professional Australian Social Worker Journal Editorial Board and was the Branch President and Director of the Hunter Branch of the Australian Association of Social Workers.
Dr Gilbert has shown a very strong commitment to the study and illumination of Indigenous research. Her publication examining accessing archival material for both her book chapter on Pearl Gibbs and her Phd, ‘Telling It How it Was’: For What?”, examines the complications inherent in researching ourselves and the legal implications that might be brought to bear [2]. Dr Gilbert will be following up this publication with another one exploring processes for the researching of archives during her Fulbright time at the University of California Los Angeles.
Dr Gilbert’s Fulbright Post-Doctoral Scholarship focused on body memory and body dysphoria from within an epigenetics and Indigenous theory-centred approach.
In summary, Dr Stephanie Gilbert brings a unique and highly important body and level of expertise to a wide number of areas within higher education as well as possessing long-standing firm community and professional expertise as a social worker, historian and Aboriginal educator.
Qualifications
- PhD (History), University of Newcastle
- Graduate Diploma of Education (Tertiary Teaching), James Cook University
- Bachelor of Social Work (Honours), James Cook University
- Associate Diploma in Community Welfare, James Cook University
- Master of Arts, Deakin University
Keywords
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
- Body and memory
- Social Work
- Stolen generations
- enabling teaching
Languages
- Aboriginal English, so described (Fluent)
- English (Mother)
Fields of Research
Code | Description | Percentage |
---|---|---|
080601 | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Information and Knowledge Systems | 60 |
169902 | Studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Society | 30 |
130301 | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education | 10 |
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|
Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle Indigenous Education and Research Australia |
Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle The Wollotuka Institute Australia |
Academic appointment
Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|---|
1/07/2012 - 30/06/2015 | Coordinator- Teaching Quality and Development | The University of Newcastle The Wollotuka Institute Australia |
1/06/1999 - 1/12/1999 | Research Assistant | University of Western Sydney Arts Australia |
1/01/1990 - 1/01/1996 | Lecturer | James Cook University Australia |
Membership
Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|---|
Member - Research Advisory Committee, ARC Research Project Reviewing Indigenous Content in Social Work Degrees Across Australia | ARC Research Project Australia |
|
Hunter Branch President - Australian Association of Social Workers | Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Australia |
|
Member - Expert Reference Group for Coag Measures in Mental Health for Indigenous Communities, Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs | Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs Australia |
Professional appointment
Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|---|
1/02/1997 - 1/04/1998 | Fostercare Broker | Centacare Newcastle Social Worker Australia |
Awards
Prize
Year | Award |
---|---|
2017 |
Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship Australian-American Fulbright Association |
Research Award
Year | Award |
---|---|
2013 |
RHD Research Excellence Commendation University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
Invitations
Contributor
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2018 |
Australian Feminist Law Journal Invited to contribute to a special edition |
Distinguished Visitor
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2017 |
Launch Australian Massacre Map: Australian Historical Association conference I was invited by the project team to launch the Massacre Map website to the public. |
2015 |
Navigating the Grey Navigating the Grey, Key note speech 4th Year Students conference |
Speaker
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2018 |
Panel Facilitor: Speaking In Colour Exhibition Launch http://www.thelockup.org.au/ Asked to facilitate panel discussing cultural appropriation. |
Manuscript Reviews
Year | Title | Publication Type | Publisher | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Journal Article | Confidential Report | Australian Journal of Indigenous Education | Review for possible publication |
2018 | Journal article | Confidential Report | Austrlian Social Worker Journal | review article for publication |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Highlighted Publications
Book (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Gilbert S, Our Voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work, Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra, Vic, 255 (2012) |
Chapter (12 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Gilbert SL, 'Aboriginal Issues and Practice', Social Work Contexts and Practice, Oxford University Press, Victoria 81-94 (2018) | ||
2016 | Gilbert SL, 'Challenges for Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners in the neoliberal context', Doing critical social work: transformative practices for social justice, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 211-225 (2016) [B1] | ||
2013 | Gilbert SL, 'Aboriginal Issues In Context', Social Work: Contexts and Practice, 3e, OUP Australia & New Zealand, Melbourne 111-123 (2013) | ||
2005 | Gilbert SL, 'Social Work with Indigenous Australians', Social Work - Fields of Practice, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne 62-72 (2005) [B2] | ||
2005 | Gilbert SL, ''Never forgotten': Pearl Gibbs (Gambanyi)', Uncommon Ground - White Women in Aboriginal History, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra 107-125 (2005) [B1] | ||
Show 9 more chapters |
Journal article (5 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Gilbert SL, 'The inspirational Pearl Gibbs: Challenging norms about Aboriginal women', Vida: Blog of the Australian Women's History Network, (2018) | ||||||||||
2017 |
Gilbert S, Tillman G, 'Teaching Practise Utilising Embedded Indigenous Cultural Standards', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION, 46 173-181 (2017)
|
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2016 | Gilbert SL, ''Telling It How it Was': For What?', Ngiya: Talk the Law, 5 100-110 (2016) | ||||||||||
2008 |
Gilbert SL, 'Social work with indigenous communities', Australian Social Work, 61 436-439 (2008) [C3]
|
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2002 | Gilbert SL, 'Book Review: Lesbians and Lesbian Families: Relections On Theory & Practice', Australian Social Work: The Journal of The Australian Association of Social Workers, 55, No.1, March 88-89 (2002) [C3] | ||||||||||
Show 2 more journal articles |
Review (4 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 |
Chrystall A, Johnson-Woods T, Laugesen A, Laugesen A, Franks R, Braae N, et al., 'BOOK REVIEWS', Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (2013)
|
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2002 | Gilbert SL, 'Book Review', Australian Social Work: The Journal Of The Australian Association of Social Workers (2002) [D1] | ||||
1982 |
Mautner T, Carlson GR, Vuckovic V, Heil J, Martin R, McGinn C, et al., 'Book reviews', Philosophia (1982)
|
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1982 |
Mautner T, Carlson GR, Vuckovic V, Heil J, Martin R, McGinn C, et al., 'Book reviews', Philosophia (1982)
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Show 1 more review |
Conference (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 |
Fletcher GL, 'Speaking from our CORE: Reviving Indigenous Community as Pedagogical Practice', Peer Reviewed Abstract, Wagga Wagga (2014) [E3]
|
Other (2 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Gilbert SL, 'Practicing Indigenous Social Work', Australian Association of Social Work Newsletter Autumn 2018 ( issue.Autumn). Australia: Australian Association of Social Work (2018) | ||
2018 | Gilbert SL, 'Taking The Children: A Commentary', ACRAWSA. ACRAWSA Website: ACRAWSA (2018) |
Grants and Funding
Summary
Number of grants | 7 |
---|---|
Total funding | $141,755 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20171 grants / $30,500
Fulbright Indigenous Postdoctoral Scholarship$30,500
Funding body: Australian-American Fulbright Association
Funding body | Australian-American Fulbright Association |
---|---|
Scheme | Postdoctoral Scholarship |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2017 |
Funding Finish | 2018 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | External |
Category | EXTE |
UON | N |
20163 grants / $74,977
Indigenous enabling: What Works? Developing a national conversation around enabling education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students through a comprehensive audit of current provision$49,977
Funding body: Department of Education
Funding body | Department of Education |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Maree Gruppetta, Doctor Stephanie Gilbert, Doctor Sally Baker, Ms Evonne Irwin, Ms Helen Cameron |
Scheme | Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Programme |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2016 |
Funding Finish | 2016 |
GNo | G1600136 |
Type Of Funding | C2110 - Aust Commonwealth - Own Purpose |
Category | 2110 |
UON | Y |
Research Initiative Development Incentive Scheme$20,000
‘Developing Aboriginality at university’
This research project involves investigating the research questions: how are Aboriginal students currently supported around identity questions by Australians universities and how do students themselves understand their identity journey within universities?
Funding body: Wollotuka Institute
Funding body | Wollotuka Institute |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Stephanie Gilbert |
Scheme | Unknown |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2016 |
Funding Finish | 2016 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
Research Initiative Development Incentive Scheme$5,000
Research Initiative Development Incentive Scheme
The overarching purpose of this project is to understand two things: the ways that safe spaces and places are and can be constructed for Aboriginal students within universities by staff, students, pedagogical and curriculum practices and 2: Aboriginal students do crucial identity work when they get to university. How do universities support this?
Funding body: Wollotuka Institute
Funding body | Wollotuka Institute |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Stephanie Gilbert |
Scheme | Unknown |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2016 |
Funding Finish | 2016 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20151 grants / $5,000
Career Development Grant$5,000
Funding body: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle
Funding body | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Scheme | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Staff Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2015 |
Funding Finish | 2015 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20082 grants / $31,278
2008 Equity Research Fellowship - Teaching Relief$25,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor Stephanie Gilbert |
Scheme | Equity Research Fellowship |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2008 |
Funding Finish | 2008 |
GNo | G0188327 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
2008 Equity Research Fellowship - Research Grant$6,278
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor Stephanie Gilbert |
Scheme | Equity Research Fellowship |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2008 |
Funding Finish | 2008 |
GNo | G0188217 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Current Supervision
Commenced | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Masters | Wiradjuri Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Treaty | M Philosophy (Abor Studies), The Wollotuka Institute, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2017 | Masters | How Do We Make Aboriginal Groups Sustainable, and Do Groups Benefit Community Members and How Can We Empower Them to Have Supportable Groups That Belong to the Community. | M Philosophy (Abor Studies), The Wollotuka Institute, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | Decolonising the `mind¿ through (re)conceptualisations of knowledge: student engagement with Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander knowledges in higher education. | PhD (Sociology & Anthropology), Faculty of Education and Arts, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2015 | PhD | Aboriginal Child Removal Policy | PhD (Aboriginal Health Stud), Faculty of Health and Medicine, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
Past Supervision
Year | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | PhD | Private-sector Employment Programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: Comparative Case Studies | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2009 | Masters | "One Time Ago": An Urban Aboriginal Tribalography | M SocialSc (AboriginalStud)[R], Faculty of Education and Arts, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
Research Projects
ATSIRC Cluster Leader 2015 - 2017
Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship 2018
Based at University of California (Los Angeles) for six months in 2018.
American Indian Studies Center
Massacre Map 2017 - 2018
I am supporting this project with Bill Pascoe and Professor Lyndall Ryan.
Edit
Dr Stephanie Gilbert
Position
Senior Lecturer
Indigenous Education and Research
Academic Division
Focus area
Indigenous Cultural Studies
Contact Details
stephanie.gilbert@newcastle.edu.au | |
Phone | +61249216863 |
Fax | (02) 492 16901 |
Office
Location | NuSpace , |
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