The LocuSAR team is comprised of experts in anthropology, linguistics, history and museology.
Areas of expert practice
LocuSAR is an interdisciplinary team with expertise in:
- Native title research and assessment
- Cultural heritage assessment and management
- Climate change adaptation and assessment
- Governance research
- Social research on disasters
- Educational research
- Medical anthropology
- Historical and archival research
- Museology
- Linguistics
- Development studies
Our research strengths
LocuSAR has decades of experience across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, and has provided analysis, advice and reports to government, businesses, NGOs, and the Federal Court of Australia. We are adept at assessing issues with complex economic, developmental, cultural and social dimensions.
Members of our team are fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, Tok Pisin, German, and English, and conversant in a number of Indigenous vernacular including Arrernte, Yolngu Matha, and Mandar.
We have worked extensively with Aboriginal communities across Australia, and our research has informed nearly 20 native title applications.
Beyond our work with Indigenous communities, members of our team have worked on projects related to:
- the value of social networks in times of crisis
- understanding the experiences of consumers of mental health services in suburban communities
- analyzing cultural diversity in Australian libraries
- encouraging the participation of students from regional Australia in higher education
- the social impacts of mines and infrastructure
- examining south-east Asian medical systems
- ritual practices indigenous to Indonesia
LocuSAR is currently conducting an ethnographic study of the effects of the 2019-2020 bushfires on communities along the South Coast of NSW. We are continuing this work from a safe social distance as another crisis – COVID-19 – unfolds.
Our experts
Dr. Deane Fergie
Deane Fergie founded LocuSAR at the University of Adelaide in 1997. She is a social anthropologist with more than 40 years of practice including academic and national research appointments at the Australian National University, the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide.
Read moreDr. Rod Lucas
Rod Lucas has been a practicing anthropologist for more than a quarter of a century. He has worked as a consultant on Aboriginal heritage surveys and native title claims since 1989.
Read moreDr Clara Stockigt
Dr Clara Stockgit is an award-winning researcher and linguist with a commitment to the preservation and documentation of Australian languages.
Read moreDr. Morgan Harrington
Morgan Harrington is a researcher and writer with a PhD in anthropology and a background in journalism.
Read more