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Past Events :: The University of Sydney Network for Childhood and Youth Research



Seminar: Innovative community approaches to the problem of intra and inter cultural youth conflict and violence

Thursday 2 July 2009, 2pm (Education Seminar room 325)
Speaker: Dr Peter Westoby, University of Queensland

Dr Peter Westoby is a Lecturer in Community Development within the School of Social Work and Human Services, while also working as a research consultant with the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He has worked in development practice within South Africa, PNG, the Philippines, and Australia. Some of this recent work is focused on peaceful development practice within Vanuatu, social cohesion and community conflict practice within Australia and the application of community development within school settings. In 2008 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship enabling him to investigate innovative community approaches to the problem of intra and inter cultural youth conflict and violence. He lectures in community development theory/practice, methodology, frame-working and community-based training. His most recent publications include two books: Dialogical Community Development: with depth, solidarity and hospitality (Tafina Press, 2009), and The Sociality of Healing: In Dialogue with Resettling Sudanese Refugees within Australia (Common Ground, 2009).

This presentation will overview the background (rationale) and key findings elicited from the research trip funded by the Churchill Fellowship conducted in 2008. This research trip focused on the three ‘concerns’ of: community-based inter-cultural youth conflict, youth violence and youth gangs. The presentation will examine some of the conceptual issues when thinking about these three ‘concerns’, and then overview the key findings from a program of interviews conducted within South Africa (Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein), the UK (London, Manchester/Oldham and Coventry), USA (Boulder and Denver/Colorado) and New Zealand (Auckland). Finally some recommendations will be discussed.


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Seminar: Nurturing the hidden resilience of at-risk young people across cultures and contexts

Tuesday 28 October 2008, 4.30pm (Lecture Theatre Room 215, Old Teachers College)
Speaker: Dr Michael Ungar, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

This seminar challenges anyone working with children, youth and families labelled ‘dangerous,’ ‘deviant,’ ‘delinquent’ and ‘disordered’ to better understand problem behaviours. Based on research with high-risk young people around the world, a culturally and contextually sensitive approach to nurturing resilience will be presented. While we commonly think of resilience as an individual’s capacity to overcome great adversity, this seminar focuses on how individuals ‘beat the odds’ and, just as importantly, how social service providers can ‘change the odds’ to make resilience more likely to occur. A strengths-based model of practice will be discussed that can be used in diverse child welfare, mental health, education and correctional settings. Using interactive exercises, and case recordings, Michael will show how this model of practice helps professionals explore the pathways to resilience children and families use to survive and thrive.

MICHAEL UNGAR has worked for over twenty years as a Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist with children and families in child welfare, mental health, education and correctional settings. Now a Professor at the School of Social Work, at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, Dr Ungar is an internationally recognised researcher on the subject of resilience, and leads a team that spans eleven countries on five continents. He is also the author of six books for parents, educators and helping professionals.

For details, see http://www.michaelungar.com

In addition to his research and writing interests, Dr. Ungar maintains a small family therapy practice for troubled youth and their families. He also served on the Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers Registration Board from 2002-2006. He lives in Halifax with his partner and their two teenage children.

This seminar has been organised in association with the Division of Professional Learning.


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Discussion Forum: The Medicalization of Behaviour in Children Diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Friday 20 June 2008, 4.30pm (A35 Rm 618)

This discussion forum will be led by Gloria Hill, PhD candidate with the faculty. This study follows an interpretivist sociological tradition to investigate two aspects of the medicalization of behaviour in children diagnosed as having ADHD:

  1. the process of: identifying deviance, interpreting it as ADHD and achieving a medical solution
  2. the impact of medicalization on children’s life experiences from the perspective of children who have been diagnosed as having ADHD

Gloria will present a two-phase exploratory field-based qualitative research study from a Social Constructivist perspective, influenced by the tenets of Symbolic Interactionism and Phenomenology. She particularly, though not exclusively, utilizes Symbolic Interactionism in the first part of her study, that is, the process of medicalization, and Phenomenology in the second part, that is, the experience of ‘being ADHD’.


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Discussion Forum led by Nicole Wedgwood and Anne Honey from the Health Sciences Faculty

Tuesday 29 April 2008, 4.30pm

Presenters:

Nikki Wedgwood is a Research Fellow with the Australian Family and Disability Studies Research Collaboration in the Faculty of Health Sciences. She is a sociologist with particular research interests in sport, gender and embodiment. Her presentation will look at her past research on the gendered embodiment of schoolgirls and schoolboys who play Australian Rules football as well as her planned future research on the role of sport in the lives of adolescents with physical impairments.

Anne Honey is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow with the Australian Family and Disability Studies Research Collaboration in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research background is primarily in mental illness, adolescent eating disorders and vulnerable families. Her current research explores the role of families in the care and treatment of young people with mental disorders. Roughly half of all lifetime mental disorders start by the mid-teens and three quarters by the mid-20s. This is a time when most young people are living with their parents and parents are often the first people to notice a mental health problem and seek or encourage the young person to seek treatment. This presentation will explore the role of families in the lives and treatment of adolescents and young adults with mental disorders and issues relating to individuation, privacy and rights. Issues will be discussed with reference to recent research involving interviews with adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa and their parents.


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Discussion Forum: Structural Violence: Asylum Seeker Children in Australia

Wednesday 12 March 2008, 4–5.30pm

Opening with a presentation by Denise Lynch, this forum addressed the well being, safety and protection of children who come to Australia hoping to achieve refugee status and a permanent visa to stay here. The discussion addressed the structural and legal issues that lead to concerns for these children and the consequences of their legal status.


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Mapping the Network

Wednesday 7 November 2007, 4–6pm

We will create a conceptual map on which people can locate themselves in relation to their own and others' research interests. Identifying "clusters" of research interests and researchers could be a starting point for building collaborations within the network as well as the basis of the network applying for grants in future.


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Network for Childhood and Youth Research Launch

Monday 13 August 2007

Professor Derrick Armstrong, Dean and Deputy Provost (Learning and Teaching), welcomed university colleagues and in his opening address suggested the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration for enhancing research capacity and building strong, systematic programs of research on childhood and youth. The Network will also build international collaborations through membership of the Worldwide Universities' Network.
It was exciting to meet so many colleagues keen to share research interests and engage in discussion of how child and youth perspectives inform our research. Discussions continued over lunch with everyone obviously relishing both delicious food and the opportunity to meet colleagues from across the eight faculties represented.



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