The ASAA is pleased to announce the winner and honourable mentions of the John Legge thesis prize for 2022:
Winner: Lukas Fort, University of Western Australia, ‘Making Indonesia clean from waste: The role of culture in the development of new waste management services in Sumbawa, Indonesia’
This eminently readable thesis offers fascinating and nuanced ethnographic insights into the intersection of gender, class and culture in relation to waste management and the circular economy. Fort’s innovative methodological approach was enhanced by a respectful, ethical sensibility and the policy assemblage analysis makes an important theoretical and empirical contribution to understanding an urgent global issue through local and national lenses.
Honourable mention: Sarah Gosper, University of Melbourne, ‘Modest Expectations: Masculinity, Marriage, and the Good Life in Urban China’
Gosper presents a beautifully written and highly engaging thesis. Her command of Mandarin and her ability to develop rapport with participants resulted in the collection of rich data about single men in China and their negotiation of urban-rural migration and the imperative of marriage. The complex contemporary issues and conditions examined were vividly articulated and effectively historicised.
Honourable mention: Felix Pal, ANU, ‘Weaponised Pluralism: Why Hindu Nationalists Need Muslim Friends’
Pal presents us with one of the most compelling questions: why do bigots act like pluralists. Pal’s thesis demonstrates high-level scholarship and makes an impressive theoretical contribution to the conceptualisation of weaponised pluralism in the context of India and potentially other contexts.
The ASAA would like to thank the shortlisting committee of Nick Cheesman (ANU), Sharyn Davies (Monash) and Rebecca Cairns (Deakin), and the final committee of Sharyn Davies (Monash) and Rebecca Cairns (Deakin) and Li Narangoa (ANU).
