Staff profile

Dr Helen Lee

Associate Professor, Sociology/Anthropology Program Coordinator

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

MB 479, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD (ANU).

Membership of professional Associations

The American Anthropological Association, Tonga Research Association, and a Fellow of both the Australian Anthropological Society and the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Currently President-Elect of the Australian Anthropological Society

Area of study

Anthropology

Brief Profile

My research has focused on the people of Tonga in the South Pacific and Tongans who have migrated and settled in countries such as Australia. The main focus of my research has been the question of cultural identity, especially the ways in which identity is formed by children and young people. I have also studied family relationships both in Tonga and in the Tongan populations overseas, and the networks of ties between those overseas Tongans and the ‘homeland’ in the Pacific. I teach an introductory anthropology subject to first year students, and subjects on Kinship, Gender and Marriage, and Childhood, Youth and Culture, to later year students. I am actively involved in several professional associations, particularly the Tonga Research Association, of which I was Vice-President 2007-9 and the Australian Anthropological Society, of which I am currently President-Elect. Also, I established and continue to maintain an online bibliography of Tonga.

Research interests

Migration

- Migration, ethnicity, transnationalism

Social and Cultural Anthropology

- Childhood and Youth

- Psychological anthropology

- Tonga, the South Pacific

Social Studies in Science and Technology

- Cyberspace

Teaching Units

  • ANT1FET – Our Global Village: Introduction to Anthropology.
  • ANT2/3CAC – Childhood, Youth and Culture.
  • ANT2/3KAM – Kinship, Gender and Marriage.

Recent Publications

Books

Journal Articles (since 2000)

  • Lee, H. (2011) ‘Rethinking transnationalism through the second generation’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 22 (3).
  • Siokou, C., D. Moore and H. Lee (2010) ‘“Muzzas” and “Old Skool Ravers”: Ethnicity, drugs and the changing face of Melbourne’s dance party/club scene’, Health Sociology Review, 19(2): 192-204.
  • Lee, H. (2007) 'Transforming transnationalism: second generation Tongans overseas’, Asia Pacific Migration Journal, Vol.16, No.2: 157-178 (pdf - 59 KB).
  • Lee, H. (2004) '"Second generation" Tongan transnationalism: hope for the future?' Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 45(2): 235-254 (pdf - 166 KB).
  • Morton, H. (2001) '"I" is for Identity: What’s in a Name?' Special Issue of Social Analysis, 45(1): 67-80.
  • Morton, H. (2001) 'Introduction: Computer-Mediated Communication and Australian Anthropology and Sociology'. Special Issue of Social Analysis, 45(1): 3-11. [Special Issue edited by H. Morton]

Book Chapters (since 2000)

  • Lee, H. (2012, forthcoming) ‘Pacific Islands’ in P. Beilharz and T. Hogan, eds. Sociology:  Antipodean approaches, second edition, pp.122-126. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  • Lee, H. (2011) ‘Missing persons: children in the history of Tonga’ in T. Steen and N. Drecher (eds) Tonga: Land, sea and People, pp.54-67. Nuku’alofa: Vava’u Press.
  • Lee, H. (2009) 'Pacific Migration and Transnationalism: Historical Perspectives', in H. Lee and S.T. Francis (eds) Migration and Transnationalism: Pacific Perspectives, ANU E Press, Canberra, pp.7-41.
  • Lee, H. (2009) ‘The Ambivalence of Return: Second Generation Tongan Returnees’, in D. Conway and R. Potter (eds) Return of Migration of the the Next Generations’: transitional mobility in the twenty-first century, Aldershot: Ashgate, Surrey, pp.41-58.
  • Lee, H. (2009) 'Introduction', in H. Lee and S.T. Francis (eds) Migration and Transnationalism: Pacific Perspectives, ANU E Press, Canberra, pp.1-6.
  • Lee, H. (2008) 'Second Generation Transnationalism', in H. Lee (ed.) Ties to the Homeland: Second Generation Transnationalism, UK, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.1-32.
  • Lee, H. (2007) 'Generational Change: the children of Tongan migrants and their ties to the homeland', in E. Wood-Ellem (ed.) Tonga and the Tongans: Heritage and identity, Tonga Research Association, Melbourne, pp.203-217.
  • Lee, H. (2006) ‘“Tonga only wants our money”: the children of Tongan migrants’ in S. Firth (ed.) Globalisation, governance and the Pacific Islands, forthcoming with Pandanus Press.
  • Lee, H.(2006) ‘Pacific Islands’, in 'P. Beilharz and T. Hogan (eds) Sociology: place, time and division, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp.122-126.
  • Lee, H. (2006) 'Debating language and identity online: Tongans on the net', in K. Landzelius (ed.) Native on the net: indigenous and diasporic peoples in the virtual age, Routledge, London, pp.257-281.
  • Lee, H. (2004) 'All Tongans are connected: Tongan transnationalism', in V. Lockwood (ed.) Globalization and culture change in the Pacific Islands, Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 133-148.
  • Morton, H. (2002) 'From ma'uli to motivator: transformations in reproductive health care in Tonga', in Vicki Lukere & Margaret Jolly (eds) Birthing in the Pacific: Beyond tradition and Modernity?, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, Hawai), 31-55.
  • Morton, H. (2002) 'Creating their Own Culture: Diasporic Tongans', in P. Spickard, J. Rondilla and D. Hippolite Wright (eds) Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and across the Pacific, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 135-149. [Reprinted from The Contemporary Pacific 10(1):1-30, 1998]
  • Morton, H. (2001) 'Remembering freedom and the freedom to remember: Tongan independence', in Jeannette Mageo (ed.) Cultural Memory: Reconfiguring History and Identity in the Postcolonial Pacific, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 37-57.
  • Grimshaw, P. and H. Morton (2000) 'Theorizing Maori women’s lives: Paradoxes of the colonial male gaze', in R. Borofsky (ed.) Remembrance of Pacific Past, University of Hawai`i Press, Honolulu, 269-286.

Conferences (since 2000)

  • 2011    60 Years of Anthropology at ANU: Contesting Anthropology’s Futures conference, ANU, September. Paper presented: ‘Second generation transnationalism: challenges to transnational studies’ *Invited paper.
  • 2011    Australian Anthropological Society conference, University of Western Australia, July. Paper presented: ‘Forced transnationalism: sending children “home”’.
  • 2011    Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, February. Paper presented: ‘Forced transnationalism and overseas-born Tongan youth’.
  • 2010    Migration and Mobility Research Network: presentation on my research on second generation transnationalism. *Invited paper
  • 2010    Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies conference, Melbourne. Paper presented: ‘“I don’t think I’d survive there!” Second generation views of Tonga from the diaspora’
  • 2009    Tonga Research Association conference, University of California, Berkeley, December. Paper presented: ‘“It’s a third world country so I wouldn’t want to live there!” Second generation views of Tonga from the diaspora’.
  • 2008    Symposium on Youth Identity and Migration: Culture, Values and Social Connectedness, Deakin University, Burwood, February. Paper presented: ‘The trouble with transnationalism: Tongan youth and the struggle to belong’. *Invited paper
  • 2007    Australian Anthropological Society conference, ANU, Canberra, October. Paper presented: ‘Ambivalent youth: the children of Tongan migrants’.
  • 2007    International Metropolis Conference, Melbourne, October. Paper presented: ‘Second generation Tongan transnationalism’. *Invited paper
  • 2007    Dean’s Lecture Series, Mildura campus. ‘Remittance and resentment: the children of Tongan migrants’. Public lecture, September 16. *Invited paper
  • 2007    Monash University Seminar Series, April. Paper presented: ‘Remittance decay revisited: the children of Tongan migrants’, *Invited paper
  • 2007    Tonga Research Association conference, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, July. Paper presented: ‘Nurturing Tongan researchers’.
  • 2006    Conference on Pacific Transnationalism: Tracing Ties to the Homeland, Institute for Advanced Study, La Trobe University, November. Paper presented: ‘Generational change: the children of Tongan migrants and their ties to the homeland’.
  • 2006    Internet Mediated Sociality Workshop, ASSA funded, ANU, Canberra, November. Paper presented: ‘Trial and error: reflections on a decade of cyber-research’. *Invited paper
  • 2005    Second Generation Migrants Workshop, ASSA funded, University of Queensland, Brisbane, November. Paper presented: ‘Shifting ties? Second generation Tongan transnationalism’. *Invited paper
  • 2005    State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project conference: Globalisation, governance and the Pacific Islands. ANU, Canberra, October. Paper presented: ‘“Tonga only wants our money”: the children of Tongan migrants’. *Invited paper
  • 2005    Tongan History Association conference, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, July. Paper presented: ‘Ties with the homeland: the children of Tongan migrants’.
  • 2005    Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania conference, Kauai, Hawaii, February. Paper presented [in absentia]: ‘Raising a true Tongan: diasporic parents’ attempts to connect their children with the homeland’.
  • 2004    The Australian Sociology Association conference, La Trobe University, Beechworth, December. Paper presented: ‘The other digital divide: young Australians’ interest in cyberspace’.
  • 2004    Australian Anthropological Society conference, University of Melbourne, September. Paper presented: ‘“Second generation” Tongan transnationalism: hope for the future?’.
  • 2004    Conference on Beyond MIRAB: the Political Economy of Small Islands in the 21st Century, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, February. Paper presented: ‘Tongan transnationalism’. *Invited paper
  • 2003    Australian Anthropological Society conference, Sydney, October. Paper presented: ‘Exploring ethnicity in cyberspace’.
  • 2003    Tongan History Association conference, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, July. Paper presented: ‘Transnationalism: Tonga’s hope for the future?’.
  • 2001    Workshop on Indigenous Cyberactivism and Virtual Diasporas, University of Gothenborg, Sweden, June. Paper presented: ‘Debating language and identity online: Tongans on the net’. *Invited paper
  • 2001    Tongan History Association conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, April. * Keynote address: ‘“A two-way life”: Tongan intermarriage’.
  • 2000    Asia-Pacific Women’s Forum, University of Melbourne, February. Paper presented: ‘Gender and cultural identity: Tongan migrants’.

Research projects

  • My current research focuses on the second generation of Tongans living overseas, and their transnational ties with the islands of Tonga.
  • In 2004 was co-investigator in a project looking at the way culture influences the work of Paramedics; my role being primarily as an anthropological advisor to the project.
  • In 2003 my research focused on the ways Australian youth are using computer-mediated forms of communication, such as the Internet, to exploring their ethnic identities.