Staff profile

Dr Wendy Mee

Lecturer, Undergraduate Program Convenor – International Development

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

MB 473, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD (La Trobe).

Membership of professional Associations

Anthropological Association of Australia. Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

Area of study

Asian Studies
International Development
Sociology

Brief Profile

I’ve conducted research in a number of countries (Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and the Marshall Islands) and across a number of disciplines (Sociology, Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies and International Development). My current research interests relate to my fieldwork in Indonesia on translocal Malay identity processes. Here I consider multiple and competing forms of citizenship and sovereignty in the context of border zones and transnational crossings. I have also become increasingly interested in understanding contemporary Islamic social movements in Indonesia in relation to Muslims’ translocalism and transnationalism. My teaching reflects various aspects of my research experience. I teach two Sociology subjects, ‘Social Movements’ and ‘The Sociology of Religion and Spirituality’, as well as a second year subject, ‘Gender and Development’, in the Bachelor of International Development. In my teaching, I favour a comparative approach drawing on examples from both the West and the Global South. I find this approach provides a robust perspective from which to evaluate social scientific concepts and theories, such as modernity, agency, post-secularity, globalisation and social change.  

Research interests

Asian Cultural Studies

- Society and culture in Malaysia and Indonesia

International Aid and Development

- Development studies

Social Studies in Science and Technology

- Science and technology studies in Australia

Teaching Units

  • SOC1AAB - Australia and Beyond: introduction to sociology.
  • DST2GAD - Gender and Development.
  • SOC2/3SMT - Social Movements.
  • SOC2/3SRS - Sociology of Religion and Spirituality.

Recent Publications

  • Mee, W and J.S. Kahn, Eds. 2012, Questioning Modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia, Singapore: National University of Singapore Press in association with Kyoto University Press, Japan. 
  • Mee, W 2012, ‘The Ebb and Flow of Popular Islamic Music Forms: Zikir Maulud amongst Sambas Malays’, Asian Journal of Social Science, 40 (2012): 203–233
  • Mee, W 2011, ‘Translocal women: between the local and the global’. Refereed conference paper presented at TASA Conference, Newcastle, 29th November – 1st December.
  • Mee, W 2010, ‘A Traffic in Songket: Malay Translocal Identities in Sambas’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 41(02): pp 321-339.
  • Katz, E, Solomon, F, Mee, W and Lovel, R 2009, ‘Evolving Scientific Research Governance in Australia: A case study of engaging interested publics in nanotechnology research’, in Public Understandings of Science, 18(5): 531-545.
  • Macintyre, M, Mee, W, and Solomon, F 2008, 'Evaluating Social Performance in the Context of an "Audit Culture": A pilot review of a gold mine in Papua New Guinea', Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 15(2): pp 100-110.
  • Mee, W 2008, ‘Translocal Malay Identities amongst the Malays of West Kalimantan’. Conference paper presented at EASA Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 2008.
  • Mee, W 2008, ‘Malay Identity Formation in West Kalimantan’. Dialogue Seminar presented at STAINS Pontianak, 27th June 2008.
  • Mee, W 2007, 'In Defence of Civility: Conceptualising social relations of peace in Indonesia', Suomen Antropologi (Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society), 32(3): 25-38.
  • Mee, W, Katz, E, Alem, L and Kravis, S 2007, ‘Sociotechnical Challenges in the Design of a Knowledge Portal’, in Journal of Information, Communication and Society 10 (1): 5-28.
  • Mee, W 2007, ‘Peace Camp: Notes from the field’. Conference paper presented at the EuroSEAS Conference, Naples, September, 2007.
  • Lateef, S. and Mee, W., 2006, Working with Women’s Nongovernment Organizations, Manila: Asian Development Bank.
  • Mee, W 2006, 'Kuala Lumpur: A muddy junction', in Peter Beilharz and Trevor Hogan Eds. Introducing Sociology: Place Time and Division, Oxford University Press.
  • Mee, W 2005, ‘Women, Gender and Science and Nation-Building: In Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific’, Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Volume 3 Science and Nation, Brill Publishers.

Research projects

Secularities and Post-Secularities: In conversation with the writings of Saba Mahmood, Sherine Hafez, and others, this research considers how Muslim women ‘activists’ (broadly defined) situate themselves in relation to the different secular institutions and post-secular orientations in Indonesia and Australia.

2007-2009 Translocal Identities in the Malay World: Travel, Commerce, Community Building and Religious Reform in Insular and Peninsular Southeast Asia. ARC Discovery Project