Frances Morphy

Phone: (02) 6125 4880

Qualification:

BSc (Hons) (Anthropology), University College London MPhil (Anthropology), London University MA (Linguistics), The Australian National University 2016- Honorary Associate Professor, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University 2015-2016 Research Affiliate, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University 2014 Visiting Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Durham 2012-15 Visiting Fellow, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University 2007-12 Fellow, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University 2006 Research Fellow, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University. 2001-05 Part-time Research Fellow and Academic Editor, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University. 1997-2004 Freelance editorial consultant, freelance anthropological consultant. 1991-97 Commissioning Editor, linguistics, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Biography
Publications

Research Interests

The anthropological demography of Australian Aboriginal populations, population structure and dynamics in remote Aboriginal Australia, and the representation of Aboriginal people in the national census. Indigenous demographies and data sovereignty. The anthropology and linguistics of the Yolngu-speaking peoples of north east Arnhem Land. Social, cultural and economic aspects of the encapsulation of Aboriginal Australians within the Australian state, in particular the homelands movement, land rights and native title, the governance of Aboriginal community organisations, the impact of colonisation on Indigenous social systems and languages, and problems of cross-cultural ‘translation’.

Recent publications: Morphy, F. and Morphy, H. 2016. ‘Thwarted aspirations: the political economy of a Yolngu outstation, 1972 to the present’, in N. Peterson and F. Myers (eds), Experiments in Self-determination: Histories of the Outstation Movement in Australia, Monographs in Anthropology Series, ANU Press, Canberra. Morphy, F. 2013. ‘Making them fit: the Australian national census and Aboriginal family forms’, in G. Calder and L. Beaman (eds), Polygamy’s Rights and Wrongs: Perspectives on Harm, Family and Law, UBC Press, Vancouver. Morphy, F. and Morphy, H. 2013. ‘Anthropological theory and government policy in Australia’s Northern Territory: the hegemony of the “mainstream”’, American Anthropologist, 115 (2), June 2013.