Gerry Groot

Dr Gerry Groot

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Gerry has long been interested in Chinese politics and political history and is well known for his work on the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work, particularly with China's so-called democratic political parties. He is also interested in the place of ghosts in Chinese culture, aspects of religion and Western understandings of Chinese food. Other interests include how Asian influences have helped shaped other societies, the role of culture in social and political interaction and social change. More tangentially, he also sometimes works on the nature and history of cookbooks, including those aimed at teaching men how to be men in the kitchen. The use of cookbooks and the transmission of Chinese cooking is another interest though he has never used any recipes from his hundreds of Chinese cookbooks to actually cook a meal.

My research generally revolves around aspects of the Chinese Communist Party and how it relates to many groups outside its normal ambit using united front work, Such work involves not only the eight  so-called democratic parties but also religious believers, Overseas Chinese, recent emigrants, students studying abroad and the new classes of professionals emerging as a result of economic reform, opening up and globalisation, Other interests include the role of corporatism, social change, religious belief, nationalism and soft power, the latter also relating to united front work.

Other areas of interest involve Asian Influences on the rest of world from ancient times until the present, the role of food and cookbooks, and representations of masculinity in men's cook books.

2016 $20,000 Australian Centre for China in the World, for a workshop on The Role and Nature of Conspiracy Theories in China

2015 With Amrita Malhi, $96,500,000 State Government of South Australia, InterculturAdelaide Special Event, part of International Convention of Asia Scholars Conference, July 7 2015 Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide.

2006  $50,000 ARC grant for the ARC ARC Asia Pacific Futures Research Network Signature Event for 2008, Globalising Religions and Cultures in the Asia Pacific.

2002 $20,000 UA Learning and Teaching Development Grant, Assessing Key Skills of First Year Students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences with Sandra Taylor (UA Geography)

Gerry Groot teaches across a variety of Asia-related social science courses for the Department of Asian Studies. These include:

ASIA 1103 Asia & the World (how Asian influences have shaped the world over the millennia)

ASIA 1104 Negotiating Asia: Surviving Cultural Difference ( Key elements of Chinese and Japanese culture, how to identify them and understand their significance) This course is notable for its use of audio visual materials and focus on behavioural analysis.

ASIA 2007 Asia: Cultures & Identities (Examines the fundamentals of culture as they shape identities at national and macro levels in China and Japan)

ASIA 2022 China Today: Politics & Governance ( The how and why of rule by the CCP -Party-state)

Others as required

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 Principal Supervisor The nature and efficacy of Japanese soft power through its cultural products and activities in Australia Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Yuki Tanaka
    2022 Co-Supervisor Un/forgetting Agent Orange: Towards a Reimagining of Vietnamese Forests Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Ngoc Lan Tran
    2020 Principal Supervisor The relations between the Chinese Party-state and urban intellectual churches Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Zhengying Shen
    2020 Principal Supervisor What is Meant by Contemporary Chinese Feminism? Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Annie Elizabeth Drahos
    2014 Co-Supervisor Post Fukushima discourse of Japanese Modernisation through Michiko Ishimure Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Maki Hammond
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2016 - 2021 Co-Supervisor THE RISE OF ASIAN LIONS: Japan, China, and India’s Disruptive Development Engagement in Africa Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Brittany Lynn Morreale
    2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Port Adelaide Football Club in China: A Case for an Intercultural Approach to Public Diplomacy? Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Mr Andrew Sloan Hunter
    2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor China's Free Trade Agreement Diplomacy Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Yang Li
    2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Public participation in Japan's nuclear energy policy-forming process Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Philip Christopher White
    2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor A Future to Pine for: Transmodernist Movement in Japan Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Steven Michael Attwood
    2009 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Media Transparency in China: A Critique of the Party-State Rhetoric and Market Discourses Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Baohui Xie
    2009 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Chinese Urban Community Construction as a Grassroots Governance Strategy: Social Capital with Chinese Characteristics Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Min Zhao
    2008 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Forecasting China's Future: Experts and Uncertainty Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Roger Irvine
    2007 - 2014 Principal Supervisor What Maketh the Man? Towards a Psychobiographical Study of Lin Yutang Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Roslyn Ricci
    2006 - 2009 Principal Supervisor The Textiles of the Han Dynasty & Their Relationship with Society Master of Arts Master Full Time Mrs Heather Leigh Langford
    2006 - 2010 Co-Supervisor Japan's Response to the Rise of China: Implication for Regional Institutions Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Joel Rathus
    2003 - 2011 Co-Supervisor The Unexpected Transformations of Chinese International Students in Australia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Dr Glen Stafford
    2002 - 2006 Co-Supervisor Racing to the Bottom or Winners All Round? Southeast Asia's Economic Development in the 1990s Master of Arts Master Part Time Ms Lin Siah
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83134312
  • Email: gerry.groot@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Kenneth Wills, floor 6
  • Org Unit: School of Social Sciences

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