Index

Home
- About RMIT
  - Contact
    - All contacts
      - Staff
        
        by name
        
        A
        
        B
        
        C
        
        D
        
        E
        
        F
        
        G
        
        H
        
        I
        
        J
        
        K
        
        L
        
        M
        
        N
        
        O
        
        P
        
        Q
        
        R
        
        S
        
        T
        
        U
        
        V
        
        W
        
        X
        
        Y
        
        Z

Assoc Professor Kim Humphery

Position	Deputy Head, Research and Innovation
School / Work Unit	Global Studies, Social Science &Planning
Contact Details	+(61 3) 9925 8253 kim.humphery@rmit.edu.au
Location	Building: 37 Level: 2 Room: 13 City Campus
College/Portfolio	Design & Social Context

"Kim Humphery"

Key activities

Kim is the Deputy Dean (Research) in the School of Global Studies, Social Science & Planning. This position involves the oversight of research activities across the school, the support of staff in achieving their research goals, and an extensive engagement with the College and the University in relation to research strategy and policy.

Kim also supervises postgraduate students, undertakes guest lecturing and engages in a range of research and publication projects.

Qualifications

B.A. (Hons), Melbourne

M.A. (Hons), Melbourne

M.Phil, Cambridge

Ph.D., Melbourne

Industry experience

Kim has worked in the public service as well as in academia and with a range of non-government and community organisations, particularly in relation to health issues.

Professional interests

Member, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
Member, The Australian Historical Association (AHA)
Assessor, Australian Research Council (International Reader)
Assessor, National Health and Medical Research Council

Awards and accomplishments

Awards

For Shelf Life (CUP, 1998): ‘Special Mention’ in the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies National Awards 1998 for ‘An Outstanding Contribution to Australian Culture’.

For Shelf Life (CUP, 1998): ‘Highly Commended’, W.K. Hancock Award 2000, Australian Historical Association.

RMIT Research Award 2003, with Paul James

RMIT Research Award, 2004

Honorary & Visiting Fellowships

Honorary Fellow, Department of History, University of Melbourne; 2000-2007

Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Health and Society, University of Melbourne; 2002-2008

Honorary Visiting Fellow, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, September 2010 to January 2011.

Honorary Visiting Fellow, ESCRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, University of Manchester, September 2010 to December 2010.

Research overview

Over the past two decades, I have developed an international reputation for my work on the history, theorisation and politics of consumption and consumerism. I am known also, particularly in Australia, for my work on the socio-cultural aspects of Indigenous health and the practices of cross-cultural social research.

I’ve been fortunate in both studying and working at the Universities of Melbourne, Cambridge, Essex, London, Monash, La Trobe and RMIT. My intellectual background is highly interdisciplinary; spanning history, politics, sociology and social and cultural theory. Throughout my work I haveengaged with both ‘traditional’, scholarly research and with more applied forms of social and policy research.

My most recent major publication is Excess: Anti-Consumerism in the West (Polity, Cambridge 2010) and I am currently working on a further book on material cultures in Australia. I have now also extended my work to the area of sustainable and responsible consumption, and in 2010 I was a Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester.

Research supervision

Kim Humphery is a registered research supervisor. Areas of supervision include:

The history, theorisation and politics of consumption, consumerism and materialism.
The contemporary analysis of material cultures and practices.
The history of and contemporary approaches to Indigenous health and wellbeing.
The history and ethics of cross-cultural research practices, particularly in Australia.

Research grants and projects

Humphery, K. ‘Anti-Consumerism in the Contemporary West’, ARC Discovery Grant, 2004-2006.

James, P and Humphery, K ‘The Wellbeing of Communities: Cultural Activities, Social Health and Community Sustainability’, ARC Linkage Grant 2003-2006.

Vickery, J, Clarke, A and Humphery, K. ‘Oral History of Koori Health’ Research Grant, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra 2001-2002.

James P, Malone, K, Martin, J, Cregan, K, Humphery, K, Nadarajah, Y and Scanlon, C. ‘Negotiating Local/Global Tensions: Building Sustainable Communities’, RMIT, Research Investment Funding 2004-2005

Humphery K and James P, ‘Consuming the Globe’, RMIT University Small Grant Scheme, 2003.

Humphery, K. ‘Government, Professional and Public Responses to Indigenous Health in Australia, 1788-Present’ Melbourne Research Career Establishment Grant: May 2000 to April 2001.

Recent publications

Books

Humphery, K. Excess: Anti-consumerism in the West, Polity, Cambridge, 2010. 264pp. (Softback, ISBN: 9780745645414; Hardback, ISBN: 9780745645407).

Humphery, K, Weeramanthri, Tarun, and Fitz, Joe. Forgetting Compliance: Aboriginal Health and Medical Culture, Charles Darwin University Press (NTU Press), Darwin, 2001, 122pp. (ISBN 18762485992001).

Humphery, K, Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures Consumption, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1998, 280pp. (Hardback, ISBN: 0521623162; Softback, ISBN: 0521626307)

Crawford, Robert, Smart, Judith, Humphery, Kim (eds) Consumer Australia: Historical Perspectives, Cambridge Scholarly Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010 (ISBN: 1443822701).

Special Journal Editions

Anderson, I and Humphery K, (eds) Aboriginal Health and History (special issue of Health & History), vol.9, no.2, 2007 (ISSN: 1442-1771).

Book Chapters

Humphery, K. ‘The Simple and the Good: Ethical Consumption as Anti-Consumerism’, in Tania Lewis and Emily Potter (eds) Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, London, 2010.

Humphery, K. ‘Possession Island: Materialism in Colonial and Contemporary Australia’, in Crawford, Robert, Smart, Judith and Humphery, Kim (eds) Consumer Australia: Historical Perspectives, Cambridge Scholarly Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010, pp.197-208.

Scerri, A, James, P, Humphery, K, and Mulligan, M, ‘Towards Meaningful Indicators of Wellbeing: Community Arts, Inclusion and Avowal in Local-Global Relationships’, in Scott Flemming (ed) Leisure and Tourism: International Perspectives on Cultural Practice, LSA, Brighton, 2009, pp.67-78.

Humphery, K. ‘Beyond Borders: The Politics and Place of the Global Shop’, in Dan Cook (ed), The Lived Experience of Public Consumption, Palgrave, London, 2008, pp.161-178.

Humphery, K. ‘Culture Blindness: Aboriginal Health, ‘Patient Non-Compliance’ and the Conceptualisation of Difference in Australia’s Northern Territory’, in M.Ferreira and G.C Lang (eds) Indigenous Peoples and Diabetes: Community Empowerment and Wellness, Carolina Academic Press, Carolina, 2005, pp.493-510.

Crawford, Robert, Smart, Judith and Humphery, Kim, ‘Introduction’, in Crawford, Robert, Smart, Judith and Humphery, Kim (eds) Consumer Australia: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Cambridge Scholarly Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010, pp.1-10.

Humphery, K and Anderson I, ‘Introduction: Aboriginal Health and History’, in Anderson, I and Humphery K, (eds) Aboriginal Health and History, Special Edition of Health & History, 2007, pp.1-6.

Humphery, K. ‘Really Modern Retailing’, in D.Inglis, D. Gimlin and C.Thorpe (eds), Food and Society: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences, Routledge, London, 2007.

Humphery, Kim, ‘Living the Transformation’, in Daniel Miller (ed) Consumption: Critical Concepts, Routledge, London, 2001.

Humphery, K. ‘Consumer Apathy’, Encylopedia of Consumer Culture, Dale Southerton (ed), Sage, London (in press).

Humphery, K. ‘Supermarkets’, Encylopedia of Consumer Culture, Dale Southerton (ed), Sage, London (in press).

Humphery K, ‘Anti-Consumerism’, Encyclopedia of Globalisation, George Ritzer (ed), (in press), Blackwell.

Humphery K, ‘Supermarket Revolution’, Encyclopedia of Globalisation, George Ritzer (ed), (in press), Blackwell.

Humphery, K. ‘Supermarkets’, Encyclopedia of Sociology, George Ritzer (ed), Blackwell, Oxford, 2006.

Journal Articles

Humphery, K. ‘Dirty Questions: Indigenous Health and ‘Western Research’’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol.25, No.3, June 2001, pp.197-202.

Humphery, K. ‘The Seal of Hygiene: Researching Indigenous Health, Doing Cultural Studies’, The UTS Review, Vol.7, No.1, May 2002, pp.190-198.

Humphery, K. ‘Setting the Rules: The Development of the NHMRC Guidelines on Ethical Matters in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research’, New Zealand Bioethics Journal, vol.4, no.1, February, 2003, pp.14-19.

Humphery, K. ‘All Spent in Borrowed Times’, Arena Magazine, No.63, February-March, 2003, pp.38-41.

Humphery, K. ‘After Affluenza’, Arena Magazine, No. 75, February-March 2005, pp.11-12.

Published Reports & Discussion Papers

Mulligan, M, Humphery, K, James, P, Scanlon, S, Smith, P, and Welch, N, Creating Communities: Celebrations, Arts and Wellbeing Within and Across Local Communities, Globalism Institute/VicHealth, Melbourne, 2007 (ISBN 978-0-646-47238-6)

Humphery, K. The Development of the National Health and Medical Research Council Guidelines on Ethical Matters in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research: A Brief Documentary and Oral History, Discussion Paper No.8, VicHealth Koori Health Research and Community Development Unit, University of Melbourne, 2002, 43pp (ISBN 0734029314)

Humphery, Kim. Western Research and Indigenous Health, Discussion Paper No.2, VicHealth Koori Health Research & Community Development Unit, University of Melbourne, 2000 34pp. (ISBN 0 7340 2092 9)

Humphery, Kim, Japanangka, Mervyn Dixon, and Marrawal, James. From The Bush to the Store: Diabetes, Everyday Life and the Critique of Health Services in Two Remote Northern Territory Aboriginal Communities, Diabetes Australia Research Trust/Territory Health Services, 1998, 140pp. (ISBN 0 7245 3354 0.)

Published Conference Proceedings & Abstracts

Humphery, K. ‘Conceptualisations of Consumerism in the New Politics of Consumption’, 2nd International Centre for Anti-Consumption Research, Biennial Conference, Faculty of Economics ad Business, University of Sydney, December 4-5, 2008, Proceedings.

Humphery, K. ‘The Global Shop’, Proceedings: The Australian Sociological Association Conference, Perth, Western Australia, 4-7 December, 2006.

Humphery, K. ‘Consumerism as Disease: Rethinking Overconsumption and Affluenza', Proceedings: 6th Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Production and Consumption, Melbourne, 10-12 October, 2005.

Humphery, Kim, ‘Addressing Amnesia: Indigenous Health and Historical Knowledge’, Australian Historical Association Conference, Adelaide, 5 July 2000 (abstract in proceedings).

Humphery, Kim, ‘Historicizing the Guideline: The Ethics of Aboriginal Health Research’, Australian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science, Annual Conference, 27 June 2001 (abstract in proceedings).

Humphery, Kim, 'Possession Island: Writing a History of Materialism in Australia', paper, Australian Historical Association, Biennial Conference, Sydney, 3-5 July 2005 (abstract in proceedings).

Humphery, Kim, ‘Consumerism as Disease: Rethinking Overconsumption and Affluenza', paper, 6th Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Production and Consumption, Melbourne, 10-12 October, 2005 (abstract in proceedings).

Humphery, Kim, ‘Contesting Consumerism: Conceptualisations of Change in the New Politics of Consumption’, Annual Conference, The Australian Sociological Association, Melbourne University, December 2-5, 2008 (abstract in proceedings).