Our Mission
The Foundation is named after Dr Krishna Somers, Perth Consultant Physician with a long-standing interest in the study of diasporas. He has also provided the initial seeding money to establish the Foundation. The Foundation forms part of the Centre for Social and Community Research (CSCR) within the Division of Arts. The Foundation brings together Murdoch interdisciplinary scholars ranging from academic staff to post-doctoral and graduate students who have been studying transcultural issues from a variety of perspectives. The Foundation proposes to foster work within the University as well as encourage participation of other Australian and international scholars interested in researching diasporas and related fields. Provision has been made by the Division of Arts for designated office space for visiting researchers. Monies raised through further benefactions will be added to the Foundation's reserves and the interest used to fund the Foundation's activities. Scholars intending to take part of their sabbatical and research leave at Murdoch University are encouraged to contact the director of the Foundation for financial help.
Strategic Plan
Background
All settler countries are primarily countries built on migration and created on the basis of an implicit pact between new arrivals and the generosity of the original owners of the land. Australia is no exception. In a sense all migrant communities have been at some stage diasporic communities and the smaller they are the more resilient and historically extended have been their disaporic identities. Until multiculturalism became an established policy of the nation state diasporas were seen quite simply as fossilized communities existing more or less on the model of the foremost example of diasporas that of the Jewish peoples world-wide. Now with a new consciousness of cultural pluralism, diasporas are read in terms of their different histories of accommodation with the nation state. The nation state in turn is seen as a collective of discrepant groups brought together by a belief in shared liberal democratic values. In a very real sense this engagement with the nation is a deliberate engagement on the basis of shared and consensual Enlightenment values. In this new engagement justice is the over-riding concern. Thus a study of diaporas allows us to critically examine the ways in which a vibrant democracy constantly re-defines itself without foregoing its basic principles.
Rationale
The Foundation aims to provide a space for the discussion of theories of nationhood and transculturalism with reference to diaspora, especially in the context of the ways in which peoples of diverse backgrounds have engaged with the nation whether in Australia or elsewhere. Diaspora, multiculturalism, migration studies, globalization are all inter-linked fields of study and research. In the Humanities and Social Sciences these areas of study collectively constitute arguably one of the most concentrated research nodes. The Foundation proposes to foster this field and tap into its resources. One way of designating the contemporary importance of research in the field(s) is by drawing attention to the increasing use of inter-cultural terms in cultural theory: hybridity, message, creolization, assimilation, multiculturalism, diasporic cosmopolitanism, border cultures, postcolonialism, post-ethnicity, and so on.
Focus of Activities
In its early stages the Foundation will facilitate two kinds of activities. First, it will provide facilities (computer, office space, library access) to invited guests, scholars on sabbaticals, post-doctoral researchers and graduates working in the areas mentioned above. Second, the Foundation will organize seminars, presentations and lectures on a regular basis. These would be held, wherever possible, every month during term time. In due course the seminars may be linked to the research of the resident scholar and coordinated by him/her. The high point of the latter activity will be a biennial conference on diasporas. The proceedings of such a conference will be published either as a special issue of a refereed journal or as an edited book.
Management Plan
Fund-raising Strategies
The Director will liaise with ethnic communities for money. The principal donor has hinted at the possibility of more funds becoming available should the Foundation take off as expected. In due course applications will be made to Murdoch's REGS scheme (the research excellence grant scheme) as well as to Australia Research Council for funding.
Financial Reporting
There will be two accounts. The first is a trust account in which all monies from donors who have indicated that only interest from their donations should be used by the Foundation will be deposited. Monies in the trust account will therefore not be used. The second is the operating account into which will be deposited every year money generated by way of interest in the trust account. The Director will present an annual report to the Executive Dean of SSHE and to SCASE.