Christine Asmar
Dr Christine Asmar
Senior Lecturer in Higher Education and
2008-9 Teaching Fellow, Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC)
Phone: +61 3 8344 0203
Fax: +61 3 8344 7576
Email: casmar@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Christine Asmar joined the CSHE in 2009 as a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education. Prior to this she worked at the Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Sydney.
With an overall interest in issues of cultural difference within the context of higher education teaching and learning, Christine’s earlier research was with Muslim students in Western higher education systems. More recently she has been involved in collaborative research with Associate Professor Susan Page (Director of Warawara, Macquarie University’s Department of Indigenous Studies), funded by grants from the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Those two projects are national studies of how Indigenous academics experience their roles and work within universities in Australia; firstly in the context of Indigenous units, schools or centres; and currently with a focus on the academics’ work in ‘mainstream’ faculties, schools and disciplines.
In 2008 Dr Asmar was awarded a $90,000 National Teaching Fellowship by the Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) to carry out a program of activities across Victorian and NSW universities. The Fellowship program is titled ‘Indigenous Teaching and Learning in Australian Universities: Developing Research-based Exemplars for Good Practice’, and will include a Forum on Indigenous Learning and Teaching to be hosted by the University of Melbourne on Friday 11 December 2009. An important outcome of the Fellowship is expected to be a set of research-based exemplars for good teaching of Indigenous students as well as of Indigenous curriculum.
Selected research and publications
Research grants and Fellowship
$90,000 Teaching Fellowship from the Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) to carry out a program of activities across Victorian and NSW universities. Program title: ‘Indigenous Teaching and Learning in Australian Universities: Developing Research-based Exemplars for Good Practice’ (2008-9)
$19,000 research grant (with Susan Page) from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), for a national study of Indigenous academics within disciplines and faculties within Australian universities, titled ‘Indigenous Academics at the Disciplinary Frontline: Pigeonholed, Peripheral or Pioneering?’ (2008)
$13,500 research grant (with Susan Page) from AIATSIS, for a national study of Indigenous academics within Indigenous centres and units in Australian universities, titled ‘Indigenous academic voices: Stories from the tertiary education frontline’ (2003)
$15,000 University of Sydney Research Grant for a national study of ‘The Course Experience of Muslim Students at Australian Universities’ (1998)
Book
Stevens, K. and Asmar, C. (1999) Doing Postgraduate Research in Australia. Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press. ISBN: 0 522 84880 X
Book Chapters
Asmar, C., Mercier, O. Ripeka, & Page, S. (2009). ‘You do it from your core’: Priorities, perceptions and practices of research among Indigenous academics in Australian and New Zealand universities. In A. Brew & L. Lucas (Eds.), Academic Research and Researchers. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press & McGraw Hill, 146-160.
Asmar, C. (2005) Politicising student difference: The Muslim experience. International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, Volume 3: International Relations. Edited by Malcolm Tight. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Ltd, 129-157.
Asmar, C. (2001) A Community on Campus: Muslim students in Australian universities. Muslim Communities in Australia. Edited by Abdullah Saeed and Shahram Akbarzadeh. Kensington, NSW: University of NSW Press, 139-160.
Refereed Journal articles
Asmar, C. & Page, S. Sources of satisfaction and stress among Indigenous academic teachers: Findings from a national Australian study. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 29: 3, 387 - 401.
Page, S. & Asmar, C. (2008) Beneath the teaching iceberg: Exposing the hidden support dimensions of Indigenous academic work. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 37S (Supplement), 109-117.
Asmar, C. (2005) Internationalising Students: Reassessing diasporic and local student difference. Studies in Higher Education, 30, 3, 291-309.
Asmar, C. (2004) Innovations in scholarship at a student-centered research university: An Australian example. Innovative Higher Education, 29, 1, 49-66.
Asmar, C., Proude, E. and Inge, L. (2004) ‘Unwelcome sisters’? An analysis of findings from a study of how Muslim women (and Muslim men) experience university. Australian Journal of Education 48,1 (April), 47-63.
Asmar, C. (2002) Strategies to enhance learning and teaching in a research-extensive university. International Journal for Academic Development 7, 1 (May), 18-29.
Editing of scholarly publications
Asmar, C., Guest Editor. (2007) Synergy: The University of Sydney's scholarly forum for the discussion and debate of higher education teaching and learning. Special issue on diversity, with a focus on Indigenous issues. Institute for Teaching and Learning, Issue 26 (November) http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/synergy/synergy26.pdf
Brew, A. & Asmar, C. Eds. (2005) “Higher Education in a Changing World”. Research and Development in Higher Education, Vol 28. Refereed proceedings of Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Inc (HERDSA) Conference, University of Sydney, 3-6 July. ISBN: 0 908557 62 0
Other Articles
Angelo, T. and Asmar, C. (2005) Towards a new definition of research-led teaching – and learning – at VUW (Victoria University of Wellington). Discussion paper available on University Teaching Development Centre home page:
Page, S. & Asmar, C. (2004) Indigenous academic voices: Stories from the tertiary education frontline. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) News 26, 1 (April), 13-15.
International Conference Keynote Presentations
'You're everything to everybody': Understanding the teaching and support roles played by Indigenous staff in Australian universities. Joint closing plenary with Susan Page, Indigenous Studies & Indigenous Knowledge Conference, hosted by Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney, 11-13 July 2007.
Cultural difference in western universities: Intercultural and internationalised responses to a changing world. Opening keynote at 12th Improving Student Learning Symposium: Inclusivity and Diversity. Birmingham, UK 6-8 September, 2004.