Monash University pours $1m into research program tasked with investigating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

Monash University has promised $1m for a two-year ­research program to investigate students’ experiences of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus.

Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters confront each other at the Monash University pro-Palestine encampment in May. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Monash University vice-chancellor Sharon Pickering has promised $1m for a two-year ­research program to investigate students’ experiences of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus, which also hopes to ­develop tangible initiatives to build social cohesion.

Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation director David Slucki and sociologist Susan Carland said their project, Campus Cohesion, was the first to examine experiences of hate by Jewish and Muslim staff and ­students concurrently.

Dr Slucki said initiatives that could arise could include changes to university policies, education and training programs, and changes to internal structures within student associations. The researchers plan to form focus groups of Jewish and Muslim students, as well students from the broader univer­sity community.

“We pitched the project to the vice-chancellor as a modest study to understand what’s happening on the ground in a more systemic way, and she came to us with a much bigger sort of pot of funding … recognising the ­urgency of the issue and the need to actually invest in solving this problem,” Dr Slucki told The Australian.

“We’ll work with students in formulating practical solutions. (This project) has come ­directly from our concerns from students.”

The university will receive rolling updates on the program’s findings, with researchers also enthusiastic to share their investigations with other universities.

“We hope what we create will be frameworks that can be tweaked, adapted, transformed to work in different circumstances,” the associate professor said.

“The aim isn’t just to find out what’s happening and leave it. It’s to make Monash a model for other universities of what we can learn, what we can adapt. We see that it’s a sector-wide problem.”

Monash University vice-chancellor Sharon Pickering. Picture: Andrew Curtis

The funds will be used to hire a team of researchers, provide incentives for students to participate in surveys and focus groups, run an international workshop and travel to the Monash ­Malaysia campus to do a similar study there.

Dr Slucki said the biggest challenges for social cohesion at campuses Australia-wide was the size of universities which could get “big and unwieldy”.

“Universities are ideas factories, ideas get talked through and experimented, often messy and uncomfortable and often push boundaries,” he said.

“The university quad, or the ‘lemon-scented lawns’, those are traditionally spaces where there are events and exchanges of ideas. I think we need to establish clear boundaries around making sure students feel safe and welcome on campus.

“I teach controversial issues and ideas and there’s a tension there. There’s a tension in class where ideas can often make people feel uncomfortable, they can often be at odds with our own sense of self and a lot of that can come down to how a skilful teacher manages that ­stickiness.”

Dr Carland said ongoing incidents of friction had the potential to fracture Australia’s multicultural society.

“As we’ve witnessed horrific scenes of violence and death overseas, we’ve turned on each other and fuelled discrimination. Rather than attacking each other, it’s crucial we come together to find solutions to tackle discrimination and promote shared understanding,” she said.