Youth Mobilities, Aspirations and Pathways
Meet the team...
Chief Investigators
Anita HARRIS
Contact: anita.harris@deakin.edu.au
Anita HARRIS is a Distinguished Professor in Sociology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University. A leading youth sociologist, her research focuses on mobilities, citizenship, and changing forms of participation in a globalised and digital world. She is a former ARC Future Fellow, and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in recognition of her contribution to the field. She has published books on youth belonging, young people’s everyday multiculturalism, and in girls’ studies. Her work brings together critical youth studies and migration scholarship to advance understanding of young people’s lives in contexts of global movement, diversity, and digital transformation.
LORETTA BALDASSAR
Contact: l.baldassar@ecu.edu.au
Loretta BALDASSAR is Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University (ECU) and Professor of Anthropology and Sociology. Loretta leads the ECU Research Program in Migration, Diversity and Care incorporating the Social Ageing (SAGE) Futures Lab, TRACS Diversity Research Network, Rainbow Migrants Living Lab and the Harmony Hub. One of Australia’s leading social scientists, her work is widely acknowledged as foundational to the field of transnational family studies. Loretta’s research focuses on ageing across the life course, including youth mobilities, second generation migrant experiences and identities, intergenerational family and community relations, culture and linguistic diversity, and the role of new technologies in supporting care and wellbeing across generations.
Project Officer
Nadishka WEERASURIYA
Nadishka WEERASURIYA is YFAM's Project Officer and a PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne, where she also works as a sessional academic and research assistant. Her research examines how first-generation migrants negotiate identity and belonging in Australia, with a particular focus on how their multiliteracies and the broader social and political discourses both reflect and shape these negotiations. She has a strong interest in critical theory and dialogic methodologies. A former teacher and school leader, Nadishka also worked on the longitudinal mixed-methods youth research project Life Patterns.
Research Fellow
Chunyuan GAO
Chunyuan GAO is an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University. He obtained his PhD from The Australian National University and has completed advanced training in data analysis with IBM and SAS. His research focuses on poverty, well-being, capabilities, youth, and migration. As a mixed-methods researcher, Chunyuan is proficient in a wide range of research methodologies and analytical tools, with expertise in statistical modelling and data visualisation. His doctoral research combined in-depth qualitative fieldwork with sophisticated quantitative analysis of large-scale survey data. Chunyuan has provided research consultation, technical assistance to a number of prestigious institutions and organisations, and was a core member of the World Bank TCC6 project.
