Associate Professor Gerhard Hoffstaedter
Associate Professor
School of Social Science
+61 7 336 51211
Researcher biography
Gerhard has a BA in Social Anthropology and Politics/International Relations and an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Kent at Canterbury and was awarded a PhD in anthropology and sociology from La Trobe University. From 2014-2017 he was an Australian Research Council DECRA research fellow.
He conducts research in development studies, on refugee and immigration policy and spiritual and existential security as well as religion and the state. He is a regular commentator in newspapers, radio and online media on topics of his research.
His first book entitled Modern Muslim Identities: Negotiating Religion and Ethnicity in Malaysia is published by NIAS Press.He is co-editor of a volume on human security and Australian foreign policy published by Allen and Unwin as well as one on Urban refugees: Challenges in Protection, Services and Policy, published by Routledge.
He is a senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is also course director for World101x: Anthropology of current world issues, UQs fifth edX massive open online course. The course offers 9 weeks of anthropological episodes with an array of additional resources, including a host of interviews with fellow anthropologists. There is also a curated list of interviews with anthropologists and panels on the youtube and facebook channel.
Publications
Books
Mondon, Aurelien, Westendorf, Jasmine and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2012). How to start a free university: a guide by the Melbourne Free University. Melbourne, VIC Australia: Melbourne Free University.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2011). Modern Muslim identities: Negotiating religion and ethnicity in Malaysia. Copenhagen, Denmark: NIAS Press.
Book Chapters
Riordan, Tyler, Robinson, Richard and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2023). Contactless delivery: migrant experiences in the platform economy. Platform labour and global logistics: a research companion. (pp. 245-262) edited by Immanuel Ness. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003351764-20
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Lamb, Nicole (2021). Fear and Loathing in Legal Limbo: Reimagining the Refugee in Malaysian Public Discourse and History. Discourses, Agency and Identity in Malaysia. (pp. 317-328) edited by Zawawi Ibrahim, Gareth Richards and Victor T. King. Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-33-4568-3_13
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020). Rohingya people. SAGE encyclopedia of sociology of religion. (pp. 708-711) edited by Adam Possamai and Anthony J. Blasi. Thousand Oaks, CA United States: Sage Publications.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020). Participant observation. SAGE encyclopedia of sociology of religion. (pp. 567-570) edited by Adam Possamai and Anthony J. Blasi. Thousand Oaks, CA United States: SAGE Publications.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2018). Theme Parks, Anthropological Study of. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. (pp. 1-5) edited by Hilary Callan. Oxford, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1646
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Perrodin, Louise (2017). Life in limbo: refugees in Malaysia. Illusions of democracy: Malaysian politics and people. (pp. 139-156) edited by Sophie Lemiere. Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre. doi: 10.1515/9789048542666-013
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2015). Postscript. Urban refugees: challenges in protection, services and policy. (pp. 269-270) edited by Koichi Koizumi and Gerhard Hoffstaedter. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315733258-14
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2015). Between a rock and a hard place: Urban refugees in a global context. Urban refugees: challenges in protection, services and policy. (pp. 1-10) edited by Koichi Koizumi and Gerhard Hoffstaedter. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315733258-1
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2015). Urban refugees and the UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur: Dependency, assistance and survival. Urban refugees: challenges in protection, services and policy. (pp. 187-205) edited by Koichi Koizumi and Gerhard Hoffstaedter. London, United kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315733258-11
Clarke, Matthew, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Tittensor, David (2014). Conclusion: Invisible aid: Islam, Muslim NGOs and development. Islam and development: exploring the invisible aid economy. (pp. 197-206) London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Islam hadhari: membentuk Muslim sederhana dan moden. Bangkit: tempoh pentadbiran Abdullah Badawi di Malaysia. (pp. 196-206) edited by Bridget Welsh and James Chin. Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Malaysia: Reactionary. Figures of Southeast Asian modernity. (pp. 176-178) edited by Joshua Barker, Eric Harms and Johan Lindquist. Honolulu, HI, United States: University of Hawaii Press.
Clarke, Matthew, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Tittensor, David (2014). Invisible aid: Islam, Muslim NGOs and development. Islam and development: exploring the invisible aid economy. (pp. 197-205) edited by Matthew Clarke and David Tittensor. Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Islamic praxis and theory: negotiating orthodoxy in contemporary Malaysia. Religious diversity in Muslim-majority states in Southeast Asia: areas of toleration and conflict. (pp. 253-267) edited by Bernard Platzdasch and Johan Saravanamuttu. Singapore: ISEAS Publishing. doi: 10.1355/9789814519656-016
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Islam Hadhari: Membentuk Muslim Sederhana dan Moden. Bangkit: Tempoh Pentadbiran Abdullah Badawi di Malaysia. (pp. 196-206) edited by Bridget Welsh, James U. H. Chin and Noor Amin bin Ahmad. Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Tittensor, David (2013). Religion and development: prospects and pitfalls of faith-based organizations. Handbook of research on development and religion. (pp. 402-412) edited by Matthew Clarke. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. doi: 10.4337/9780857933577.00031
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). God is the greatest: multiple forms of Muslim religiosity in Peninsular Malaysia. Faith in the future: understanding the revitalization of religions and cultural traditions in Asia. (pp. 251-268) edited by Thomas Reuter and Alexander Horstmann. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004233669_013
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Religious pluralism in Malaysia: can there be dialogue?. Culture, religion and conflict in Muslim Southeast Asia: negotiating tense pluralisms. (pp. 41-51) edited by Joseph Camilleri and Sven Schottmann. Abingdon, Oxon, England: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203079980
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Roche, Chris (2013). 'All the world's a stage': structure, agency and accountability in international aid. Millennium development goals: looking beyond 2015. (pp. 21-35) edited by Matthew Clarke and Simon Feeny. Abingdon, Oxon, England: Routledge.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Islam Hadhari: making moderate, modern Muslims. Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi years in Malaysia. (pp. 354-363) edited by Bridget Welsh and James U. H. Chin. Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Roche, Chris (2012). Security from below: an alternative perspective on human security. Why human security matters. (pp. 148-166) edited by Dennis Altman, Joseph A. Camilleri, Robyn Eckersley and Gerhard Hoffstaedter. Crows Nest, NSW Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2012). The prohibition of usury in Islam. Interpretations of law and ethics in Muslim contexts. (pp. 121-121) edited by Aptin Khanbaghi. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Clarke, Matthew (2012). Mission and the wane of the secular. Mission and development: God's work or good works?. (pp. 189-196) edited by Matthew Clarke. New York, NY, United States: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Journal Articles
Riva, Sara and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2022). Correction to: The aporia of refugee rights in a time of crises: the role of brokers in accessing refugee protection in transit and at the border (Comparative Migration Studies, (2021), 9, 1, (1), 10.1186/s40878-020-00212-2). Comparative Migration Studies, 10 (1) 16. doi: 10.1186/s40878-022-00290-4
Riordan, Tyler, Robinson, Richard N. S. and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2022). Seeking justice beyond the platform economy: migrant workers navigating precarious lives. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1-18. doi: 10.1080/09669582.2022.2136189
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Missbach, Antje (2022). Graves beyond the waves: enforced strandedness and the impossibility of place-making in the Andaman Sea. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-15. doi: 10.1080/1369183x.2022.2110457
McGowan, Glenys, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Creese, Jennifer (2022). Object based learning in the social sciences: three approaches to haptic knowledge making. Teaching Anthropology, 11 (2), 97-107. doi: 10.22582/ta.v11i2.657
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Missbach, Antje (2021). Facilitating irregular migration into Malaysia and from Indonesia: illicit markets, endemic corruption and symbolic attempts to overcome impunity. Public Anthropologist, 3 (1), 8-31. doi: 10.1163/25891715-03010002
Riva, Sara and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2021). The aporia of refugee rights in a time of crises: the role of brokers in accessing refugee protection in transit and at the border. Comparative Migration Studies, 9 (1) 1. doi: 10.1186/s40878-020-00212-2
O’Brien, Melanie and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020). “There we are nothing, here we are nothing!”—the enduring effects of the Rohingya genocide. Social Sciences, 9 (11) 209, 209-16. doi: 10.3390/socsci9110209
Missbach, Antje and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020). When transit states pursue their own agenda: Malaysian and Indonesian responses
to Australia’s migration and border policies. Migration and Society, 3 (1), 64-79. doi: 10.3167/arms.2020.111405
Lamb, Nicole and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020). ‘We walk, we laugh, we dance’: refugee experiences of older Chin women in Kuala Lumpur. Ageing and Society, 40 (5), 1021-1038. doi: 10.1017/s0144686x18001502
Tittensor, David, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Possamai, Adam (2020). Hyper-Securitisation and Belonging: Understanding the Plight of Young Muslims in Melbourne, Australia. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 40 (3), 480-496. doi: 10.1080/13602004.2020.1819127
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Lamb, Nicole (2019). “It's God's plan to be here”: displacement, transit and resettlement of Chin and Karenni refugees to Australia. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 65 (4), 584-599. doi: 10.1111/ajph.12623
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2019). Arrested refugee mobilities: Optics as bordering techniques in Malaysia. Sojourn - Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 34 (3), 521-546. doi: 10.1355/sj34-3b
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2019) The look of a stranger: the strategies of place-making of Myanmar refugees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Topos: International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 108: 78-82.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2018). Refugees, resettlement and being in Australia: anthropological stories to question our assumptions. Australian Journal of Anthropology, 29 (3), 382-387. doi: 10.1111/taja.12297
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2017). Dominant discourses of refugees, recognition, and othering in Malaysia. Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context, 10 (2), 27-44.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2017). Refugees, Islam, and the State: the role of religion in providing sanctuary in Malaysia. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 15 (3), 287-304. doi: 10.1080/15562948.2017.1302033
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2017). Trump and the Refugees: Views from “Down Under”. Anthropology Now, 9 (1), 125-127. doi: 10.1080/19428200.2017.1291058
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2016). Is working legally a win-win for refugees in Malaysia?. APPS Policy Forum
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2016). Refugees and Muslim Solidarity in Southeast Asia. ABC Religion and Ethics
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2016). The Limits of Compassion. Overland (224), 69-74.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2015). Asia-Pacific from one law to many: legal pluralism and Islam in Malaysia. Alternative Law Journal, 40 (2), 134-135. doi: 10.1177/1037969x1504000216
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2015). Muller, Dominik M.: Islam, Politics, and Youth in Malaysia. The Pop-Islamist Reinvention of PAS. Anthropos, 110 (1), 254-255.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Place-making: Chin refugees, citizenship and the state in Malaysia. Citizenship Studies, 18 (8), 871-884. doi: 10.1080/13621025.2014.964549
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Working for (bare) life: refugees in the concrete jungle. Griffith Review, 45, 117-124.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Islam and freedom of religion: anthropology, theology and clashes of universalisms in contemporary Malaysia. Australian Journal of Anthropology, 24 (3), 270-289. doi: 10.1111/taja.12051
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Haris Ibrahim and the growing Malaysian diaspora. Inside Story.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Barak Kalir and Malini Sur (Ed), Transnational flows and permissive polities: ethnographies of human mobilities in Asia : Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2012, 264 pp., €47.50 (paperback), ISBN 9789089644084. Asian Ethnicity, 14 (3), 393-394. doi: 10.1080/14631369.2013.759772
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Religion and development: Australian faith-based development organisations. International Journal of Religion and Society, 4 (1/2), 113-157.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2013). Secular state, religious lives: Islam and the state in Malaysia. Asian Ethnicity, 14 (4), 475-489. doi: 10.1080/14631369.2013.759763
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2012). Faisal S. Hazis, Domination and contestation: Muslim bumiputera politics in Sarawak. Bijdragen Tot De Taal- Land- En Volkenkunde, 168 (4), 524-526. doi: 10.1163/22134379-90003556
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2012). Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow.. Asian Studies Review, 36 (4), 583-584. doi: 10.1080/10357823.2012.740929
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Roche, Chris (2011). 'All the world's a stage': Structure, Agency and accountability in international aid. Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 16 (4), 529-543. doi: 10.1080/13547860.2011.610886
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2009). Contested spaces : Globalization, the arts and the state in Malaysia. Ethnicities, 9 (4), 527-545. doi: 10.1177/1468796809345606
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2009). Islam hadhari: A Malaysian Islamic multiculturalism or another blank banner?. Contemporary Islam, 3 (2), 121-141. doi: 10.1007/s11562-009-0086-y
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2008). Representing culture in Malaysian cultural theme parks: Tensions and contradictions. Anthropological Forum, 18 (2), 139-160. doi: 10.1080/00664670802150182
Conference Papers
Riordan, Tyler, Robinson, Richard and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2021). “I Don’t Have Money To Pay Rent” But “I Feel Free”: how migrant food delivery workers use agency to overcome precarity in the ‘Gig’ economy. CAUTHE (31st : 2021), Online, 8-11 February 2021.
Riordan, Tyler, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Robinson, Richard (2020). Disrupting hospitality: migrant food delivery workers as mobile host-guests in the 'gig economy'. CAUTHE 2020, Auckland, New Zealand, 10-13 February 2020.
O'Brien, Melanie and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2017). ‘“There we are nothing, here we are nothing!” –The enduring effects of Rohingya persecution in Burma on their lives in the diaspora’. International Association of Genocide Scholars Thirteenth Meeting and Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 9–13 July 2017.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2011). Radical othering: refugees, displacement and landscapes of difference in Malaysia. The Annual Conference of the Australian Sociological Association (TASA, 2011), Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 28 November - 1 December 2011. Canberra, Australia: Australian Sociological Association.
Generic Document
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2014). Lessons about refugees from an Australian immigration crisis. Huffington Post Media Group.
Research Reports
Povey, Jenny, Cook, Stephanie, O'Flaherty, Martin, Burger, Sarah-Ann, Lee, Rennie, Liudmila Druzenko, Karlee O'Donnell, Sharma, Nikita, Lata, Lutfun Nahar, Young, Charlotte, San Martin Porter, Macarena, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard, Martin, Sean, Edwards, Ben, Baxter, Janeen and Reddel, Tim (2022). CRISP Evaluation Plan. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.
Riordan, Tyler, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Robinson, Richard (2022). Submission to Proposed Fair Conduct and Accountability Standards: inquiry into the Victorian On-Demand Workforce. Melbourne, VIC Australia: Victorian Government.
High, Holly, Cowlishaw, Gillian, Missbach, Antje, Ramsay, Georgina, Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Lee, Helen (2014). National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014: A submission from the Australian Anthropological Society. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Australian Human Rights Commission.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2011). Religion and development: Australian faith-based development organisations. ACFID Research in Development Series Report; No. 3 La Trobe University, Melbourne: Australian Council for International Development (ACFID).
Newspaper Articles
Sang Hre, Simon and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2022, 02 01). One year after the coup, the civil war in Myanmar leaves the country’s future hanging in the balance ABC Religion and Ethics
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2021, 10 17). The war no-one is talking about The Chindwin
Hre, Simon Sang and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2021, 06 08). How the military coup affects Myanmar diaspora communities in Australia ABC Religion and Ethics
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2021, 02 03). One step forward, two steps back: what are the prospects for democracy after Myanmar returns to military rule? ABC Religion and Ethics
O’Brien, Melanie and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020, 12 16). “There we are nothing, here we are nothing!”: the enduring effects of Rohingya persecution and genocide in Myanmar and on lives in the diaspora The Andaman Sea Crisis: 5 years on
Hoffsaedter, Gerhard and Missbach, Antje (2020, 11 24). Send them to the moon! A polemic on refugee crisis solutions Refugee Law Initiative Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration
Munro, Jenny and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2020, 06 22). COVID-19 and “medical citizenship”: How the pandemic is generating new forms of belonging and exclusion ABC Religion and Ethics
Riordan, Tyler , Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Robinson, Richard (2020, 03 30). Delivery workers are now essential. They deserve the rights of other employees The Conversation
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Riva, Sara (2019, 06 20). There are 70 million refugees in the world. Here are 5 solutions to the problem The Conversation
Schottmann, Sven and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2018, 11 11). Pacific pivot needs to be more than guns and concrete pours The Australian
Schottmann, Sven and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2018, 10 23). New Caledonians at a crossroad of destiny The Australian
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and O'Brien, Melanie (2017, 09 20). The Rohingya genocide does not end at Myanmar's borders ABC Religion and Ethics
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2012, 06 20). Urgent need for a refugee solution The Australian 10-10.