Dr Bruce Missingham
Anthropologist
I am an anthropologist with interests in the study of development and environmental movements in Thailand and Southeast Asia. I have a long-standing interest in social justice and education for social change, but it was the experience of living, working and studying in rural Thailand that transformed me from a school teacher into a researcher and academic. In 1991 I first travelled to Thailand to spend eighteen months conducting ethnographic research on the role of village schools in community development for my Master of Education from the University of Queensland. For my PhD from the Australian National University I returned to Thailand in 1996 and 1997 to undertake groundbreaking anthropological research with the Assembly of the Poor, the first nation-wide grassroots social movement to emerge in that country.
I first joined Monash University in 2001 as the Project Officer on the Immigrant Communities Project, a research consultancy commissioned by the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (now Department of Primary Industries).
The Immigrant Communities Project researched the involvement of culturally and linguistically diverse communities in horticulture in northern Victoria and evaluated NRE's provision of services to them. The project contributed to improving service provision and extension for sustainable agriculture among immigrant-background farmers through a better knowledge of their experiences of settlement, farming knowledge and practices, and relationships with government agencies.
Since the beginning of 2003 I have been lecturer and student coordinator in the International Development and Environmental Analysis Program. In 2010 I joined the IWC on staff as Lecturer in the Education and Training Team.
Closely linked with my international development research and university teaching, I am pursuing a growing research interest in critical education for development studies, and am currently convening a group of educators for a workshop on innovative approaches to water education.
