Nexus

The Impact of Opportunity: Reflections of a TASA 2024 Bursary Recipient by Joe Kneipp

Joining TASA, being granted a travel bursary, allowed me to present my paper entitled: “The Liminal Place: Exploring the experiences of residents in a rural Australian border community during the COVID-19 pandemic”. This research centres on the experiences of residents in a rural Australian border town (Goondiwindi, Queensland) during the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions. With particular regard to the concepts of place, identity, and ontological security, my research involved semi-structured qualitative interviews to assess the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions.

For a nascent researcher, attending TASA was a welcoming introduction to the collegiality of the academic environment. After various icebreakers and networking opportunities at the HDR day, I was enthusiastic about presenting my research through the Rural Issues stream. After overcoming some technical difficulties (and delayed flights, which saw Dr. Tim Corney chair the stream on short notice), I was delighted to present my research to a small but engaged audience on Wednesday of the conference. The questions asked illustrated the depth of understanding of the academics in the room, and also their real engagement with the themes I presented, which was heartening.

Throughout the conference I was privy to all kinds of novel research – my strategy quickly become to bounce between the different ‘streams’ of the conference with whatever took my fancy at the given moment. Happily, that tactic proved not only interesting in the extreme, but beneficial socially. I found the conference staff warm and knowledgeable, and the other patrons of the conference to be just as buoyed by the bevy of thought-provoking talks as I was.

Being a HDR student already studying remotely (in Tasmania, away from my institution the University of Queensland), the bursary provided not only the requisite funds to get to Western Australia, but also a critical opportunity to meet with like-minded people. I feel far richer and more ingratiated within the Australian sociological community having been afforded this opportunity. I would again like to thank TASA for supporting my inclusion and commend them for a successful conference.