Post-Doctoral Fellows
Dr Samuel Blanch
Sam is a post-doctoral fellow and socio-legal scholar at the Centre for Law and Social Justice. Sam’s work explores how living religious traditions continue to challenge secular assumptions about governance, ethics, personhood, knowledge, and the nature of the world around us. His work has focused on the transnational Shia Muslim community, and has been grounded in ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Australia, the United Kingdom and Iran. He has used ethnography in conjunction with other critical theoretical and theological resources to explore the integrity and logics of education, finance and art in Muslim communities. At Newcastle he is working on projects that try to understand the encounter between very different legal traditions. Sam’s work shows that a more just understanding of multiculturalism in Australia requires a deeper appreciation of the way religious traditions organise themselves, including through their own legal logics and processes.
Dr Ana Goncalves
Ana holds a PhD in Law and is an awarded researcher. She is originally from Brazil but has lived in Australia for many years. Ana has experience teaching at graduate and post-graduate levels and giving public presentations in Australia and internationally, including during international programs in Japan and Brazil. She speaks Portuguese and English and has experience with Spanish and Italian, and she is currently learning German. Ana is passionate about social justice, especially protecting and improving the rights of marginalised communities, using evidence-based research and strong advocacy skills to bring about legal and policy change. Recently, she participated in a research project about good practices for people with disability from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. As a professional and a CaLD woman, Ana is culturally aware and sensitive about the unique challenges faced by people from CaLD backgrounds in Australia. Ana is interested in the intersections of the experiences of people from CaLD backgrounds, including those of disability, gender, disaster, climate change and access to support services.
At the Centre for Law and Social Justice, Ana’s research addresses climate change, disability and the Australian refugee policy. Her main research project is in partnership with the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA).
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.