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Dr Kirrilly Thompson

Position: Research Fellow Dr Kirrilly Thompson
Division/Portfolio: Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences
School/Unit: Education Arts and Social Sciences Divisional Office
Group: Centre for Applied Behaviour Science
Campus: City East Campus
Office: P7-35
Telephone: +61 8 830 22611
Fax: +61 8 830 26623
Email: Kirrilly_dot_Thompson_at_unisa_dot_edu_dot_au
URL for Business Card: http://people.unisa.edu.au/Kirrilly.Thompson


I work in the Human Factors & Safety Management Systems group in the Centre for Sleep Research. My research interests and applications are varied, but centre on the iron horse (the Australian rail industry), the ironic horse (human-horse interactions) and the chiron horse (human-horse hybrid interactions).

I am Deputy Leader of the Operations and Safety Programme (R2) for the CRC for Rail Innovation and am the Early Career Researcher representative on UniSA's National Partnerships and CRC Engagement Group (NPCRCEG).

As an anthropologist, my research approach is mixed-methods with a specialisation in qualitative and ethnographic methodologies.

My current projects include: * A socio-economic study of platform and carriage crowding in the railway industry. * Listening to the Children and their Families: What children and parents/carers know about the relationship between sleep, nutrition, physical activity and health and wellbeing. * Zeroing in on food waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste (ARC Linkage) * Evaluation of a children's Dog Safe Program * Railcar Driver Workload and Fatigue Evaluation * Anthropology of human-animal relations and bullfighting from horseback in Southern Spain

I have been selected to participate in the 2009 Think Tank on Agricultural Productivity and Climate Change being convened by the Australian Academy of Science with the support of the UK Royal Society through the Theo Murphy (Australia) Fund.



The Centre for Sleep Research

Human Factors and Safety Management Systems

The Culture of Alcohol in Australian Rules football: Social meanings and public health implications

The Human-Animal Research Group (HARG)

The Australian Anthropological Society

Pathways or cul-de-sacs: the causes, impact and implications of part-time senior secondary study

CRC for Rail Innovation

Human-Horse Relations Research Group (Facebook)


Professional associations

Australian Anthropological Society (AAS)

International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ)

The Animals and Society (Australia) Study Group (founding member)


Qualifications

PhD, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Bachelor of Social Sciences with First class honours, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Bachelor of Social Sciences (Anthropology major), University of Adelaide, South Australia


Research interests

  • Mixed methods research techniques; Applied anthropology; The anthropology of sport and performance; Human-animal relations, boundaries and hybridity; The embodied dynamics of inter-species communication; Equine anthrozoology; Environmental sustainability; Attitudes towards the environment; Community participation, sports and volunteering; Social justice and equity.

Research publications

Thompson, K. (accepted 22 September 2009). 'Narratives of tradition: The invention of mounted bullfighting (rejoneo) as “the newest but also the oldest”'. Social Science History.

Offler, Naomi, Thompson, Kirrilly, Hirsch, Lily, Thomas, Matthew, & Dawson, Drew (2009) A review on the literature on social, non-technical deterrents for vandalism in the rail industry: CRC for Rail Innovation

Thompson, K. 2009. 'Disciplining Art: An exploration of the ways in which techniques of discipline produce artistichuman-animal bodies in dressage' in XXIII European Society for Rural Sociology Conference on Reinventing the Rural,Book of Abstracts, Vaasa, Finland: 180.

Thompson, K. 2009. "Discipline and Pleasure: Using dressage to reconsider Fouacult's techniques of discipline and docile (human-animal) bodies," in Minding Animals Conference. Newcastle, Australia: Animals and Society Study Group

Thompson, K. 2009. "Binaries, Boundaries and Bullfighting: Multiple and alternative human-animal relations in the bullfight from horseback," in Minding Animals Conference. Newcastle, Australia: Animals and Society Study Group

Blunden, S., and K. Thompson. 2009. 'Assessing the impact of changes to worker’s compensation law: An SA Unions research project'. Centre for Sleep Research, University of South Australia.

Pierce, J., K. Thompson, R. Sharp, and J. McKay. 2008. 'Their World is an Oyster: Sustainability of emerging environmentally sensitive oyster aquaculture communities on the South Australian Eyre Peninsula'. Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, The University of South Australia, South Australia.

Thompson, K and Dawson, D. 2008. 'SA Water Control Room Shift Trial: Review of a consistent 12-hour shift'. University of South Australia, Adelaide.

Thompson, K., 2007. 'Le voyage du centaure: la monte à la lance en espagne (xvie-xxie siècles)' ['Journey of a Centaur: Lancing from horseback in Spain (C16-21)'] in D. Roche and D. Reytier, À cheval! Écuyers, amazones & cavaliers du XVIe au XXIe siècle [On Horseback: Riders, Equestriennes and Knights from the 16th to the 21st century], Association pour l'Académie d'Art Équestre de Versailles, Paris, 195-209

Palmer, C. & Thompson, K. 2007, 'The Paradoxes of Football Spectatorship: On-field and Online Expressions of Social Capital Among the "Grog Squad"', Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(2), 187-205

Thompson, K., 2007. Performing Human-Animal Relations in Spain: An anthropological study of bullfighting from horseback in Andalusia (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide

Thompson, K., C. Palmer & M. Raven, 2006. Alcohol in the lives of Australian Rules Football fans: Social meanings and public health implications, Department of Public Health, Flinders University.

Thompson, K., September 2005. ‘Mediation of a Centaur: Technology and compenetración in the Spanish bullfight’, in Australian Anthropological Society Annual Conference Proceedings, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Thompson, K.September 2005. ‘Is there life and study?’, in Australian Anthropological Society Annual Conference Proceedings, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Thompson, K. July 2005. ‘Journey of a Centaur: The development of the human-horse relationship in mounted bullfighting’, in Inaugural Conference of the Animals and Society (Australia) Study Group Conference Proceedings, University of Western Australia, Perth.

Thompson, K., 2004. 'La Marismeña Australiana' in J. Fook, S. Hawthorne & R. Klein, Horse Dreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives, Spinifex Press, Melbourne, Australia, 48-49

Thompson, K., 2002. 'Marsh Mares of Southern Spain'. The Sport Horse Journal Winter, 53-55.

Thompson, K., 1999. 'A Dance of Discipline: The disciplinary aesthetic of the kür' (unpublished honours thesis). Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide.


Community Service

Organisation Name:   Australian Horse Industry Research & Development Trust Fund
Type of Organisation:   Community organisation
Organisation URL:   http://www.horsesa.asn.au/zeolite/zdocument/214
Level of involvement:   Trustee
Year from:   2006




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