Research grants awarded to ACPACS staff include the following:
Anne Brown
ARC Grant
Governance for Peace - A study of Indigenous and International Peacebuilding in East Timor.
This project has been undertaken by Anne Brown (ACPACS, UQ) in conjunction with Rebecca Spence of UNE. Linkage partners are the Brisbane City Council, Caritas and the Brisbane East Timor Association for Development Cooperation.
Through an in-depth study of peacebuilding in Timor Leste, this project aims to contribute to understanding how people rebuild political relationships and order after widespread conflict. The study focuses on indigenous or local efforts to work against violence, however, it also explores the interaction of indigenous with international peacebuilding, and of grassroots with national level state-building. As well as contributing to understanding East Timor and peace-building, the project sets out to support the ongoing development of community linkages between communities in Timor Leste and Australia, including by providing a manual for council initiatives and linkages.
A web version of the manual, prepared by Dr Spence, is available at http://www.comraded.org/timor. The manual has also been translated into Tetum (the major local language of Timor Leste). Sections of key publications will be translated into Tetum and distributed within East Timor to contribute to public discussion within communities there.
While this is primarily a research project, it has important applied dimensions, through its active support of community linking between Australian and East Timorese councils and local bodies, though engagement with international peacebuilding policy-making, and through its efforts to support social dialogue processes within Timor Leste.
The project has benefitted greatly from the work of a number of research associates and assistants, particularly including Fiona Ninnes and Alex Gusmao. Rebecca Spence and Fiona Ninnes have published a variety of articles and reports deriving from the project; Anne Brown and Alex Gusmao will be publishing in English and Tetum later this year.