What discipline is your doctorate in?
Anthropology. To be even more precise, social anthropology. The nitty-gritty: the thesis is situated within the specialities of environmental and organisational anthropology.
What is the central question your thesis asks?
What does joint management (co-management) mean to conservation agencies in Australia?
What is joint management?
Joint management is the management of national parks and other protected areas by government-run conservation agencies and Indigenous (Aboriginal) peoples.
Tell me (in a nutshell) what it’s about?
How the history and culture of a government conservation agency shapes and defines what is thought of and enacted as joint management. This is set against the backdrop of massive change within the government conservation agency: a Native Title claim that saw 33 national parks and other reserves become jointly managed … simultaneously. This is the story of how the NT Parks and Wildlife Service translated joint management on this enormous scale into action and the outcomes of these actions.
Why bother?
About 98% of everything written about co-management or joint management is from the perpective of Indigenous peoples. This means that we know an awful lot about Indigenous people’s understandings, expectations and experiences of joint management, but we know almost nothing about the other side of the bargain – the expectations, motivations and experiences of government conservation agencies. Thus, if joint management is about managing jointly, it’s a good idea to find out what makes these organisations ‘tick’, so to speak.
How can you write 100,000 words about anything?
I could write 500,000 words about joint management and still find new ways of looking at it.
Which university are you enrolled with and who are your supervisors?
I am enrolled at the Australian National University in Canberra.
My supervisors are:
Professor Nicolas Peterson (Nic is a legend and I highly recommend him to other prospective post-grads).
Professor Francesca Merlan
Dr Jocelyn Davies
How long did it take you to write your thesis/ how is your thesis going?
This is a question you NEVER ask a PhD candidate! Got that? DO NOT ASK HOW THE THESIS IS GOING.
…ok. Ten years so far. And on July 26, 2009 it has to be finished.
