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Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

Tel: +61 3 990 52357
Fax: +61 3 990 52410
Email: Dharma.Arunachalam@arts.monash.edu.au
Room W1015 10th Floor
Building 11 (Menzies) Clayton Campus

Dharma is Director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research. He received his PhD in Demography from the Australian National University in 1992 and was a Rockefeller Postdoctoral Fellow at the Population Studies Centre, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA) from 1991-1994. Before joining Monash University in January 2006, he taught at the Department of Societies and Cultures, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand from 1995-2005.

Dharma's research focus is in the field of social demography including fertility, family formation and change, family/household structure, health and migration. He has carried out extensive research on family formation in New Zealand (marriage, cohabitation, separation and childbearing). Dharma has recently co-authored the first ever book of its kind on New Zealand family (The New Zealand Family From 1840: A Demographic History, Auckland University Press, pp.454, 2007). He has expertise and experience in designing, planning and undertaking large scale sample surveys. Together with other scholars at Monash, Dharma is currently involved in analysing data from a national level survey on social cohesion in Australia.

Research

Dharma's current research focuses on fertility and partnering in Australia, social cohesion in Australia, international migration, family and household structures, ageing and health. In his research Dharma use census data and primary and secondary survey data. Although Dharma has used both qualitative and quantitative methods, his current research uses predominantly quantitative methods, multilevel models, population projection and simulation techniques and conventional demographic methods. In answering key research questions, Dharma's perspective pays attention to group-level social, economic and cultural features and seeks explanations at multiple levels. Dharma's research also covers demographic issues in India, in particular fertility, religion and health. His current research on India focuses on child malnutrition, poverty and social/cultural institutions. He has supervised student research on social, demographic and cultural issues in developing countries and in Australia and New Zealand.

HDR Supervision

Dharma supervises a number of Honours, Masters and PhD students. Some are listed below

Postgraduate research students currently being supervised include:

PhD

Student

Topic

Supervisor/s

Genevieve Heard

"Fertility and economic resources in Contemporary Australia"

Dr Bob Birrell /Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

Liudmila Kirpitchenko

"Academic migration to Australia and Canada: East European professional elite in focus"

Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam/Dr Tseen Khoo

Vanessa Longo

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue: Italian-Australian grandmothers, mothers and daughters negotiating ethnicity, culture and identity in their everyday lives"

Dr Jan van Bommel /Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

Zachary Russell

"Relative fit and the minority experience: Understanding intergroup relations and acculturative stress as by-products of acculturation orientations"

Prof. Gary Bouma /Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

Master of Arts by Research (100% Research)

Student

Topic

Supervisor/s

Davina Lohm

"Perceptions of Australian identity and their implications"

Dr Kirsten McLean /Dr Dharma Arunachalam

Kate Maher

"The social construction of attitudes towards Australian Muslims: The roles of social group discussions and news media reports"

Assoc. Prof. Naomi White /Dr Dharma Arunachalam

Research topics of past students, 1995-2005

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