Rate My Professor Pamela Nilan

Pamela Nilan is an Honorary Professor in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. She holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle, a Master of Education from the University of New England, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of New England. Her career includes serving as Professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities and Social Science, Deputy Dean for two years, Deputy Head of School for Research Training for three years, and Assistant Dean for Research and Research Training in the Faculty of Education and Arts. She lectured at the University of New England, School of Social and Cultural Studies, from 1990 to 1991. Nilan is Treasurer of the Asia-Pacific Sociological Association, has been a member of the Jakarta Selection Team for AusAID-funded scholarships since 2005, and in 2010 taught undergraduate Indonesian society and culture at l'Universite de La Rochelle in France while researching as a fellow at KITLV in Leiden. She was selected by the Australian Research Council for membership of the 2015 Excellence in Research for Australia Research Evaluation Committees.

A youth sociologist, Pamela Nilan contributes a unique perspective to research on youth cultures in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Indonesia, where she is fluent in the language. Her academic interests encompass youth transitions from childhood to adulthood, school-to-work transitions, gender, class, identity, and popular culture. She is Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Grant titled Fostering Pro-Environment Consciousness and Practice: Environmentalism, Environmentality and Environmental Education in Indonesia, and has led studies in Indonesia, Vietnam, Fiji, and a major AusAID project on Masculinities and Violence in Indonesia and India. Key publications include co-authored books Adolescents in Contemporary Indonesia (2013), Youth, Space and Time: Agoras and Chronotopes in the Global City (2016), Muslim Youth in the Diaspora: Challenging Extremism through Popular Culture (2017), and Young People and the Far Right (2021). Other notable works are Muslim youth environmentalists in Indonesia (2020), Youth culture in/beyond Indonesia: Hybridity or assemblage? (2015), and The reflexive youth culture of devout Muslim youth in Indonesia (2006). Nilan has supervised ten PhD and MPhil theses to completion, receiving the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Supervision Excellence in 2012, and Award for Outstanding Educational Research from the New South Wales Institute of Educational Research in 1990. She developed the Graduate Certificate and Master of Social Change and Development programs, has consulted for the Australian government and AusAID, and provided insights to media and policymakers.