ProfessorAnita Harris

youth identities and cultures; citizenship, participation and new politics;
mobilities, migration and multiculturalism; girls' studies

Knowledge Areas
My areas of expertise are:

youth studies, including youth identities and cultures; citizenship,
participation and new politics; globalisation, mobility and multiculturalism.

girls' studies, including sociological and cultural studies of girlhood; young
women and feminism; mediated femininities.

Projects
I facilitate a major research program as the Deakin leader of the 'Youth, Diversity and Wellbeing in a Digital Age' research and program stream of the
Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (https://www.crisconsortium.org/youth-diversity-wellbeing#projects). I am also currently undertaking several large research projects:
* 'Youth Futures After Mobility' and 'The Effects of Transnational Mobility on Youth Transitions' (2 ARC Discovery Projects, CIs Harris, Baldassar, Robertson). Young people increasingly migrate abroad for work and education, and Australia is a significant hub for sending and receiving. Migration and education policies encourage this mobility, which is expected to provide youth with enhanced life chances and competitive skills. However, very little research examines its effects on young people's transitions. This longitudinal project thus investigates how transnational mobility affects young people's ability to not only achieve desirable qualifications and livelihoods, but to be connected and engaged in their social and civic worlds as these become more dispersed spatially and less predictable temporally.[https://www.ymapproject.org/](http://www.deakin.edu.au/adi/our-research/projects/the-effects-of-transnational-mobility-on-youth-transitions)
* 'Youth Global Digital Citizenship' (ARC Discovery Project; CIs Johns, Walton, Caluya, Harris). This project aims to understand how young Australians think about and express their digital citizenship in secondary school classes and in their everyday digital and social media use. We investigate relationships between young people's 'everyday' use of digital and social media and civic engagement, political activism, and anti-racist action that can provide a sense of belonging, global community and connectedness. (https://youthdigitalcitizenship.com/)
* 'Understanding Digital Participation Amongst Young People of Migrant and Refugee Backgrounds' (VicHealth Impact grant; CIs Harris, Lam, Third, Collin, Idriss). This project investigates what helps and hinders young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds to participate in the digital world, focusing on work, study, connection and wellbeing. (https://www.crisconsortium.org/refugee-migrant-digital-participation)

Former projects include:
* 'Young People and Social Inclusion in the Multicultural City' (ARC Future Fellowship). This project explored young people's negotiation of social cohesion and civic belonging in multicultural societies. It investigated the function of civic space and youth cultures in young people's practices of social inclusion and exclusion and established how young people of diverse backgrounds create and contest productive intercultural relations. .http://www.deakin.edu.au/adi/our-research/projects/young-people-and-social-inclusion-in-the-multicultural-city
* 'The Civic Life of Young Australian Muslims: Active Citizenship, Community Belonging and Social Inclusion' (ARC Discovery Project). This project investigated established and emergent forms of civic engagement amongst young Australian Muslims of migrant background. It ascertained the extent of their use of formal, informal, subcultural and everyday strategies for participation in civic life and belonging in community. http://http://www.deakin.edu.au/adi/our-research/projects/the-civic-life-of-young-australian-muslims-active-citizenship-community-belonging-and-social-inclusion