Research Projects

Migration, gender and sexuality in Southeast Asia (2002 – 2010)
Anne-Marie Hilsdon

There is significant migration within the Asian region especially within Southeast Asia. Although scholarly attention has been given to the feminisation of labour, contemporary studies of the impacts of migration have largely focused on family relationships, neglecting various forms of sexual intimacy that occur as a result of, and also shape and reshape, migration processes. This project builds on the migration and sexuality research commenced in 2002 focusing on the entanglement of sexuality with gender, class, ethnic and national identities. The dynamic relationships between migration and sexuality will be contextualized within sociopolitical and transnational contexts which impact on formation of national identities in both Philippines and Malaysia.

Muslims, Christians, Gender and Conflict in Mindanao, The Philippines (2006 - 2010)
Anne-Marie Hilsdon

This study focuses on the ways in which new religious forms, termed ‘religious nationalisms' impact on the overall sustainability of life within communities in the Philippines and East Malaysia. Women’s lives have been traditionally concerned with sustainability issues such as maintenance of food supplies, marriage, health and family concerns closely associated with their social and religious role. Recently within Islamic societies, religious conservatives have used the upsurge in religious feeling to justify the imposition of strict limits on women’s lives and activities, arguing that this represents authentic Islam. At the same time, Islamic feminists and liberals – women and men - are challenging these restrictive interpretations of Islam which impose limits on women’s responsibilities for social sustainability. Issues of environmental sustainability have also become more visible with environmental degradation, pollution and natural resource depletion imposing limits on human activity. Women and men experience environmental and religious restrictions differently and they are also experienced differently according to class, ethnicity and urban and rural location. The impacts of both religious nationalism and environmental constraints on women’s responsibilities for sustainability are of major concern in this study.

Left: Women's Sari-Sari Cooperative store financed through a joint loan, Mindanao, Philippines July 2006
Right: Gasoline store owner, Mindanao, Philippines July 2006

Researcher with activist, Muslim-Christian Peace Process, Mindanao, Philippines, July 2006

Fisherman mending his net in village walkway, Mindanao, Philippines July 2006.