For Professor Nicholas Farrelly, academic life is about making a positive difference in society, whether that be in regional Tasmania or the villages of Myanmar. His approach is to accumulate knowledge from the ground up, and then use those insights to inform and influence change in governments, business and major institutions.

Professor Farrelly’s academic background is multi-disciplinary. While his three dissertations, including his Oxford University D.Phil, were supervised by anthropologists, his initial academic focus was on history and languages. His time at Oxford included coursework in politics and economics, and on returning to Australia he worked in strategic studies and international relations. “I often get tagged as a political scientist, but my research orientation is grounded in the deep study of local issues on their own terms, as befits an ethnographic style of work.”

His skills as a researcher were honed through many years living and working in Asia, and particularly Myanmar and Thailand. Since January 2020 he has been in a new environment as Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania, but the experience in Asia remains invaluable and relevant.

“Appreciating the dynamism of our social systems is one of the compelling parts of what we do as Social Scientists. I have learned that our social worlds are defined by complex stories of interaction, sometimes of deprivation but also of future possibility. As a university, we want to be an active contributor to positive social change. When our skills as researchers and teachers can make a meaningful difference, there’s just nothing better than that.”

Professor Farrelly’s interest in Asia was originally sparked by a primary school teacher-librarian in suburban Canberra who inspired students when he returned from volunteering in Indonesia. In the 1980s, the Hawke and Keating Governments were awakening in Australians the realisation that Asia will be critical to our future. Professor Farrelly invested heavily in his own language skills. He speaks fluent Thai and has also studied Indonesian and Burmese.

It is then no surprise that Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia took centre stage as his academic career evolved. “I studied Myanmar from the ground up, back when it was a military dictatorship of the worst kind, and then kept returning as it changed abruptly. Over the past fifteen years. I ended up spending a lot of time in Naypyidaw, the new capital of Myanmar, and got to know it up close.”

He saw Myanmar move from an era of outrageous human rights abuses to embrace new possibilities. “While the current reforms have not all gone according to plan, the changes have pulled large numbers of people out of serious poverty, given greater space for political discussion and for the free flow of information, and for a nascent albeit still unsatisfactory democratic system to emerge.”

From his perspective, there is a role for academic knowledge in helping shape such fundamental changes. “There was a great deal of collaboration between Myanmar’s universities, other academic institutions and foreign partners as they went about building up local capabilities. Along with many colleagues I sought to play a constructive role in those exciting processes.”

He believes that Social Science knowledge needs to make itself available for strategic, political and diplomatic decision-making as a key contribution to improving people’s quality of life. This approach was outlined in a book he co-edited with colleagues from the Australian National University, aptly named Muddy Boots and Smart Suits. “Some find this approach to be too uncritical of the inequalities, structural injustices, the monumental failings, of our institutions. But without engaging the powerful, wealthy and well-connected, we don’t as academics have much chance of moving conversations in more productive directions. And that has been my approach since the beginning.

“In universities we have immense privilege and with that should come a genuine responsibility to be tackling the big, challenging, difficult questions.”

While his personal research interests remain with Asia, including its global influence and the twists and turns in Australia’s engagement with the region, Professor Farrelly is focussed on building on the solid foundation in place in the School of Social Sciences. “Our disciplines put great emphasis on the needs of the communities that we serve. We have strengths through a range of different conceptual areas and our work has impressive practical outcomes. The relationships we enjoy, whether they are with the Tasmania Police or a wide range of socially focused organisations, means that we can build partnerships of enduring value. The students that we teach go on to do so many important things here in Tasmania, across Australia and around the rest of the world.”

He says the School’s next phase will be to play to its comparative advantages, finding ways to use the great cultural, social and political uniqueness of the Tasmanian experience to drive debates in the disciplines as a way of contributing to the health, prosperity and success of Tasmanian communities. “We want to share our experiences widely, engage collaboratively with partners from near-and-far, and build relationships that are going to provide long-term opportunities for our students.”