Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology

2021 ANZSOC Conference Chair Reflections

In December 2021 the Griffith Criminology Institute (GCI) hosted the 33rd annual Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) Conference, as well as the Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference. The online format for these was not by choice. We hoped the conference would be a return to some type of new normal, and be a chance for existing and new members to come together in person. But the universe had other plans.

As it turned out, the universe had already prepared most people for the shift to online.  We were also able to use the online platform to do some things we would not have been able to do in-person. We were able to have all panels and sessions recorded, and these are still available for viewing.[i] We were also fortunate to have more delegates than would have been otherwise possible due to COVID, with 342 total and 31 overseas delegates from Asia, Europe/UK, New Zealand, and North America. Finally, the online format allowed us to host three “keynote” plenary panels in-line with the conference theme, one each day of the conference.

The theme of the 2021 ANZSOC Conference was “Justice in Dialogue: Enduring Harms and Emerging Challenges.” The concept of “enduring harms” was chosen to address the pervasive problem of gendered violence, which remains one of the most entrenched forms of social harm against women and children globally. It was also chosen to reflect historical and contemporary forms of systemic racism in Australasia for First Nations and other peoples who are socially marginalized, politically disenfranchised, and overrepresented in the criminal justice system. The concept of “emerging challenges” was chosen to reflect the massive growth of harms and crimes in the digital world including financially-motivated cybercrime, online harassment and bullying, sexual offending and exploitation, the Darknet, online extremism, and use of the internet for disinformation and social disruption.

For each of these themes, we brought together some truly exceptional scholars, policymakers, practitioners and service-providers, magistrates, and activists for the plenary panels. The plenary panel for day one was “Barriers to Reducing Gendered Violence” and was moderated by Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Associate Professor and Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre. Panel participants included Senator Dorinda Cox, Angela Lynch, Heather Nancarrow, and The Honourable Marcia Neave AO. The day two plenary panel was “Advancing First Nations Knowledge Frameworks in Justice Policy and Practice.” This was moderated by Tracey McIntosh, Professor of Indigenous Studies and Co-Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies) at the University of Auckland. Panel participants included Philip Brown, Anne Waapu, and Megan Williams. The day three plenary panel was “Digital Harms, Dystopian Futures,” and was moderated by Michael Salter, Associate Professor and Scientia Fellow at the University of New South Wales. Panellists included Cameron Bayley, Rosalie Gillett, Tristan Kennedy, James Martin, and Lise Waldek. We wish to thank all the moderators and panellists for their time, effort, and contributions. The feedback on these panels from conference participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

Along with the plenary panels we also held two online workshops. The first workshop on “Researching Violent Extremism: Methods and Challenges” was conducted by Julian Droogan and Matteo Vergani. The second workshop on “Community-driven Family and Domestic Violence Prevention” was conducted by Sumbo Ndi and Enaam Oudih. We appreciate the time and effort of the workshop coordinators. Aside from the plenary panels and workshops, there were many excellent sessions and panels, and it is clear that people put a lot of time into their presentations and recordings to make this online space work under difficult circumstances. We remind you again these are all still available for your viewing, so please go watch all the things you may have missed but wanted to see.

We were also able to also host a phenomenal and gut-wrenching animated documentary from the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation in New South Wales. The Kinchela Boys Home was one of several Aboriginal Children’s Homes in New South Wales. From 1924 to 1970 it housed over 500 Aboriginal boys who were forcibly taken from their families. The documentary details the emotional, physical, and psychological abuse experienced by boys at the home, with poignant narratives by several Uncles on the impact of this violence their own lives, their communities, and intergenerational trauma that has followed. After the screening of the film, there was extended conversation with one of the Uncles – James Michael “Widdy” Welsh – who shared his own experiences of abuse and also the many ways in which he and other boys were forced to give up their culture, their language, their connection to their land, and their sense of who they were. Uncle Widdy was forthcoming in the harmful lifelong impacts this has had for him, his family, and extended generations. He was equally forthcoming in his indictment of the need for truth-telling and “reconciliation” that moves beyond mere apology or recognition of past harms into concrete ways that First Nations peoples can achieve more social, political, and economic self-determination in the present and future.

The local organising committee (LOC) consisted of Li Eriksson, Kieran Hardy, and William Wood. Tara McGee and Janet Ransley were equally involved and provided invaluable support throughout all stages of conference planning and implementation. Carrie Zhang and Amanda Cockle were also instrumental in helping to coordinate many aspects of the conference from the side of the Griffith Criminology Institute. However, when it became clear that we would not be able to host the conference in-person, it was the Conference Design team led by Andrew Watts that saved the day and ran everything behind the scenes in the online format. We truly appreciate the hard work and dedication of Andrew and everyone else at Conference Design. The organisers also acknowledge and appreciate the support of ANZSOC in offering bursaries to support attendance at the conference for participants who would not otherwise have been able to attend. Conference Design also assisted financially by partially waiving the funds owed to them for work done on the cancelled 2020 conference.

Finally, we realise this last two years has been hard on everyone. We undertook the move to online only after serious consideration. We also made the move to online with recognition that nothing is as good as a conference where you can be present in mind AND body, where you can catch up with old friends and make new ones, and where you can socialise and network and explore all the things that make intellectual life truly worthwhile and engaging. We at Griffith look forward to the next ANZSOC conference in Darwin where we can do all of these things and more. We stand by ready to help with what we have learned from this conference to help make the next one that much better.

2021 ANZSOC Conference Chairs: Li Eriksson, Keiran Hardy, and William Wood (Griffith University)

[i] To view the plenaries and sessions please go to: (https://portalapp.cdesign.eventsair.com/VirtualAttendeePortal/2021anzsoc/anzsoc-onair/login. You will need your login details to access the recordings.