Staff Profile: Sara Amin

Senior Lecturer & Discipline Coordinator

Email: sara.amin@usp.ac.fj
Tel.: +679 323 2654
Office: CELT Room 119

Education

BA in Development Studies (2002, McGill); BSc in Mathematics (2002, McGill); MA in Sociology (McGill); PhD in Sociology (2011, McGill);

Research Areas

Gender and sexuality, Migration and politics of identity, Religion, culture, rule-breaking and policing, Decolonization in education

Bio

Sara is Senior Lecturer and Discipline Coordinator of Sociology. She completed her PhD in Sociology at McGill University and has a background in mathematics (BSc, McGill) and international development (BA, McGill).  Prior to joining USP, she worked at the Asian University for Women (Chittagong, Bangladesh) and was an International Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University.  Her research and teaching interests center on the sociology of identity, gender, migration and education.  Her research has been funded by various organizations including the British Academy, the Australian Research Council, Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Fulbright Foundation and the Ford Foundation.   She is passionate about teaching and using research to empower students and communities. Sara is Bangladeshi-Canadian and grew up in Thailand.

Courses taught

• SO212: Race & Ethnicity
• SO300: Research Methods in Sociology
• SO311: Crime & Deviance
• AL400: Research Methodologies in the Humanities & Social Sciences
• SO409: Social development
• SO415: Contemporary Social Issues

Research Interests

Sara’s research has focused on questions of power, identity and resistance, with a special focus on the politicization of ‘difference’, and how women, LGBQT+, im(migrants) and young people work to negotiate, re-interpret and change the relations of power in which they are embedded. She is currently involved in examining these dynamics in several projects: 1) religious and cultural responses to gender-base violence and how these responses interact with state (including police) approaches; 2) return migration dynamics of Fijian health professionals; 3) motherhood experiences of refugees; 4) pedagogies that respond to alienation in Global South classrooms.

Sara is co-author of the open access monograph Policing in the Pacific (Watson, Howes, Bull, Dinnen and Amin, 2023, Palgrave). She has co-edited several volumes, including Policing the Global South: Colonial Legacies, Pluralities, Partnerships, and Reform (Watson, Amin, Wallace, Akinlabi, and Ruiz-Vásquez, 2022, Routledge); Mapping Security in the Pacific: : A Focus on Context, Gender and Organisational Culture (Watson, Amin and Girard, 2020, Routledge); Women, Sport and Exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region: Domination-Resistance-Accommodation (Molnar, Amin, and Kanemasu, 2018, Routledge) and Changing Nature of Forced Migration: Vulnerabilities and Responsibilities in South and Southeast Asia (Amin, Ganepola and Lakshman, 2016, university Press Limited). She has published articles and chapters on religion and policing in Tuvalu, gender and policing in Tuvalu, gendered insecurity in Fiji and Tonga, empowerment and strategies of resistance in Afghanistan, gender inequality and implications for feminist pedagogies in Global South universities, and identity impacts of migration and forced displacement in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She is currently a partner investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Monash University). She is also on the International Advisory Board for the ARC project on Innovations on Responses to Domestic Violence in Fiji and Vanuatu. She has received grants from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Global Religions Research Initiative.

Graduate Supervision

Sara is open to considering new supervision.

PhD Thesis Supervision in Sociology

• Zena Sherani (2016-present) “Culture, identity and adaptation amongst Indo-Fijian youths in New Zealand”
• Damien Gock (2022-present) ‘Migrant Fijian Women and Social Remittances Shaping Fijian Care Regimes’
• Casandra Harry (2018-2021) “Post Conflict Intervention: A study of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands’ (RAMSI) contribution to institutional changes within the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) in the Solomon Islands. (Completed)
• Sunia Baikeirewa (2022-present) “Multi-stakeholder perceptions of climate finance effectiveness for relocation in Fiji: A case-study from two relocated communities”

MA Thesis Supervision in Sociology and Social Policy

• Damien Gock (2016-2018) “Navigating Social Structures: The Experiences of Women in Advocacy Work in Tonga” (Completed)
• Kashieka Broaster (2017-2018) “Repairing the Broken Window: A study on the sociological paradigms of urban youth violence and secondary prevention programmes in Belize City” (Completed)
• Khaleella Arzu (2017-2018) “Feminizing the Future of Football in Fiji? An Investigation of Social Constructs and Factors Inhibiting and Promoting Female Football Players in Fiji”. (Completed)
• Priyam Singh (2018-2020) “Being A Man: Exploring Perceptions and Experiences of Masculinity and Fatherhood in Fiji” (Completed)
• Tony Kwato’o (2019-2022) “Factors contributing to mathematics students performance in Tuvalu.” (Completed)
• David E. Merick (2018-present) “The Impact of Unemployment on Youth in Vanuatu”
• Kalesi Nuse Nainoca, (2021-present) Understanding the challenges of Disabled Women’s Sports Participation in Fiji
• Shaya Malini (2022-present) “Perceptions of Rural Indo Fijian Women on the Effectiveness and the Implications of the No-drop policy in Fiji”
• Mei Nein (2023-present) “Indigenous Experiences and Perspectives of Restorative Justice for Non-violent Youth Offenders in Rural Fiji”