Susan Hemer

Dr Susan Hemer

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

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

Associate Professor Susan Hemer works in Anthropology & Development Studies. Associate Professor Hemer's research interests include emotions, death, grief and mourning; the social, health and gendered impacts of mining and development projects in Melanesia; socio-cultural, gendered, historical and political aspects of access to health care; and health care issues including HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, gendered violence and maternal health care in Papua New Guinea. Associate Professor Hemer publishes in medical and psychological anthropology, and development studies. She holds a long-standing interest in the ethics of research, and is currently a member of the University of Adelaide HREC. Her research expertise includes ethnography, interviews, qualitative surveys and archival research. Her book, Tracing the Melanesian Person, was published in 2013. She lectures in the areas of medical and psychological anthropology. She gained her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Melbourne.

Prior to working at the University of Adelaide, Dr Hemer held a research and project implementation position in the Community Relations Department for Lihir Gold in Papua New Guinea, particularly focusing on health, gender relations and village resettlement.

  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2024 - ongoing Associate Professor University of Adelaide
    2013 - 2023 Senior Lecturer University of Adelaide
    2009 - 2012 Lecturer University of Adelaide
    2000 - 2002 Community Health & Research Officer Lihir Management Company

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2023 Award HDR Supervision Award, Faculty of Arts Business Law and Economics University of Adelaide Australia -
    2023 Award Commendation for the Enhancement and Innovation of Student Learning University of Adelaide Australia -
    2019 Teaching Award Stephen Cole the Elder Excellence in HDR Supervisory Practices University of Adelaide Australia -
    2018 Award Commendation for the Enhancement and Innovation of Student Learning University of Adelaide Australia -
    2016 Fellowship Barbara Kidman Fellowship University of Adelaide - -

  • Language Competencies
    Language Competency
    Tok Pisin Can read, write and speak

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    The University of Melbourne Australia PhD
    University of South Australia Australia Graduate Diploma in Aboriginal Studies

2022 National Library of Australia Fellowship. $22900 (sole investigator). Women and children last: the establishment of maternal child health services in Papua New Guinea.

2017 Fred Johns Scholarship for Biography. University of Adelaide. $8000 (sole investigator). Pioneer nurse: Betty Crouch, the Australian Baptist Mission and maternal-child health in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

2016 Barbara Kidman Fellowship, University of Adelaide. $30,000 (sole awardee).

2014   Africa Australia Universities Network (AAUN) Partnership Development Research Fund Grant. Mining for a Healthier Community (Co-investigator with Helen McDonald [CI], Penny Johnson, Martha Macintyre, et al). $10,000.

2012   Papua New Guinea National AIDS Council Secretariat Small Grant. (Lead investigator) K36,000 ($16,000).

Susan Hemer teaches in both Anthropology and Development Studies. Courses taught include:

Anthropology of Health and Medicine

Life, Death and Culture

Anthropology of Emotion, Mind & Person

Contemporary Anthropology

Dr Hemer has team taught in Psychiatry in Emotion, Culture and Medicine

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2025 Co-Supervisor Social Justice in Australian Clinical Legal Education: Current Practice and Future Direction Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Mr Matthew Atkinson
    2025 Principal Supervisor Cryptid Communities; Human relationships around uncanny creatures Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Keely Emms
    2025 Co-Supervisor Women in Australian Motorcycle Subculture Unpacking Identity Community and Empowerment Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Greta Lea Geisselbrecht
    2024 Co-Supervisor Exploring gender equity issues experienced by Theravada Buddhist nuns in Australia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Roy Sneddon
    2022 Principal Supervisor They Whine, I Wine - Identifying and Understanding a wine-mom habitus Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Janine Aujard
    2022 Co-Supervisor Coming of Age With Three Kidneys: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Young Kidney Transplant Recipients Navigate the Transition to Adulthood and Adult Care Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Caitlin Jane Fox
    2022 Co-Supervisor How might a focus on food and eating generates new knowledge about COVID-19 unavailable through other foci? Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Chenyu Zong
    2021 Principal Supervisor Image Gardens: A study of Vanuatu sand drawing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Stephen Zagala
    2019 Principal Supervisor Conceptualisation, handling and management related to human death in contemporary Adelaide Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Annamaria Fratini

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2018 - 2023 Co-Supervisor ‘Band-aids in a battlefield’: The anthropology of refugee and asylum seeker support in Australia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Alison Kim Reid
    2018 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Waste in the tropics: Urban environments and (post)colonial infrastructure in Kochi, India Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Matt Barlow
    2018 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Muda is bigger than the archive: Analysing Adnyamathanha use of archival photographs in communicating and negotiating Adnyamathanha Aboriginal identities Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Rebecca Grace Richards
    2016 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Welfare in Transition: The Political Economy of Social Protection Reform in Indonesia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Maryke Christine Van Diermen
    2016 - 2023 Principal Supervisor Researching Research: Redressing power imbalances in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Leda Caitlin Sivak
    2016 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Navigating deafness and cochlear implants: Parents’ and young adults’ experiences in an Australian setting Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Claire Elizabeth Harris
    2015 - 2020 Principal Supervisor To Make Their Journey Back to Nature: Zoo Captivity and Post / Humanism Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Gail Yvonne Wright
    2014 - 2017 Principal Supervisor An Exploration of Collaboration: Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Relationships in Ethnographic Filmmaking Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Dr Naomi Offler
    2014 - 2019 Co-Supervisor The F... is Goth Anyway: Classification, Dynamic Practice and Goth in
    Adelaide    		 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Briony Erin Lynette Kate Morrison
    2013 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Wanbel: Conflict, Reconciliation and Personhood among the Sam People, Madang Province Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr David Eric Troolin
    2013 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Panoptic Bio-Power and the Illusion of Transparency Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Paloma White
    2012 - 2016 Co-Supervisor Chase the Feeling: Making Meaning in an Autistic Theatre Company Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Mr Michael James Allen
    2012 - 2020 Principal Supervisor Built for Extraction: Dependence, Sovereignty and Development in Timor-Leste Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Terese Geraghty
    2011 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Consuming Identities: Contemporary Japanese Foodways in a Global Locale Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time APrf Micah Peters
    2010 - 2015 Principal Supervisor Remember Forever: Relationships with the living and the dead in a Vietnamese online memorial site Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Anthony Heathcote
    2009 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Potential Futures: An Ethnography of a Familial Cancer Counselling and Genetic Testing Unit Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Amaya Gilson
    2009 - 2017 Principal Supervisor The Inside Out of the Ageing Self: Identity, Trust, and Friendship of Australian Seniors in an Online Community of Older People Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Di Shaw
    2009 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Human-Animal Relations: Agency, Inter-dependence and Emotion between Humans and Assistance Dogs Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Sarah Anne Curtis
    2008 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Rebirthing: the transformation of personhood through embodiment and emotion Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Elise Mary Carr
    2008 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Mothering and Mental Illness: An Ethnography of Attachment in an Institutional Context Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Sonia Masciantonio

  • Committee Memberships
    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2021 - ongoing Member Human Research Ethics Committee University of Adelaide Australia
    2020 - 2021 Member Low Risk Ethics Committee (Arts/Professions) University of Adelaide Australia
    2015 - 2016 Advisory Board Member Porgera External Advisory Komiti PEAK Papua New Guinea

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2021 - ongoing Member Australian Death Studies Society Australia
    2007 - ongoing - Australian Anthropological Society -
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83135732
  • Email: susan.hemer@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor 1
  • Org Unit: School of Social Sciences
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