Nexus

The Impact of Opportunity: Reflections of a TASA 2024 Bursary Recipient by Carl Anacin.

Joining TASA 2024 allowed me to present my paper entitled ‘Sociocultural Value and Political Economy of Live Music Performance as/beyond Migrant Work among Filipinos in Australia,’ which is an extract of my recently completed PhD on the experiences of Filipino migrant musicians. The paper focuses on how Filipino musicians navigate career challenges associated with precarity and transnationality as migrants in Australia. Through interviews and autoethnography, I show that migrant musicians often experience liminality as they strive to integrate into the constantly evolving multicultural environment and music industry of Australia while also maintaining ties to their diasporic community. It is an excellent addition to the array of valuable papers presented under the Sociology of Music stream this year, particularly since this is the first time that the Sociology of Music Thematic Group has organised its first session as a TG at a TASA conference.

I also co-chaired a panel on ‘Asian Australian Migration and Mobilities’ together with Dr Aaron Teo (University of Southern Queensland) who did it online. The panel was organised by me, Dr Teo and another colleague, Dr Indigo Willing, who also attended the conference. The panel was organised based on the special issue journal that we are currently co-editing for the Journal of International Migration and Integration. The panel also included a paper ‘Anti-Asian Australian Racism: Reflections on Tropes and Trajectories of Exclusion From Yellow Peril to Covid-19,’ which I co-presented with Dr Teo. The presentation serves as a dissemination of the project ‘National Anti-Racism Framework’ that our team (Dr Kasun Ubayasiri, Dr Indigo Willing, Dr Aaron Teo, Dr Carl Anacin, Ms Erin Ai Wen Chew, and Dr Eun-Ji Amy Kim) conducted for the Australian Human Rights Commission. The project supports a deeper understanding of Australia’s migration history and its continuing impacts, and in response to surges in anti-Asian racism since the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the team and the Commission developed a set of eight resources that include an introductory piece on some key concepts, terminology, and frameworks for understanding anti-Asian racism in Australia, a historical events timeline and six case study pieces that look at more contemporary examples of anti-Asian racism in the media, politics, and workplaces, and explore anti-racism solutions through support services and education. Presenting this work at TASA 2024 was an important opportunity for us because it enabled further discussion of such noteworthy issues for sociologists to understand, consider and act upon.

I would like to thank TASA for the generous bursary, without which I would not have been able to attend the conference in-person, listen to valuable sociological insights, and meaningfully interact with other sociologists. As an ECR who currently experiences precarity in academia, the bursary immensely helped me connect with the community of sociologists and learn from their important work through TASA 2024.