Anthropology : School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry : The University of Melbourne

Dr Emma Kowal

MBBS (Melb) BA (Hons) (Melb) Grad. Cert. ATSI Studies (NTU) PhD (Melb)

T: 8344 5096

F: 8344 4280

Research interests

I am a postdoctoral research fellow supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Training Fellowship. I am a cultural anthropologist and I have previously worked as a doctor and public health researcher in Indigenous health settings. My previous work in Indigenous health research has included projects on mental health/social and emotional wellbeing, Indigenous community health initiatives and child health.

My current areas of interest include:

Australian racial politics, especially Indigeneity and Whiteness
settler-colonialism and postcolonialism
technoscience, especially the new genetics
all aspects of Indigenous health
bioethics, biopolitics, and public health
the anthropology of development

I have two main research projects:

Modes of Indigenous governance in the Australian postcolony

This project draws on my ethnographic research with white, middle-class, left-wing professionals who work in Indigenous health. I produced an analysis of Indigenous governance in the self-determination era, which I term ‘postcolonial logic’. Broadly, I argue that the twin desires of equality and difference – to make Indigenous people statistically the same as non-Indigenous people (to ‘close the gap’) but maintain an essential cultural difference – work in productive tension within the Australian project of postcolonial justice and within other settler-states. I aim to provide a historical, cultural and psychoanalytic understanding of these desires and their effects. A book manuscript based on this work is in preparation, entitled ‘Caught in the Gap: The Cultural Politics of White Anti-racism’.

Indigenous DNA : the science and politics of biological difference

My second research project takes my interest in racial politics and health in a new direction. There is a huge international debate over whether advances in genomics and population genetics constitute a ‘re-biologisation’ of race, and whether this matters. This project contributes an Australian perspective through an ethnography of genetic researchers who work in Indigenous communities across Australia. I am also interested in how genomics is changing the way we experience difference and relatedness. Among other things, I examine how genetic epidemiologists use ethnoracial classifications in the field and the lab, and how Indigenous people mobilise discourses of genetics to support or to trouble concepts of Indigeneity and kinship.

Together with Dr Yin Paradies, I teach a professional development course entitled "Race, Culture, Indigeneity and the Politics of Public Health" (see the link to Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit) aimed at exposing Indigenous health professionals to theoretical concepts from the social sciences that can help them negotiate the complex issues they face in their work.

I am interested in supervising projects relating to any of my research interests, as well as other projects in medical and cultural anthropology. Interdisciplinary projects are welcome.

Recent Publications - peer-reviewed

Kowal, E. (2009) Patterns of mortality in Indigenous adults in the Northern Territory, 1998–2003: are people living in remote areas worse off? (letter) Medical Journal of Australia
Kowal, E., (2009) Of Trangression, Purification and Indigenous Studies. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 10 (3):231-238.
Kowal, E., (2009) Review Essay: Race and the Crisis of Humanism – By Kay Anderson; The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health and Racial Destiny in Australia – By Warwick Anderson. Geographical Research 47 (2):214-217.
Kowal, E. (2009) Waiting for the baby. In Hage, G. ed. Waiting. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, pp210-218.
Kowal, E., (2008) The politics of the gap: Indigenous Australians, liberal multiculturalism and the end of the self-determination era. American Anthropologist 110 (3): 338-348.
Kowal, E., Gunthorpe, W., Bailie, R., (2007) Measuring Emotional and Social Wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations: An analysis of a Negative Life Events Scale. International Journal of Equity in Health 6:18
Lea, T., Kowal, E. and Cowlishaw, G. eds. (2006) Moving Anthropology: Critical Indigenous Studies. Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, pp1-244.
Kowal, E., (2006) Moving towards the mean: Dilemmas of assimilation and improvement. In Lea, T., Kowal, E. and Cowlishaw, G., eds. Moving Anthropology: Critical Indigenous Studies. Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, pp65-78.
Cowlishaw, G. Kowal, E. and Lea, T. (2006) Introduction: Double Binds. In Lea, T., Kowal, E. and Cowlishaw, G., eds. Moving Anthropology: Critical Indigenous Studies. Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, pp1-16.
Kowal, E., (2006) Mutual Obligation and Indigenous Health: Thinking through incentives and obligations. Medical Journal of Australia 184(6): 292-3.
Kowal E., Paradies, Y.(2005) Ambivalent helpers and unhealthy choices: Public health practitioners’ narratives of Indigenous ill-health. Social Science & Medicine 60:1347 - 1357.
Kowal, E., Anderson, I. and Bailie, R. (2005)Moving Beyond Good Intentions: Indigenous Participation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 29(5):468-470.
Kowal, E., Donohoe, P., Lonergan, K., Ulamari, H., Bailie, R. (2005) Dust, Distance and Discussion: Fieldwork Experiences from the Housing Improvement and Child Health Study. Environmental Health 5(3):46-59.

Recent publications - other

Kowal, E., (2009) Welcome to Country: Nine Meanings in Search of an Anthropologist. The Australian Anthropological Society Newsletter (114) 10-12.
Kowal, E., (2008) Morally Vain or Just Nice? A Counter-critique of Pearson's "Liberal Left". The Australian Anthropological Society Newsletter (109) 9-10.
Kowal, E., (2008) Cultivating Development: an ethnography of aid policy and practice. (book review) The Australian Journal of Anthropology 19(1) 114-6.
Kowal, E., (2007) Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment. (book review) Oceania 77(3): 374-5.
Kowal, E. (2006) Sex in Development: Science, Sexuality and Morality in Global Perspective. (book review) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 30(1):94.
Kowal, E. (2006) Aboriginal Suicide is Different, 2nd ed. (book review). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 30(4):393-394.
Kowal, E., (2006) The Proximate Advocate: Improving Indigenous Health on the Postcolonial Frontier. PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne. Available at http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/1625
Kowal, E. (2005) Contesting Assimilation (book review). API Review of Books 38.

Recent conference presentations

Kowal, E. (2009) "Is culture good for your health?" Australian Anthropological Society Annual Conference, December 9th-11th, Macquarie University, Sydney.
Kowal, E. (2009) "Decolonized Nation: Indigenous Australians and White Anti-racist Desires." American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, December 2nd-6th, Philadelphia, USA.
Kowal, E. and Rouhani, L. (2009) Reading ‘native’ DNA: Indigenous Australians and genetics in the media." Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society Network Conference, November 23rd-25th, Griffith University, Brisbane.
Kowal, E. (2008) "The stigma of privilege: White antiracism in the Australian postcolony". Identities conference, University of Melbourne, November 28th, Melbourne, p22.
Kowal, E. (2007) "The Anthropology of Equality: White Anti-racism, Australian Multiculturalism and Indigenous health." American Anthropological Association Annual Conference Abstracts, Washington, D.C.
Kowal, E. (2007) "Benevolent Anthropologies: The hazards of critiquing liberalism." Australian Anthropological Association Annual Conference Abstracts. Australian National University, Canberra, p64.
Kowal, E. (2007) "The meaning of ‘Making a difference’: an ethnography of white antiracism." Indigenous Workshop Abstracts. Australian National University, Canberra, p95.
Kowal, E., Pearson, G., Peacock, C., Jamieson, S., Blackwell, J., Hayward, C. (2007) "Genetic research in Indigenous communities: international experience and local contexts". Program and Abstracts for the National Health and Medical Research Council Ethics Conference. Albert, Park, Melbourne, p27.
Kowal, E. (2007) "The proximate advocate: white anti-racism & indigenous ill-health on the postcolonial frontier". Program and Abstracts for The Australian Sociological Association Health Social Sciences Conference. Latrobe University, Beechworth, p11.
Kowal, E. (2005) "The Proximate Advocate: White Identities on the Postcolonial Frontier". Program and Abstracts for the Whiteness and the Horizons of Race Conference. Australia Studies Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, pp29-30.
Kowal, E. (2004) "Becoming a Postcoloniser: Emerging Identities in Northern Australia". Presentation to the Dialogues Across Cultures Conference, Monash University, 12th November 2004, Melbourne.
Kowal. E. (2004) "Community Control in Health Research: Good Ethics? Good Politics? Good Science". 7th World Congress of Bioethics Book of Abstracts. University of New South Wales, Sydney, pp115-6.
Kowal, E. (2004) "Moving towards the mean: Dilemmas of assimilation and improvement". Moving Anthropology: Motion, Emotion and Knowledge. Australian Anthropological Society Annual Conference, School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, p35.
Kowal, E. (2004) "Creating Authentic Spaces for Self-Determination: Some Micropolitics of Australian Indigenous Health". Presentation to the Society for Cultural Anthropology Biennial meeting, May 1st, 2004, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Kowal, E. (2004) "The Work of 'Culture' in Narratives of Indigenous Ill-health in Australia. "Social Science and Advocacy: The Society for Applied Anthropology 64th Annual Meeting, Dallas, Texas." Society for Medical Anthropology and Society for Applied Anthropology, Oklahoma City, p104.

Current Supervision

Botshelo Monageng, Centre for Health and Society, Advanced Medical Science thesis. “Prayer in the Medical System.” Completed June 2008.

Rosie Downing, Centre for Health and Society, Masters of Social Health thesis. “Cultural Awareness put into Nursing Practice.” Completed June 2009.

Carolyne Njihia, Centre for Health and Society, Masters of Social Health thesis. “‘Bad’ Beauty Work: Cosmetic Skin-bleaching, Blackness and the Embodiment of Structural Violence.” Completed June 2009.

Heather Anderson, PASI, Honours in Anthropology. “Understanding Utopia: an anthropological exploration of social determinants affecting Indigenous health in a remote Australian community.” Due for completion November 2009.

Gemma Baker, PASI, Honours in Anthropology. “A qualitative exploration of perinatal mental health services from the rural perspective.”Due for completion November 2009.

Hayley Franklin, Honours in Development Studies. “Reducing Racism Through Diversity Education: A Case Study in Indigenous Health.”Due for completion June 2010.