Associate Professor Peter Mayer

• Research Interests

  * Political, Economic and Social Change in India
  * Suicide and Violence in India
  * India's Political Economy

• Publications

  Publications 2019-2025

  Book Chapters

  Mayer, P. (2022) “Militarism and Development in Underdeveloped Societies”. In: Kurtz L (ed) Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. Third Edition: Elsevier, Academic Press, Vol. 3, pp. 192–206.

  Mayer, P. (2022) “The Jajmani System”. In: S.S. Jodhka and J. Naudet (eds) The Oxford Handbook on Caste in the Modern World. Oxford: Oxford University Press)

  Girard, V., C. Chassonnery-Zaïgouche and P. Mayer (2022) “Measuring Caste-based Discrimination ”. In: S. Pai, S. Babu and R. Verma (eds) Dalits in the New Millennium. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. (2023)

  Arya, V., A. Page, G. Armstrong and P. Mayer. (2022) “Suicide rates among Dalits”. In: S. Pai, S. Babu and R. Verma (eds) Dalits in the New Millennium. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. (2023)

  Mayer, P. “South Asians” in The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History Wilfred Prest, Kerry Rund & Sandra Kearney (eds) (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2024)

   

  Refereed Journal Articles

  Mayer, P. “Dowry Murders: Lingering Tragedy, Emerging Hope” The India Forum (February 27, 2025)

  Arya, Vikas, Page, Andrew, Mayer, Peter, Vijayakumar, Lakshmi, Shin, Sangsoo, Pirkis, Jane & Armstrong, Gregory “Insights from use of police data for suicide surveillance in India: An interim step toward suicide surveillance in low- and middle-income countries.” Journal of Affective Disorders Reports. 2023 (April).

  Mayer, P. “Disease and Democracy: Which Way does the Arrow of Causality Point in India?” 2022, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 24, No. 1 (June), pp. 65-90

  Mayer, P. (2022) “They Did Not Have to Burn My Sister Alive”: Causes and Distribution by State of Dowry Murders in India”. Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence 7(1): Article 9. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol7/iss1/9/

  Mayer, P. (2022) “Disease & Democracy: Which way does the arrow of causality point in India?”  New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 24 (1) June 2022 pp. 65-89.

  Arya, V., A. Page, R. Dandona and P. Mayer (2019) “The Geographic Heterogeneity of Suicide Rates in India by Religion, Caste, Tribe, and Other Backward Classes”. Crisis The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention DOI: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000574.

   

  Opinion Pieces and Policy Briefs

  Mayer, P. and Priya Chacko “Will India Implement a Uniform Civil Code?” Australian Outlook (2022) https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/will-india-implement-a-uniform-civil-code/

  M. Oak and P. Mayer (2019) "Modi appeals to voters by putting on khaki and saffron"  East Asia Forum 11th April, 2019 https://www.eastasiaforum.org/?p=178000

  Mayer, P. and M. Oak (2019) “The Modi Era: India’s Prime Minister Towers Over Party and Opponents” The Globe Post 30 May, 2019 https://theglobepost.com/2019/05/30/india-modi-era/

  Mayer, P. and M. Oak (2019) “Modi’s High Stakes Gamble: How Will India’s Citizenship Act Play Out?” The Globe Post 30 December, 2019 https://theglobepost.com/2019/12/30/india-caa-gamble/

  Oak, M. and P. Mayer (2020) “India’s Lockdown Locks Out the Poor” (with Mandar Oak) East Asia Forum 20 June 2020 https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/06/20/indias-lockdown-locks-out-the-poor/

  Conference Papers
  

  Mayer, P. " Indira Gandhi: Emotional Profile of a Dominator" Paper prepared for the “Emotional Bodies in Context” Symposium ARC Centre for the History of Emotions, University of Adelaide University, Australia 12 April, 2019

  Mayer, P. “Should India Adopt a Preferential/Ranked Order Ballot?” Paper prepared for the Indian Democracy at Work Conference, Hyderabad 9-10 January 2020

  Mayer, P. “‘Cut and Come Again’: Imagining the Sequel to Jim Masselos’s India: Creating a Modern Nation (1990)” Paper presented at the Power and Culture: Making Indian Identity – A Conference in Honour of Jim Masselos University of Sydney 20-21 February, 2020

   

  Media appearances

   

  11/01/2019

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  2019 Citizenship Bill

   

  1/03/2019

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  India-Pakistan armed conflict

   

  12/04/2019

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  Indian Elections 2019

   

  16/08/2019

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  Kashmir 2019

   

  06/03/2020

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  New Delhi Riots

   

  01/05/2020

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  US Commission on International Religious Freedom concerns about India

   

  5/05/2021

  Interviewed by Gavin Fernando, SBS

  #ModiMustResign: As India's coronavirus crisis deepens, its leader faces a growing backlash

  https://www.sbs.com.au/news/modimustresign-as-india-s-coronavirus-crisis-deepens-its-leader-faces-a-growing-backlash

   

  7/05/2021

  2SER Community Radio with Sean Britten

  State elections in India

  24/05/2023

  Interviewed by Jules Schiller

  Adelaide Drive

  ABC Adelaide

  Modi

   

• Files

  • Peter Mayer - Extended list of Publications - 2022 - Mayer_publications_2022.html [336.1K] (text/html)
  • Mayer_-_Thinking_Clearly_about_Suicide_in_India_0-1.pdf [2.8MB] (application/pdf)
  • Mayer-_Making_Democracy_Perform.pdf [500.3K] (application/pdf)
  • Mayer-Jajmani_system.pdf [4.8MB] (application/pdf)
  • Mayer-Indias_Falling_Sex_Ratios.pdf [68.1K] (application/pdf)

• Media Expertise

  Categories	Politics & Government, Foreign Countries & People
  Expertise	Asian politics, economic reform in Asia, India, Pakistan, South Asia, reform, politics (development, economic reform in Asia), Indian politics, Pakistan politics, Pakistani politics, suicide; social change, failed states
  Notes	Alt phone: (08) 8303 5610/5699
  After hours	(08) 8339 1724

Entry last updated: Thursday, 1 May 2025