Dr Timothy Heffernan is Lecturer in Anthropology and Development Studies in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology. His research and teaching are driven by a deep curiosity to understand how communities confront and recover from life-altering events. From environmental disasters to political and economic upheavals, his research explores stories of recovery, connection and transformation. Rooted in anthropological fieldwork, he seeks to understand not just how unwelcome change is endured, but how recovery unfolds in complex, unpredictable ways.

His first ethnographic monograph, Compassionate solidarity: Crisis, recovery and kincentric politics in Iceland (forthcoming, Toronto UP), examined kinship as a central vehicle for recovery after a national economic crisis. A core feature of the book is the crisis-recovery nexus, which is used thematically to examine kinship's role in forging new pathways of belonging and sociopolitical reform after unwelcome change.

Dr Heffernan is currently working on projects to support 'bottom-up' methods for regional communities in Australia and northern Europe to drive recovery after environmental disasters, as well as a project promoting wellbeing in schools to understand the impacts of bushfire and other disasters on mental health.

Grants:

Enhancing housing recovery policy and practice for improving community resilience to future disasters, D. Sanderson (PI), M. Vahanvati, T. Heffernan, D. Halvitigala, D. McEvoy, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, 2023-24.

Courses taught:

ANTH2027 - EthnoLab 1: Ethnographic Methods
ANTH8059 - Doing Ethnography: Research Practicum on Applied Anthropology