2015

Captured images from Transient Migration symposium and associated Race, Mobility and Imperial Networks conference.

On 19 October 2015, Catherine Gomes gave a keynote speech entitled “Connections and Disconnections: A look at international student social media use in Australia and Singapore” at a symposium organised by ANZSSA, ATLAANZ and ISANA with the theme of Family and Faceboook: Creating connections for students via family, community, web and social media.  The symposium was held at the Victoria University of Wellington.  The next day Gomes ran a special interest group workshop on social media and social networks to student support staff from various institutions in New Zealand.

From 6-9 October 2015, Catherine Gomes presented to an audience of over 300 delegates at the AIEC Conference in Adelaide on the topic “Responsibility and action: how international students choose their education journey in the digital age”.

On 18 June 2015, CI Catherine Gomes was invited by the Dept of Education and Training to the inaugural roundtable on international education held at Parliament House, Canberra. The roundtable which was convened to gain feedback on and develop strategies for the Draft National Strategy on International Education was attended by federal government ministers, VCs, service providers, the business sector, community groups and organisations representing international students.

From 18-20 May Catherine Gomes spoke about coping with increasing diversity in Australian universities at the yearly APHERP Senior Seminar held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

On 12 November 2015, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes will be convening Transient Migration in the Asia-Pacific; Identities, Social Networks and Media, a symposium that brings together scholars and stakeholders working in the area of transient migration.

From 9-11 November 2015, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes will be co-convening a conference titled Race, Mobility and Imperial Networks: Charting the Transnational Asia-Pacific World, 1800-2015 with La Trobe University colleagues A/Prof. Tracey Banivarnua-Mar, Nadia Rhook and Andonis Piperoglou.

In February 2015, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes was invited to be a panelist as a conference on Religion, Security and Citizenship at the Singapore Management University. While in Singapore she was invited to present at a seminar where she discussed  Christianity as a culture of mobility among Asian transient migrants in Singapore.

2014

In December 2014, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes will present a paper at the jointly organised 25th ISANA International Education Association and 19th Australia and New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA) conference. The theme is Working with synergies: Benefiting the diversity of students and Catherine’s paper is entitled ‘Living in an Exclusive Multinational Society: International Students in Australia and their Social Networks’.

From April 2014, 20 of the original respondents who came for the initial face-to-face interviews in Singapore were asked to keep a journal of their media and communication use for a period of 2 weeks. They were then interviewed about their experience by team member Amber Yew.

In February 2014, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes conducted the Singapore leg interviews. While in Singapore, team members Amber Yew and George Mouratidis helped Catherine interview over 100 respondents. Transient migrants in Singapore are known as ‘foreign talent’ and primarily include working professionals and international students. The team asked respondents about their self-perceived identities, friendship circles and media and communication use.

While in Singapore doing fieldwork, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wee Kim Wee Centre in the Singapore Management University. While there, Catherine was an invited speaker at a couple of events. Catherine was a speaker and a panel member at the Women in Community: Power of the M.I.N.D. conference held between 27 February to 1 March 2014. Catherine spoke about the aspirations for transience of female international students in Australia in a paper entitled ‘The World is My Oyster: (Female) International Students in Australia and their Aspirations for Global Mobility’.

2013

In December 2013, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes presented a paper at the 24th ISANA International Education Association Conference held in Brisbane. The theme was internationalising the curriculum and Catherine presented a paper entitled ‘Multiple Identities: Mapping International Student Identities Through Their Social Networks and Media Consumption’.

In November 2013, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes presented a paper at the Multiculturalism and Asia International Workshop organised by the Monash Asia Institute. The title of her paper was ‘Parallel multiculturalism: Asian international students in Australia’.

In the later part of 2013, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes launched an Australian-wide online survey that asked respondents about their self-perceived identities, friendship circles and media and communication use. Gomes also embarked on the second phase of the Melbourne fieldwork by asking 20 of the original respondents who came for the initial face-to-face interviews in Melbourne to keep a journal of their media and communication use followed by a final interview on their experiences with the journal.

In March to May 2013, Chief Investigator Catherine Gomes conducted interviews with international students, working holiday makers, 457 visa holders and respondents on bridging and dependents visas in Melbourne. Catherine interviewed 100 people during the Australian round of the face-to-face interviews. Respondents were asked to comment on their self-perceived identities, friendship circles and media and communication use. The interviews were rich and the data helped Catherine develop questions for an online survey that would be launched later in the year. Team member Basil Alzougool was hard at work at recruitment and organising the schedule for interviews.