Biography

Vivian Gerrand is a researcher with interests in the areas of migrant displacement, belonging, mobility, image-making and representation.Her interdisciplinary scholarship explores migrant belonging through a comparative cultural studies lens. Vivian is an Associate Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, and an Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing at Victoria University. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne on representations of Somali belonging in Italy and Australia. In 2015 Vivian was an AEUIFAI Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute, investigating Italian citizenship law reform from the perspective of Italian Somalis’ multiple affiliations and shared colonial past with Italy. Vivian published her first book, Possible Spaces of Somali Belonging, with Melbourne University Press in 2016. During her Max Weber Fellowship, Vivian will be working on her pilot European project, ‘The role of image-making in the prevention of violent extremism.’ For this project, Vivian will build on her long-term research with Somalis in the diaspora by undertaking qualitative mixed method research, including multi-modal analysis of digital image-making, and interviews with participants in Italy and the United Kingdom to explore how image-making can enable resilience to violent extremist influences.Vivian has taught in a range of undergraduate Humanities university subjects in both Italy and Australia, including on Identity, migration, Italian culture, language and literature, and Australian Studies. She coordinated a 3rd year undergraduate course on Researching Australia and has given many guest lectures.