View more on AssocProf Daphne Habibis in WARP

Expertise

• Indigenous family violence
• Indigenous housing
• Indigenous race relations
• Social inequality
• Housing policy

Research Themes

The UTAS research theme of Creativity, Culture and Society is closely aligned with Daphne's research in its concern with how we can create flourishing communities and improve the well-being of the people within them. Her work centres on questions of how the state engagement with its citizens in ways that reduce social exclusion, and on how the corrosive impacts of individualism neo-liberalism can be resisted and reduced.

In the field of Indigenous studies, contemporary research has been largely policy driven. This provides essential knowledge about the economic and social conditions of Australian Aboriginal populations, but there is a need to progress these accounts by linking empirical analysis with social theory in ways that (a) demonstrate how these conditions are shaped by the intersection between Indigenous and Euro-Australian cultures (b) progress Indigenous social theory through the development of new concepts and paradigms that can be used to develop and modify existing policy interventions.  Drawing on critical race theory, and Honneth and Fraser's work on recognition, Daphne's research has contributed to both these spheres.

Daphne's co-authored monograh, Social Inequality in Australia challenges individualising explanations of disadvantage by combining statistical analysis with theoretical explanations of social exclusion, focusing especially on Aboriginal peoples. Secondary analysis of large datasets show how Aboriginal disadvantage is clustered across multiple determinants of health and well-being. This is theorized by combining Foucault’s concept of discourse with Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence to explain how these structural and cultural variables impact on Aboriginal subjectivities by creating feelings of self-blame sand disempowerment, thereby reproducing Aboriginal disadvantage.

Collaboration

Current and past external research collaborations include Dr Kylie Valentine, Dr Kyllie Cripps and Dr Chris Martin at the University of New South Wales, Assoc Prof Catriona Elder, at the University of Sydney, Prof Paul Memmott and Rhonda Phillips at the Aboriginal Economic Research Centre at the University of Queensland, Dr Howard-Wagner at the University of Sydney,  Prof Peter Phibbs at the University of Sydney, Dr Christina Birdsall-Jones at Curtin University, Prof Paul Flatau at the University of Western Australia, Dr Angela Spinney at Swinburne University of Technology and Dr Ilan Wizel at Monash University.   Collaborations within the University of Tasmania include Prof Maggie Walter, Dr Nicholas Hookway and Dr Anthea Vreugdenhil.

Daphne has established research relationships with Indigenous communities in Western Australia, the Northern

Territory and South Australia, enabling ongoing research partnerships.   This has involved work with Indigenous and mainstream community organisations in areas including Fitzroy Crossing, Coober Pedy, Kununurra, Upper Gascoyne and Darwin.

Current projects

Telling it like it is: Aboriginal perspectives on race and race relations. ARC Linkage.

The aim of this project is to gain insights into the diversity and complexity of Aboriginal lives in the Greater Darwin area. Central to the research is the lived account of Aboriginal views on race relations. This provides a foundation for repositioning the normativity of Euro-Australian culture and improving service delivery. The findings will provide a basis for improving race relations in Darwin and inform how this can be achieved in other areas of Australia.

In August 2016, the first findings from this research partnership between UTAS and Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation have been released.  This ARC Linkage grant led by Assoc Prof Daphne Habibis, Penny Taylor, Prof Maggie Walter and Assoc Prof Catriona Elder is the first study to undertake comprehensive research on how Aboriginal people view settler Australians and settler Australian culture.

• Telling it like it is: Aboriginal perspectives on race and race relations | First Findings Report | August 2016 (PDF 1MB)

Improving housing and service responses to family violence for Indigenous individuals and families

Little is known of the housing choices made by Indigenous victims and perpetrators of violence in the aftermath of family violence. With reforms to the family violence service sector encouraging victims to remain in the home, measuring the efficacy of such an approach in an Indigenous context is timely. This project aims to contribute to understandings of how housing policy and housing assistance interacts with other policy settings, and its impact on the outcomes for Indigenous individuals, families and communities in the aftermath of domestic and family violence. The project is funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and led by Dr Kyllie Cripps, UNSW.

Inquiry into integrated housing support for vulnerable families The project aims to contribute to understandings of how housing policy and housing assistance interacts with other policy settings, and its impact on the outcomes for Indigenous individuals, families and communities in the aftermath of domestic and family violence. The project is funded the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and led by Dr Kylie Valentine,  UNSW.

Family impacts of social housing legal responses to occupier misconduct This project asks whether  social landlords’ legal responses to occupier misconduct appropriately address women affected by domestic and family violence and other especially vulnerable households. The aim is to provide evidence for future developments of social housing regulatory expectations, good practice standards and staff training programs.  The project is funded the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and led by Dr Chris Martin,  UNSW.

Publications

Grants & Funding

Projects

Research Supervision

Current

Completed