Dr Damian Grenfell

Position	Senior Lecturer
School / Work Unit	Global Studies, Social Science &Planning
Contact Details	+(61 3) 9925 3462 damian.grenfell@rmit.edu.au
Location	Building: 15 Level: 3 Room: 2 City Campus
Portfolio	Design & Social Context

Qualifications

PhD, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.
BA (Hons), Department of Politics, Monash University.

Teaching/Work responsibilities

Peacebuilding and Reconciliation (Course coordinator)

An undergraduate and postgraduate course that examines both the processes and effects of different peacebuilding techniques used in order to secure peace in societies that have experienced widespread violence and warfare. The course gives special emphasis to the study of Truth and Reconcilation Commissions.

Human Security Program, Global Cities Institute

How can cities harness their immense resources to cope with crises, insecurities and processes of reconstruction?

Metropolitan spatial concentrations are the focus of human creativity and desire. They are able to harness immense resources to cope with crises, and are able to project themselves to the world through being the focal point for international media and politics. However, they are also concentrations of diverse and often conflicting cultures, sources of insecurity from natural, technological and social agents. The sense of insecurity has been made more acute by globalized violence and the War on Terror. Our immediate region provides numerous examples. We are frequently reminded that Australia is situated within an 'arc of instability'; and the massive destruction and resilience of Asian communities following the recent tsunami is an instance of disaster striking at cities from environmental forces that go a long way beyond the locale or immediate region. Disasters have the proven capacity to halt development in poorer cities. This Program will focus on the pathways for recovering from conflict, building resilience and reducing disaster vulnerability. This can be achieved by understanding and building on the strengths of cities and working to reduce the forces promoting violence and vulnerability to disaster. For many cities in our region, and throughout the world, this is a key factor in any hope of sustainability.

Timor-Leste Research Program

The Timor-Leste Research Program is based at RMIT University, and is primarily situated within the Globalism Research Centre and the Global Cities Institute. Researchers from the Globalism Research Centre (www.rmit.edu.au/globalism) have been working in Timor-Leste since 2003, and as with other sites within Australia and the Asia-Pacific, our main intellectual task has been to understand processes of change and continuity, and to think through cultural-political questions such as nation-formation in a globalizing world. We endeavour to work across the divide between abstract theory and applied research and we seek to develop strong collaborative connections with communities, civil society and state organisations in our research areas. RMIT's Global Cities Institute (www.global-cities.info) was inaugurated in 2006 and brings together key researchers in order to understand the complexity of globalizing urban settings. As part of the Global Cities Institute, the Timor-Leste Research Program has developed its work to incorporate Dili as a major site for its research.

Postgraduate supervisor

As a supervisor of honours, Masters and Doctorate candidates, I have supervised students in a range of topics that are central to my research interests (see next page), including the East Timorese independence movement, gender and development, activism of refugees from Burma, the media representation of war, and the anti-corporate globalisation movement. I am interested in supervising students in areas of social movements, the politics of resistance, independence and nationalist movements, postcolonialism and globalization, or area studies involving conflicts, particularly in the Asia-Pacific Region.

[Next: Research]