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Associate Professor

David Hundt

Associate Professor of International Relations

Faculty of Arts and Education/School of Humanities and Social Sciences/Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation

Orcid identifier0000-0003-2019-1927
  • Associate Professor of International Relations
    Faculty of Arts and Education/School of Humanities and Social Sciences/Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation
  • +61 3 924 46761 (Work)
  • Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I have a strong track-record of leading and sustaining research collaborations for projects that pursue the Australian national interest and Deakin’s strategic plan. Since 2018 I have brought more than $100,000 in competitive research funding to Deakin. These projects demonstrate my research leadership and the breadth and depth of my national and international networks with scholars, civil society, government, and public officials.

Witnesses to Peace: Australian service personnel’s recollections of Korea and Koreans, 1953–2023 (2023–2024; funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs; $32,000)
The project: This oral history project provides a new understanding of the service of Australian military personnel in Korea during and since the war of the early 1950s by focusing on how that service has contributed to the development of Australia’s relationship with South Korea. Unlike most studies of Australia in the Korean War, which focus on its contributions to specific battles and tactical innovations within them, this project foregrounds the multi-decadal contribution of service personal to building peace and thereby creating the conditions for the prosperity and democracy that has flowered in South Korea in recent decades, as well as the emergence of a multi-faceted relationship with Australia. The project will result in a book, an online memorial, the creation of audio-visual and written materials that can be used in secondary schools (in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs), and a proposed exhibit in the Korean War Memorial in Seoul in 2025.

Koreans in Australia and New Zealand: The Rise of a New Generation (2016–2019; funded by Academy of Korean Studies; $500,000, including $94,000 to Deakin)
This was the first time the AKS, the major Korean funding body for the humanities and social sciences, has ever given funding to non-Korean scholars. I was the key Australian partner in this three-country project which focused on the lives of South Korean migrants in Australia and New Zealand. Through a monograph (South Koreans and the Politics of Immigration in Contemporary Australia, Routledge, 2023) and several journal articles (including one in Journal of Contemporary Asia), I explored how migrants have strived to secure citizenship rights in Australia and South Korea. In 2018, an AKS assessment panel adjudged my research about Koreans in Australia to be of ‘A’-ranked quality, which was the only ‘A’ awarded to a project partner. This project led to my appointment at the University of Bamberg (Germany) as a ‘Bridges Network’ Visiting Professor in 2019.

China and Human Rights in North Korea (2019–2020, funded by the Korea Foundation; $29,000)
I was a leader of this Deakin-based project which explored how China’s ‘opening up’ could inform North Korea’s position on human rights. I developed the project’s design, conceptual framework, and methods. I selected participants from Australia and overseas for a workshop and was an author of four of the chapters in a book from the project. The impact of my contribution has been recognised by leading scholars of human rights and international relations in East Asia, such as Prof. Andrew Yeo (Catholic University of America and Brookings Institute), who said the book offers a ‘fresh, thought-provoking perspective on human rights’, and Prof. Jaechun Kim (Sogang University, Korea), who claimed the volume’s ‘in-depth analysis on the viability of developmental approach’ was ‘compelling’.

South Korean and Australian Responses to China’s New Statecraft in an Age of Great Power Rivalry (2022-2023, funded by the Korea Foundation; $35,000).
For this project, I devised a novel framework for analysing the interaction between the external and internal aspects of trade disputes, and how smaller states can mitigate the effects of coercion. I interviewed policymakers, business leaders, and academics in both countries, and organised a workshop in Melbourne. The impact of the project has been evident in engagement with government (via input to an expert survey run by South Korea’s Asan Institute on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), invitations to write op-eds for East Asia Forum (Australia) and the Sejong Institute (South Korea), interviews with international media outlets (e.g., the South China Morning Post), inclusion in a Monash-led ARC Discovery Project application (2024/25), and appointment as a Keynote Speaker for a conference held at Victoria University of Wellington (2024).

Australia in World Affairs, 2016–2020 (2018–2023; supported by the Australian Institute of International Affairs)
As a leader of this project (with Baogang He and Danielle Chubb, Deakin), I selected and built a team of contributors from among the leading International Relations scholars in Australia and overseas to produce the definitive account of Australia’s relations with the world in the five years from 2016 to 2020. I arranged and chaired a workshop and review process through which the chapters of the volume were discussed and improved, liaised with the Australian Institute for International Affairs. I made established a common blueprint for each chapter, edited one of the volume’s three sections, and co-authored two of its chapters. I also took primary responsibility for communicating with authors, the Institute, and the publisher, when the project encountered inevitable hurdles caused by the COVID pandemic. As a result of my work and that of my colleagues, Deakin’s reputation for expertise in Asia-focused international relations was firmly established.

GRANTS

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GRANT
Witnesses to war and peace: Australian recollections of Korea and Koreans, 1953-2023
Department of Veterans Affairs18 Oct 2023 - 17 Oct 2024
People funded by this grant: Hundt D, Lowe D
Department of Veterans' Affairs - Veteran and Community Grants Program - QB4HNBMZ - $32,321.00
GRANT
South Korean and Australian Responses to Chinas New Statecraft in an Age of Great-Power Rivalry
Korea Foundation1 Jul 2022 - 30 Jun 2023
People funded by this grant: Hundt D, He B
Korea Foundation - $34,664.00
GRANT
China and Human Rights in North Korea: Part of the Problem or a Partial Solution?
Korea Foundation29 Apr 2019 - 31 Aug 2020
People funded by this grant: He B, Pan C, Hundt D, Chubb D
Korea Foundation - $20,000.00
GRANT
A Study of Koreans in Australia and New Zealand: The Rise of a New Generation and the (Post-)Communal Lives of Today and Tomorrow
The Academy of Korean Studies1 Jun 2016 - 31 May 2019
People funded by this grant: Hundt D, Walton J
The Academy of Korean Studies - $88,352.17