Dr Susan Hemer

Biography/ Background

Doctor Susan Hemer lectures in the areas of medical and psychological anthropology, and development studies. Dr Hemer's research interests include the social impact of mining and development projects in the Pacific, and expatriate communities associated with development projects. Research interests in psychological anthropology are focused on emotion and grief in both Melanesia and Indigenous Australia.

Prior to working at the University of Adelaide, Dr Hemer held a research and project implementation position in the Community Relations Department for Lihir Gold in Papua New Guinea.

Dr Hemer publishes on both medical or psychological anthropology and development studies, and has a book, Being Lihirian, currently in press.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology) Honours, University of Adelaide.

PhD (Anthropology), University of Melbourne.

Graduate Diploma (Aboriginal Studies), University of South Australia.

Awards & Achievements

2011 Inaugural HUMSS-Ari White Paper Prize. "Meeting the challenges of healthcare provision in the Lihir Islands".

Teaching Interests

• Life, Death and Culture.
• Anthropology of Health and Medicine.
• Anthropology of Emotion, Mind and Person.
• Emotion, Culture and Medicine.
• Ethnographic Research.
• Poverty and Social development.
• Honours Anthropology.
• Honours Development Studies.

Research Interests

My research interests

• Personhood, social relations, emotion, and grief in Melanesia.  
• The social impact of mining and development projects in the Pacific.
• Women's wellbeing and health in PNG.
• HIV in PNG.
• Expatriate communities associated with development projects.

Current PhD projects

• An Ethnographic study of postnatal mental illness.
• Rebirthing: the embodied experience of self-determined health.
• An ethnographic study of the new genetics, familial cancer, kinship & emotions.
• The individual and the state in Kerala, India.
• Environmentalism & eco-spirituality in Adelaide.
• Online/offline social interaction among babyboomers and senior Australians.
• Online memorials & grief in Vietnam.
• Human:animal relations: guide dogs and assistance animals.
• Addressing sanitation problems in East Timor.
• Gender, nationalism and development in East Timor.
• Food & food security in Cuba.

Publications

2013 Tracing the Melanesian Person: Emotions and Relationships in Lihir. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. (Available via the following link: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/lihir/).

Forthcoming. Finding time for quality teaching: an ethnographic study of academic workloads in the social sciences and their impact on teaching practices. Higher Education Research and development. (Accepted August 2012). 

2012 Informality, power and relationships in postgraduate supervision: supervising PhD candidates over coffee. Higher Education Research and Development 31 (6):827-39.

2012 Review of 'Out of Place. Madness in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.' M. Goddard, Berghahn Press. Anthropos 107 (2):615-6.

2011 Local, regional and worldly interconnections: the Catholic and United churches in Lihir, Papua New Guinea. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 12(1):60-73.

2011 Review of 'Emotions in the Field: The Psychology and Anthropology of Fieldwork experience.' J. Davies & D. Spencer (eds), Stanford University Press. Anthropological Forum 21(2):204-6.

2010 Grief as social experience: death and bereavement in Lihir, Papua New Guinea. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 21: 281-297. 

2008 Piot, Personhood, Place and Mobility in Lihir, Papua New Guinea. Oceania 78(1):109-125.

2005 Healthcare and Illness in Lihir, New Ireland Province, in the context of the development of the Lihir Gold mine. PNG Medical Journal 48(3-4):188-195.

2002 A Malmalien e Makil: Person, Emotion and Relations in Lihir. PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne.

 

Conference Papers

2012 Silence and confidentiality: responding to HIV in the Lihir Islands, PNG (with Jimmy Peter). Paper given at the Sexualities, Sexual Rights and HIV in the Pacific Symposium, Canberra, 11-13 July 2012.

2011 Gender and Mining: strategies for governing the development of women in Lihir, PNG. Invited Plenary Paper, Mining and Mining Policy in the Pacific. Noumea, New Caledonia, 22 November 2011.

2011 Productive uncertainty: reproductive health care choices in Lihir and notions of risk. Paper given at the International Society of Critical Health Psychology 7th Biennial Conference, Adelaide, 20 April 2011.

2010 Sensual feasting: transforming emotions and spaces in Lihir. Paper given at the Third International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, Adelaide, 7 April 2010.

2009 "You are not from here": dismembering Kapit village for mining in Papua New Guinea. Paper given at the Australian Anthropological Society conference, Sydney, 11 December 2009.

2008 Pursuing the good life in Londolovit Township. Paper given at Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth 2008 Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 8 December 2008.

2008 Localisation and global connections: Catholic and United churches in Lihir, PNG. Paper given at ARC-Asia Pacific Futures Network Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 2 December 2008.

2008 Death in Society. Invited lecture for Masters of Grief and Palliative Care, University of Adelaide, Australia, 21 August 2008.

Unpublished Reports

2002 Lihir Education Review report. Report to Lihir Management Company. 122 pp. Jointly authored with Trevor Birney, Chris Stores and Les Roai.

2002 Tutorme Training and Sewing Centre: A Review of tis History and Issues. Report to Lihir Management Company. 20 pp.

2002 Maternal Health Report. A Report to Lihir Management Company. 35 pp.

2001 The Relocation of Kapit Village: A Review. Report to Lihir Management company. 50 pp.

2001 Illness and Healthcare in the Lihir Islands: A review. A report to Lihir Management Company. 59 pp.

 

Professional Associations

Fellow of the Australian Anthropological Society

Entry last updated: Wednesday, 8 May 2013