Yvonne Underhill-Sem
Biographic Data
| ID | 6177184 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yvonne Underhill-Sem |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yvonne |
| FAMILY NAME | Underhill-Sem |
| SIGNATURE | UNDERHILL-SEM Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7754-1329 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Anchored in pacific protocols – climate change, mental health and wellbeing
While the Pacific region stands at the forefront of climate change related impacts, we need to hear from those most affected especially in terms of the mental health and wellbeing impacts for our Pacific communities. This exploratory study is led and carried out by Pacific and Indigenous researchers with Pacific peoples and seeks to place Pacific voices front and centre of its practice and analysis. This multi-country study was undertaken with Pa…
Climate change, mental health and wellbeing
Impacts of climate change in the Pacific are far reaching and include effects on mental health and wellbeing. Pacific concepts around the interrelation of these global giants are yet to be described. The aim of this study was to seek consensus amongst Pacific mental health and/or climate change experts on key principles underpinning mental health and wellbeing, and climate change, and the intersection of the two, for Pacific peoples. The Delphi m…
Indigenous peoples’ responses to land exclusions
Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper discusses indigenous peoples’ emotional responses to land exclusions in two Bunong villages, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia. We examine how villagers responded to land exclusions brought about by both state-sponsored conservation and economic land concessions. To understand their responses, we work with the concept of emotions as an embodiment of both personal and collective experiences, to draw attenti…
(Dis)comfort, judgement and solidarity
The publication of a controversial article in Third World Quarterly and the consequent unveiling and critical questioning of journal practices continue to engender strong negative feelings for many scholars. At a critical juncture within the publication process of this collection, we faced an ethical dilemma regarding how to maintain political and ethical commitments while manoeuvring within a sometimes hostile academic environment. Here we exami…
Audacity with obligation
The audacity of the ocean
Throughout the contemporary Pacific, relationships that indigeneity makes possible are emerging as celebrated resistance to post-colonial development anxieties. In the process, lived experience heightens the commitment to decolonize thinking, language and practice in teaching and research. Not only because these imperatives are highly personalized but also because they are gendered and heavy with generational trauma. These gendered dynamics circu…
Feminist geographies in Aotearoa New Zealand
Aotearoa New Zealand is a nation of promise, potential and enigma: it was the first country in the world where women gained the vote in 1893 and now boasts the youngest woman world leader in 2017. It is also a postcolonial nation where structural racism, homophobia, and sexism persist, yet it has also given legal personhood to a river. Our Country Report foregrounds Aotearoa New Zealand feminist geographic scholarship that responds to, reflects, …
Intersecting intellects, diverging bodies
This is a methodological article that explores research practices in the spaces and power structures of collaborative research involving two feminist scholars who are committed to postcolonial ways of working and are also colleagues and friends. Intersectionality is a core principle in our research and teaching and provides us with the basis of collaboration by enabling an ‘analytical sensitivity [which] think[s] about the problem of sameness and…
Fertility
Fertility is understood most widely in geography as one of the three determinants of population change, alongside migration and mortality. Everyone is born, everyone moves geographically in some manner, and everyone eventually dies. Such self‐evident understanding belies the importance of the conceptual framing of these processes, and none more so than fertility. There have been longstanding calls for the analysis of fertility to move beyond meth…
Academic work as radical practice
This paper makes three key points. First, beginning with a personal narrative on the radical practice of getting into the academy, it argues that scholars with non-traditional academic trajectories must still be able to be competitive in employment rounds. Second, it outlines three particular pedagogies of radical practice: focussing on subjectivities; using local languages; and developing peer learning. Finally, it argues that active scholarly c…
Integrating research, policy and practice
Changing market culture in the P acific
Addressing the multiple dimensions of gender inequality requires commitments by policy‐makers, practitioners and scholars to transformative practices. One challenge is to assemble a coherent conceptual framework from diverse knowledges and experiences. In this paper, we present a framework that emerged from our involvement in changing market culture in the P acific, which we name a radical empowerment of women approach. We draw on detailed narrat…
Community‐university collaborations
In this article we explore the politics of community‐university collaborative research and activism. We are scholars based in universities as well as members of various ‘communities’—queer, Pasifika and Māori—hence we regularly venture beyond the formal research spaces of the academy and enter into critical collaborative research with others working in ‘the community’. In what follows we first outline collaborative community‐based research litera…
Contract Scholars, Friendly Philanthropists and Feminist Activists
Understanding new actors in development requires a reconsideration of how subjects come to be and how collectivities are formed. This paper works with post-structuralist notions of subjectivities and collectivities as ‘series’ in three distinct cultural historical geographies to show the subtle ambiguities in contemporary practices of development. Working with Iris Marion Young's conceptualisation of seriality, it provides an Antipodean perspecti…
Filling hollowed out spaces with localised meanings, practices and hope
The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has been framed critically as ‘hollowing out’ and read for its erosion of social democracy, social justice and welfare, as well as its inefficiencies in practice. It is commonly dismissed as neoliberalism. In this paper, we highlight the gains made through this new contractualism by Te Oranga, the Family, Health and Education division of Te Runanga o Te Rar…
Asset mapping and Whanau action research
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is the tribal council representing the interests of the marae (tribal commons) and hapu (a subtribal kin group) that make up the iwi (a Maori tribe) of Te Rarawa in the far north of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In April 2005, officials approached us to help them secure a valuable funding stream tagged to marshalling resources for material development in the area. They sought curriculum vitae and assistance in reframing the funding…
Culture and Development in a Globalising World
The fertility of mobility
Maternities in ‘out‐of‐the‐way’ places
This paper argues that theories of embodiment have particular epistemological importance in the way population geography analyses fertility. This is because such theories remind us that knowledge is produced by sexually embodied subjects in particular places and times. The paper discusses the epistemological importance of interrogating the unproblematic view of embodiment, and of motherhood as a natural given in population geography. It reviews h…
Of social construction, politics and biology
Sustained challenges by third world, black and feminist scholars have unsettled the established agenda of the social sciences in the 1990s. Unfortunately, population geographies in the Pacific have failed to engage with these debates. By avoiding the metaphysical challenges posed by contemporary theoretical debates, often by people from previously marginalised groups, population geographies have failed to provide the spark necessary for the dynam…
Changing market culture in the P acific
Addressing the multiple dimensions of gender inequality requires commitments by policy‐makers, practitioners and scholars to transformative practices. One challenge is to assemble a coherent conceptual framework from diverse knowledges and experiences. In this paper, we present a framework that emerged from our involvement in changing market culture in the P acific, which we name a radical empowerment of women approach. We draw on detailed narrat…
Maternities in ‘out‐of‐the‐way’ places
This paper argues that theories of embodiment have particular epistemological importance in the way population geography analyses fertility. This is because such theories remind us that knowledge is produced by sexually embodied subjects in particular places and times. The paper discusses the epistemological importance of interrogating the unproblematic view of embodiment, and of motherhood as a natural given in population geography. It reviews h…
Indigenous peoples’ responses to land exclusions
Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper discusses indigenous peoples’ emotional responses to land exclusions in two Bunong villages, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia. We examine how villagers responded to land exclusions brought about by both state-sponsored conservation and economic land concessions. To understand their responses, we work with the concept of emotions as an embodiment of both personal and collective experiences, to draw attenti…
Academic work as radical practice
This paper makes three key points. First, beginning with a personal narrative on the radical practice of getting into the academy, it argues that scholars with non-traditional academic trajectories must still be able to be competitive in employment rounds. Second, it outlines three particular pedagogies of radical practice: focussing on subjectivities; using local languages; and developing peer learning. Finally, it argues that active scholarly c…
Community‐university collaborations
In this article we explore the politics of community‐university collaborative research and activism. We are scholars based in universities as well as members of various ‘communities’—queer, Pasifika and Māori—hence we regularly venture beyond the formal research spaces of the academy and enter into critical collaborative research with others working in ‘the community’. In what follows we first outline collaborative community‐based research litera…
Asset mapping and Whanau action research
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is the tribal council representing the interests of the marae (tribal commons) and hapu (a subtribal kin group) that make up the iwi (a Maori tribe) of Te Rarawa in the far north of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In April 2005, officials approached us to help them secure a valuable funding stream tagged to marshalling resources for material development in the area. They sought curriculum vitae and assistance in reframing the funding…
(Dis)comfort, judgement and solidarity
The publication of a controversial article in Third World Quarterly and the consequent unveiling and critical questioning of journal practices continue to engender strong negative feelings for many scholars. At a critical juncture within the publication process of this collection, we faced an ethical dilemma regarding how to maintain political and ethical commitments while manoeuvring within a sometimes hostile academic environment. Here we exami…
Intersecting intellects, diverging bodies
This is a methodological article that explores research practices in the spaces and power structures of collaborative research involving two feminist scholars who are committed to postcolonial ways of working and are also colleagues and friends. Intersectionality is a core principle in our research and teaching and provides us with the basis of collaboration by enabling an ‘analytical sensitivity [which] think[s] about the problem of sameness and…
Filling hollowed out spaces with localised meanings, practices and hope
The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has been framed critically as ‘hollowing out’ and read for its erosion of social democracy, social justice and welfare, as well as its inefficiencies in practice. It is commonly dismissed as neoliberalism. In this paper, we highlight the gains made through this new contractualism by Te Oranga, the Family, Health and Education division of Te Runanga o Te Rar…
Contract Scholars, Friendly Philanthropists and Feminist Activists
Understanding new actors in development requires a reconsideration of how subjects come to be and how collectivities are formed. This paper works with post-structuralist notions of subjectivities and collectivities as ‘series’ in three distinct cultural historical geographies to show the subtle ambiguities in contemporary practices of development. Working with Iris Marion Young's conceptualisation of seriality, it provides an Antipodean perspecti…
The fertility of mobility
Of social construction, politics and biology
Sustained challenges by third world, black and feminist scholars have unsettled the established agenda of the social sciences in the 1990s. Unfortunately, population geographies in the Pacific have failed to engage with these debates. By avoiding the metaphysical challenges posed by contemporary theoretical debates, often by people from previously marginalised groups, population geographies have failed to provide the spark necessary for the dynam…
Of social construction, politics and biology
Sustained challenges by third world, black and feminist scholars have unsettled the established agenda of the social sciences in the 1990s. Unfortunately, population geographies in the Pacific have failed to engage with these debates. By avoiding the metaphysical challenges posed by contemporary theoretical debates, often by people from previously marginalised groups, population geographies have failed to provide the spark necessary for the dynam…
Maternities in ‘out‐of‐the‐way’ places
This paper argues that theories of embodiment have particular epistemological importance in the way population geography analyses fertility. This is because such theories remind us that knowledge is produced by sexually embodied subjects in particular places and times. The paper discusses the epistemological importance of interrogating the unproblematic view of embodiment, and of motherhood as a natural given in population geography. It reviews h…
The fertility of mobility
Asset mapping and Whanau action research
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is the tribal council representing the interests of the marae (tribal commons) and hapu (a subtribal kin group) that make up the iwi (a Maori tribe) of Te Rarawa in the far north of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In April 2005, officials approached us to help them secure a valuable funding stream tagged to marshalling resources for material development in the area. They sought curriculum vitae and assistance in reframing the funding…
Culture and Development in a Globalising World
Filling hollowed out spaces with localised meanings, practices and hope
The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has been framed critically as ‘hollowing out’ and read for its erosion of social democracy, social justice and welfare, as well as its inefficiencies in practice. It is commonly dismissed as neoliberalism. In this paper, we highlight the gains made through this new contractualism by Te Oranga, the Family, Health and Education division of Te Runanga o Te Rar…
Community‐university collaborations
In this article we explore the politics of community‐university collaborative research and activism. We are scholars based in universities as well as members of various ‘communities’—queer, Pasifika and Māori—hence we regularly venture beyond the formal research spaces of the academy and enter into critical collaborative research with others working in ‘the community’. In what follows we first outline collaborative community‐based research litera…
Contract Scholars, Friendly Philanthropists and Feminist Activists
Understanding new actors in development requires a reconsideration of how subjects come to be and how collectivities are formed. This paper works with post-structuralist notions of subjectivities and collectivities as ‘series’ in three distinct cultural historical geographies to show the subtle ambiguities in contemporary practices of development. Working with Iris Marion Young's conceptualisation of seriality, it provides an Antipodean perspecti…
Integrating research, policy and practice
Changing market culture in the P acific
Addressing the multiple dimensions of gender inequality requires commitments by policy‐makers, practitioners and scholars to transformative practices. One challenge is to assemble a coherent conceptual framework from diverse knowledges and experiences. In this paper, we present a framework that emerged from our involvement in changing market culture in the P acific, which we name a radical empowerment of women approach. We draw on detailed narrat…
Fertility
Fertility is understood most widely in geography as one of the three determinants of population change, alongside migration and mortality. Everyone is born, everyone moves geographically in some manner, and everyone eventually dies. Such self‐evident understanding belies the importance of the conceptual framing of these processes, and none more so than fertility. There have been longstanding calls for the analysis of fertility to move beyond meth…
Academic work as radical practice
This paper makes three key points. First, beginning with a personal narrative on the radical practice of getting into the academy, it argues that scholars with non-traditional academic trajectories must still be able to be competitive in employment rounds. Second, it outlines three particular pedagogies of radical practice: focussing on subjectivities; using local languages; and developing peer learning. Finally, it argues that active scholarly c…
Intersecting intellects, diverging bodies
This is a methodological article that explores research practices in the spaces and power structures of collaborative research involving two feminist scholars who are committed to postcolonial ways of working and are also colleagues and friends. Intersectionality is a core principle in our research and teaching and provides us with the basis of collaboration by enabling an ‘analytical sensitivity [which] think[s] about the problem of sameness and…
Feminist geographies in Aotearoa New Zealand
Aotearoa New Zealand is a nation of promise, potential and enigma: it was the first country in the world where women gained the vote in 1893 and now boasts the youngest woman world leader in 2017. It is also a postcolonial nation where structural racism, homophobia, and sexism persist, yet it has also given legal personhood to a river. Our Country Report foregrounds Aotearoa New Zealand feminist geographic scholarship that responds to, reflects, …
Audacity with obligation
The audacity of the ocean
Throughout the contemporary Pacific, relationships that indigeneity makes possible are emerging as celebrated resistance to post-colonial development anxieties. In the process, lived experience heightens the commitment to decolonize thinking, language and practice in teaching and research. Not only because these imperatives are highly personalized but also because they are gendered and heavy with generational trauma. These gendered dynamics circu…
Indigenous peoples’ responses to land exclusions
Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper discusses indigenous peoples’ emotional responses to land exclusions in two Bunong villages, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia. We examine how villagers responded to land exclusions brought about by both state-sponsored conservation and economic land concessions. To understand their responses, we work with the concept of emotions as an embodiment of both personal and collective experiences, to draw attenti…
(Dis)comfort, judgement and solidarity
The publication of a controversial article in Third World Quarterly and the consequent unveiling and critical questioning of journal practices continue to engender strong negative feelings for many scholars. At a critical juncture within the publication process of this collection, we faced an ethical dilemma regarding how to maintain political and ethical commitments while manoeuvring within a sometimes hostile academic environment. Here we exami…
Climate change, mental health and wellbeing
Impacts of climate change in the Pacific are far reaching and include effects on mental health and wellbeing. Pacific concepts around the interrelation of these global giants are yet to be described. The aim of this study was to seek consensus amongst Pacific mental health and/or climate change experts on key principles underpinning mental health and wellbeing, and climate change, and the intersection of the two, for Pacific peoples. The Delphi m…
Anchored in pacific protocols – climate change, mental health and wellbeing
While the Pacific region stands at the forefront of climate change related impacts, we need to hear from those most affected especially in terms of the mental health and wellbeing impacts for our Pacific communities. This exploratory study is led and carried out by Pacific and Indigenous researchers with Pacific peoples and seeks to place Pacific voices front and centre of its practice and analysis. This multi-country study was undertaken with Pa…
Sociology (20 works) · Political science (15 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (8 works) · Social science (7 works) · Aotearoa (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works)