Rate My Professor Daniela Heil

Associate Professor Daniela Heil is based in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences within the College of Human and Social Futures at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD from the University of Sydney, commencing anthropological fieldwork with an Aboriginal community in Central Western NSW in 1997, which has fostered lifelong relationships with Indigenous communities across New South Wales, Western Australia, and the Torres Strait. Her research expertise lies in social and medical anthropology, focusing on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and well-being. She investigates conjunctures and disjunctures between Indigenous practices and mainstream health approaches, mediating national health policy with localized socio-cultural differences, knowledges, and understandings. Heil addresses concepts such as cultural safety, risk-taking in Aboriginal health, and well-being from Indigenous perspectives, including the role of extended family networks and community issues. Since 2006, she has also examined gestational surrogacy practices among German parents utilizing Ukrainian surrogates, exploring themes of kinship, moral order, body, personhood, and assisted reproductive technologies.

Heil's career at the University of Newcastle includes key appointments such as Sociology and Anthropology Honours Convenor from January 2010 to June 2015, Research Ethics Advisor for Arts and Social Science on the Human Research Ethics Committee from March 2012 to June 2014, Acting Deputy Chair of the HREC from August 2013 to June 2014, Program Convenor for Graduate Certificate and Master of Social Change and Development in 2016, and Deputy Head of School, Teaching and Learning since January 2016. She received the 2010 Inaugural Online Teacher of the Year Award. Her scholarly contributions encompass the co-authored book The Anthropology Companion (2018), chapters including 'Happiness in a First People's Community in New South Wales, Australia' (2024) and 'Medical Anthropology' (2023), and journal articles such as 'Conceptualizing "risk taking" in Australian Aboriginal health' in Social Science & Medicine, 'Managing Aboriginal health within an ontology of life-as-contingent' in Oceania (2008), and 'Gaynor Macdonald (1948-2022)' in Oceania (2022). Heil's work informs health policy and practice to better accommodate Indigenous cultural characteristics, enhancing outcomes through culturally attuned approaches. She holds fellowships in the Australian Anthropological Society and memberships in AIATSIS, AAA, and EASA.