Pat Griffiths joined the department as a part-time PhD candidate in 2021. His thesis explores the interplay of empathy and narrative in International Relations. To do this, it takes three case studies representing clashing narratives of Australian nationhood: Settler and First Nation relations manifested by the 2017 Uluru Statement, offshore detention policies on Manus and Nauru, and debate over the repatriation of citizens with alleged terrorist affiliations in Syrian displacement camps. By conducting a poststructural discourse analysis of these cases that, in varying ways, reflect encounters between a hegemonic narrative of Australian nationhood with non-state challengers to that sense of self, this project seeks to better understand how empathy and narrative influence relations between in and out groups – and, ultimately, nations.

Pat works with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and previously covered federal politics as a journalist with the Australian Associated Press.

Chair: Assoc. Prof. Luke Glanville. Supervisors: Prof. Bina D’Costa and Assoc. Prof. Cian O’Driscoll.