Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Dusted With Poo And Grants

IT IS A GOOD thing for the University of Western Australia’s Farida Fozdar that custodians of the public purse do not fly Australian flags from their cars on Australia Day, the coded signal her innovative statistical analysis has deciphered as proof that there is a racist behind the wheel. To Fozdar, who prefers to think of herself not as a simple Australian – and she is very, very simple, mind you – but as a much-hyphenated “Indian-American-Bruneian Baha’i in ‘multicultural’ Australia”, our wide, brown cesspit of prejudice and intolerance has been rather generous.

Extraordinarily generous, actually, given that one of her academic interests is “Sperm milkshakes with poo sprinkles”.

This and other scholarly pursuits recently scored her ARC funding of some $700,000 over five years (see the second entry in the list below). It is a significant sum, but only when plucked in isolation from the overflowing bag of all her other funded projects. Just so readers will appreciate the breadth of Fozdar’s interests, here is the fully tally of her haul since 2003:

Research Grants

Project Title – Effectiveness of a Whole-School Approach to Creating Supportive Environments that Remove Barriers to Learning for Refugee Youth
Researchers – Fraser, Barry, Fozdar, Farida, Aldridge, Jill
Scheme Name – ARC Linkage
1-Jul-2011 - 30-Dec-2016
$200,150

Project Title – Refugees, Housing and Social Inclusion in Australia
Researchers – Flatau, Paul, Fozdar, Farida, Pedersen, Anne, Colic-Peisker, Val
Scheme Name – AHURI Research Funding
1-Mar-2011 - 30-Sept-2014
$192,322 (pending)

Project Title – Australian, Transnational and Postnational Identities: affective aspects of social inclusion
Researchers – Fozdar, Farida
Scheme Name – ARC Future Fellowship
2011 – 2015
$690,000

Project Title – Evaluation Steppers Employment for Disadvantaged Refugees program
Researchers – Fozdar, Farida
Scheme Name – Evaluation, ASeTTS
1-Jan-2011 - 30-June-2012
$13,000

Project Title – Refugees in Western Australia: Settlement and Integration- Post Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Services
Researchers – Fozdar, Farida and O’Hara, Michael
Scheme Name – LotteryWest
1-January-2011 - 31-December-2011
$141,000

Project Title – Intergenerational Social Interaction
Researchers – Fozdar, Farida
Scheme Name – Research Capacity Funding, Murdoch
1-Jan-2010 - 31-Dec-2010
$10,000

Project Title – Research Support Grant (SSH)
Researchers – Fozdar, Farida
Scheme Name – ibid, Murdoch.
1-Jan-2010 - 1-Dec-2010
$5,000

Project Title – Fostering the development of intercultural confidence as an integral part of university education
Researchers –Volet, Simone and Fozdar, Farida
Scheme Name – ARC Discovery
1-Jan-2009 - 31-December-2011
$140,000 (plus $45,000 Murdoch support grant)

Project Title – Evaluating 4 Refugee Inclusion programs
Researchers – Fozdar, Farida
Scheme Name – ASeTTS tender
1-Dec-2008 - 31-May-2009
$13,000

Project Title – The retreat from multiculturalism
Researchers –Tilbury, Farida
Scheme Name – Research Excellence Grant (REGs)
1-Jan-2007 - 31-December-2007
$12 384.

Project Title – Settling in Australia: The Social Inclusion of Refugees (workshop proceedings publication)
Researchers –Tilbury, Farida and Colic-Peisker, Val
Scheme Name – OMI Community Grants Sponsorship Program
1-June-2007- 31-December-2007
$2,000

Project Title – Innovative Career Development Project: Career Guidance for Young Refugee People
Researchers –Tilbury, Farida, Gallegos, Danielle
Scheme Name – South Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre
1-June-2006 - 31-December-2006
$19,000

Project Title – New Migrant and Refugee understandings of citizenship and multiculturalism
Researchers –Tilbury, Farida,
Scheme Name – Research Excellence Grant (REGs)
1-Jan-2006 - 31-December-2006
$15,000.

Project Title – Managing Work and Motherhood: perinatal mental health implications
Researchers – Gallegos, Danielle, Harris, Patricia, Abernethie, Loraine, Tilbury, Farida,
Scheme Name – State Perinatal Mental Health Strategy
1-Feb-2006 – Feb-2007
$15,000.

Project Title – Pathways to Apprenticeships and Training for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
Researchers – Walker, Iain, Tilbury, Farida, Tungaraza, Casta, Volet, Simone and Hansen, Susan.
Scheme Name – Department of Education and Training tender
1-July-2005- 30-September-2005
$89,183.

Project Title - Refugees and Employment: Exploring the Effects of Visible Difference on Discrimination
ResearchersColic-Peisker, Val, Tilbury, Farida, Peters, Nonja
Scheme Name - ARC Discovery
01-January-2004 - 31-December-2006
$95,000

Project Title – Producer perspectives on the management of livestock health and disease
Researchers – Farida Tilbury, Max Sully
Scheme Name – Australia Bio-Security CRC PhD top-up scholarships x 2
30-January-2005 - 30 January -2007
$79,140

Project Title - Finding the Family Meal: determining patterns of family meal consumption
Researchers – Tilbury, Farida; Gallegos, Danielle; Dziurawiec, Suzanne; Abernethie, Loraine
Scheme Name – REGs
1-January-2005 - 31 December -2005
$19,000

Project Title ‘Medicating the Unruly child’: a Genealogy of ADHD
Researchers –Rapley, Mark, McHoul, Alec, Broderick, Pia, Walker, Iain, Tilbury, Farida
Scheme Name – REGs
01-January-2004 - 31-December-2005
$14 500

Project Title - ‘Becoming socially and economically Beneficial’ – the process of acceptance of Afghan Hazara refugees in Albany, WA
ResearchersTilbury, Farida, Harris, Trish, Baldock, Cora.
Scheme Name - REGs
01-January-2004 - 31-December-2005
$17,062

Project Title – Good Food for New Arrivals, Meta Evaluation
Researchers – Stratton, Ralph, Tilbury, Farida, Gallegos, Danielle
Scheme Name – Association for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (ASeTTS)
March-2005 - March-2008
Promised Grant Amount $47,000 (plus GST)

Project Title - Bassendean Needs Assessment and Social Plan
Researchers - Tilbury, Farida, Davies, Deirdre, Mackenzie, Gaye
Scheme Name - Bassendean City Council
15-December-2003 - 31-December-2004
$55,183

Project Title - Migrant Contributions to Western Australia edited book
Researchers - Tilbury Farida, Wilding Raelene
Scheme Name - Office of Multicultural Interests
01-July-2003 - 01-August -2004
$30,000

UPDATES:

1/ The campaign to confuse and mislead Fairfax editors by spiking comment threads with outrageously stereotypical leftoid parodies continues apace. They are parodies, surely?

2/ Until just a few years ago, Ms Fozdar went by the surname "Tilbury". Readers who leap to the conclusion the switch might have had something to do with making her grant applications a little more authentic should be ashamed of themselves.

3/ Hear Ms Fozdar nee Tilbury explain herself to Chris Smith.

4/ Ms Fozdar-Tilbury's potential for bagging additional monies is nowhere near tapped out. According to the list above, she has yet to explore links between racism and climate change. No doubt that application will be filed soonish.



23 comments:

  1. Social Inclusion in a back door way of saying Multiculturalism has failed without admitting it.

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    Replies
    1. PhillipGeorge(c)2012January 25, 2012 at 10:27 PM

      If only that were true DeltaE - but the endgame was truly writ large with letters made bold: "Post National" identities [see above]; the goal and the achievement.

      ".....the boats put out to sea ...." supertramp - on a tale of calamity.

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  2. Indeed, she has been given bouyancy by that list of gratuitous waste. The bubble of academe serves too well in allowing "all of the creatures that lurk in the mud to hatch out", as the unlikely Emperor remarks in Robert Graves' "I, Claudius".
    But it is from Oscar Wilde that I have also to borrow and adapt for the term ... not Bunburying, but Tilburying. An Indian-American-Bruneian-Baha'i is an identity too far, suggesting there's value added in every one. That someone like this attacks Australians in this fashion indicates a mindset. If I say that Scots are tight with money, or that Italians gesticulate a lot, it is not racism but social commentary. Racism is now a spent term.
    To trot out percentages as she's done, if quoted correctly, indicates quite a bit of car-stopping and polling. Seems unlikely. I'd bet it is mere prejudiced conjecture, given her track record of obsessions with the nobler other in the lists above.

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.January 25, 2012 at 12:46 PM

      A thing of beauty is a joy forever, Blogstrop. What a lovely piece of writing yours is to behold. I particularly like 'an identity too far' and 'the nobler other'. We must keep laughing at the mud-lurkers lest they puff bigger and hatch more of themselves.

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    2. Thanks Lizzie - lovely to hear from you, and I see your excellent contributions around the traps too.

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    3. Blogy, you apply too much intellect to the said Fozdar, she has guessed anyone who flies an Ozzie flag must be a racist, that's it.

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  3. Though I read about this the other day it was only now that I was able to take a detailed look through that Age article. What a surprise, the questions are loaded, and the answers reveal no racism whatsoever:

    Professor Fozdar said 43 per cent of those with car flags said they believed the White Australia Policy had saved Australia from many problems experienced by other countries, while only 25 per cent without flags agreed.

    And 56 per cent of people with car flags feared the Australian culture and its most important values were in danger, compared with 34 per cent of those without flags.

    Professor Fozdar said 35 per cent of those with flags felt people had to be born in Australia to be truly Australian, while 23 per cent believed that true Australians had to be Christian, compared with 22 per cent and 18 per cent respectively for the non-flag group.


    And so on, ad nauseuam. I suppose one might be mildly worried about the answer to the White Australia question, but the response may have just as well come out of apathy or, I dunno awareness of the complex changing dynamics of immigration policy throughout our national history. It ain't racism.

    Fozzie's explanation is disingenuous, at best:

    "Very clear statistical differences in attitudes to diversity between those who fly car flags and those who don't, show that flag waving − while not inherently exclusionary – is linked in this instance to negative attitudes about those who do not fit the 'mainstream' stereotype'," she said.

    Having a negative view about other people makes those people racist? Well I've been known to express negative views about left-wingers from time to time, why not just throw a sheet over my head and call me a member of the KKK? Academic stupidity.

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  4. She's a horrible woman with an obvious agenda. This is her way at striking out at a culture she hates while parasiting off it.

    I look at my daughter who delights in the flags and am glad this disgraceful woman's publically funded slur will not reach her.

    I am so glad Chris Smith took her to task and made her explain herself. She obviously lives in a environment where her views are the norm.

    She doesnt even realise how discriminatory and vilifying her statements are. She's the new racist.
    Time for a very public re-education process.

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  5. I thought you were paraphrasing, Bunyip, with that "Sperm milkshake..." bit. But was aghast to discover that a bunch of academics actually did publish an article with such a title! How demeaning to the profession!

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  6. Well, if we're dopey enough to hand mega bucks to ppl like Farida Fozar, or vote for those that do, maybe we should blame ourselves. I mean, ultimately some elected official is accountable for funding this low brow, low IQ, nonsense.

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  7. I'd be worried about what's in the water at the UWA.

    A survey of 500 odd people is hardly representative of Australia's population, therefore, the validity of this woman's research should have been questioned. Of course, we wouldn't expect any journalist from the Age to actually cast a critical eye over such pap.

    Just so you know, I'm off to ceremoniously burn my Australian flag! I don't want to lose any more sleep thinking I could be deemed a racist for flying it.

    What tosh!

    JMH

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  8. To enter academia, you must pass through a reality warp hole which strips you of the normal tools and human characteristics, such as logic, empathy, perception and curiosity, in favour of the wisdom of committees and fellow academics, none of whom lives in the real world or draws a salary in the real economy. This tends to breed a series of theories/fantasies common to those who live on the public purse. For example, I have a real job (I don't); everyone knows Australia is a racist country (it's not). From such prejudices proceeds what academics term "research". Occasionally, this "research" escapes from the campus, startling the wider population who can't believe what they're seeing/hearing/reading.

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  9. Well, if one good thing has come out of Farida's revolting 'research' it's that I've finally given in to my offspring's nagging and bought not one but two - TWO! - aussie flags for the car.

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  10. More importantly,

    what were all those people flying reindeer antlers at Christmas thinking of?

    I bet they are a bunch of ham-eating exclusionary Christians.

    Fozdar better get on the case ASAP.

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  11. ' ARC funding of some $700,000 over five years'
    Astounding!
    But maybe there is something here to investigate.Following on the Professor's excellent example of the Fozdar fiasco/track record, it might be very useful to track research funding, year on year,for selected topics/issues.
    For instance one presumes applications and funding for research involving AGW should be trending down.
    Could grants for Social Inclusion/Multicultural culturalism be trending up?
    By comparing grant trends accross all disciplines we could develop a 'stupidity index' to identify nations which have totally lost any grip on reality. These nations could be awarded 'Dusted with Poo' status for outstanding research in obscure fields of Sociology.
    Perhaps I should try for an ARC grant?

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  12. It costs US$36.00 to download the "Sperm milkshakes with poo sprinkles" article. Three cheers for the tax payers of Australia who funded the research and then had to pony up even more to find out what she did with their money. Why doesn't she do some social inclusion research on that?

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  13. Being able to call someone racist gives an academic an orgasm.....it's their favourite masturbation aid.

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  14. Cripes, no wonder they want the boats to keep on rolling in as fast as the 'refugees' pay for their tickets and get pushed off the beach in Indonesia. What a fantastic little refugee support industry they've got going for themselves. Probably already supports ten times as many jobs than the soon to be abolished national car industry.

    Clearly I need to compile an alphabetically ordered lexicon for easier translation of appropriately worded academic drivel. In regard to "Australian, Transnational and Postnational Identities: affective aspects of social inclusion", WTF is an "affective aspect of social inclusion", buggered if I know.

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  15. If the committees don't give her the grants she can scream raaaacist!

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  16. Bunyip thanks so much for this - it goes into my file of Uni airheads - it's a thick file (sorry pun)
    -Amazed

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  17. There are a lot of charities working hard to rustle up money for all sorts of worthy causes, ringing around, running raffles, sending mail-outs. Some get no funding from government at all. They must be thrilled to see $700k flushed down the academic alimentary for so little benefit to society.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed Blogstrop, there are many worthy causes that Australians could get behind, if it weren't for the swingeing levels of taxation that we are compelled to pay for the statistical travesties of sociologists like Fozdar.
      No Worries

      Delete