A/Prof Robin Rodd ~ Adjunct Associate Professor

I am an anthropologist and Latin Americanist with an interest in political theory.

My current research explores the ways that democracy can dissolve into dictatorship, and possibilities for art and museums to foster political memory and reflect on these transitions. 

Drop me a line if you are interested in pursuing post-graduate work in Latin America or Australia on a topic relating to democracy, authoritarianism, citizenship, art and memory.

 

 

Interests

Professional

• I am a member of the Australian Political Studies Association and currently the Secretary of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia http://ailasa.org/

Research

• My research interests fall into two broad areas, medical anthropology including drug use and shamanism, and political theory especially relating to biopolitics, democracy, memory and citizenship. My regional area of expertise is Latin America, and I have conducted fieldwork in Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay. I explore what being a citizen means in different places and at different points in time. My research examines the ways that authoritarian political orders emerge from and dissolve into democratic systems, and how change or stability is legitimated in popular culture. I address the question of how citizens can be vectors of democratisation or dedemocratisation. My research draws on ethnography and historical and cultural analysis to explore the local specificities of rights, citizenship and political memory, and the antinomies of democracy, including constituent and constituted power, participation and representation, equality and freedom, servitude and insubordination, the individual and the community, and difference and universality. I am also interested in the ways that the cultivation of memory shapes popular conceptions of what is politically possible in Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela. I work at an interface between critical theory and anthropology. This runs through the writing of Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, Didier Fassin, Guillermo O’Donnell, Axel Honneth, and Claude Lefort, to Chantal Mouffe, Étienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière, Wendy Brown, and Sheldon Wolin.
• I convene the JCU Critical Theory Seminar, and supervise a number of PhD projects on topics including: a biopsychosocial analysis of a drug addiction program in Peru; toreo as cultural heritage in Peru; everyday practices of and discourses relating to democracy in feminist community organisations in Australia and Argentina; and slam poetry and the exclusions of multicultural citizenship in Australia.
• In the media: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2016/s4547387.htm http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28/what-is-hallucinogen-ayahuasca/7442714 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-10/the-new-age-of-ayahuasca/7257244 http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/a-local-perspective-on-ayahuasca/8354012

Research Disciplines

• Anthropology (4401)
• Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (4208)

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• O'Shaughnessy D, Sarnyai Z, Quirk F and Rodd R (2022) Traditional Amazonian medicine in addiction treatment: Qualitative results. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 2.
• O'Shaughnessy D, Berlowitz I, Rodd R, Sarnyai Z and Quirk F (2021) Within-treatment changes in a novel addiction treatment program using traditional Amazonian medicine. Therapeutic Advances In Psychopharmacology, 11. pp. 1-18
• Rodd R (2020) Democracy without citizens: Australian citizen agency and the symbolic significance of not having rights. International Journal Of Politics Culture And Society, 33. pp. 459-476
• Rodd R (2019) Democratic Citizenship as Uruguayan cultural heritage. Democratic Theory, 6 (1). pp. 27-48
• Rodd R (2018) Piaroa shamanic ethics and ethos: living by the law and the good life of tranquillity. International Journal of Latin American Religions, 2 (2). pp. 315-333
• Rodd R (2018) The ‘I’ and the ‘we’ of citizenship in the age of waning democracy: Wolin and Balibar on citizenship, the political and dedemocratization. Citizenship Studies, 22 (3). pp. 312-328
• Rodd R (2018) It’s all you! Australian ayahuasca drinking, spiritual development, and immunitary individualism. Critique of Anthropology, 38 (3). pp. 325-345
• Rodd R and Sumabila A (2011) Yopo, ethnicity and social change: a comparative analysis of Piaroa and Cuiva Yopo use. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43 (1). pp. 36-45
• Rodd R (2008) Reassessing the cultural and psychopharmacological significance of Banisteriopsis caapi: preparation, classification and use among the Piaroa of southern Venezuela. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 40 (3). pp. 301-307
• Rodd R (2006) Piaroa sorcery and the navigation of negative affect: to be aware, to turn away. Anthropology of Consciousness, 17 (1). pp. 35-64

Book Chapters

• Rodd R (2019) Remembering obedience and dissent: democratic citizenship and memorials to state violence in Australia and Argentina. In: Mapping South-South Connections: Australia and Latin America. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 263-294
• Scuro J and Rodd R (2015) Neo-shamanism. In: Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Religions of the World. Springer, pp. 1-6

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 17+ research outputs authored by A/Prof Robin Rodd from 1996 onwards.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Who were the People of Prehistoric Vilabouly? Exploring Origins and Relationships through Archeometallurgy. (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Occult politics and the esoteric self in Aboriginal Australia (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Political imaginaries of resistance and the possibilities for nonviolent re-existence: Australian decolonial practices in a global context ? an ethnographic approach (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)

Completed

• Australian votes in the making: a critical review of voter behaviour research in Australia (2021, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Bridging the divide in heritage? Managing caves as heritage places within the Sepon Gold and Copper Mine, Lao PDR (2019, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.