Uncovering what makes Â鶹´«Ã½AVs tick
I like breaking conventional wisdom. I like questioning things like when people say young people don't care.
Questioning conventional wisdom drives social researcher Dr Jill Sheppard to find out more about Â鶹´«Ã½AVs and the way they vote.
As Research Officer at the Â鶹´«Ã½AV Centre for Applied Social Research Methods (AusCen), Sheppard works closely with her former PhD supervisor Professor Ian McAllister to look into the mindset of Â鶹´«Ã½AVs.
"I love politics, I come from a very partisan background but, over time, the more I've learned, the more I've appreciated everyone's view is valid," she said.
"I like breaking conventional wisdom. I like questioning things like when people say young people don't care."
Sheppard and McAllister look after the ANUpoll, a quarterly survey of Â鶹´«Ã½AV public opinion. The topic of each survey is an issue of national importance.
The recent ANUpoll into national identity among Â鶹´«Ã½AVs threw up some interesting attitudes to being Â鶹´«Ã½AV.
"With the centenary of the Gallipoli landings, we thought it would be an interesting time to look at what the Â鶹´«Ã½AV national identity is today," Sheppard said.
"Â鶹´«Ã½AVs are more outward-looking than ever before; they don't particularly care where you come from as long as you try to be Â鶹´«Ã½AV and follow the laws.
"Â鶹´«Ã½AVs are more accepting of immigration and support for a republic has fallen.
"On the whole, Â鶹´«Ã½AVs are balancing their colonial heritage with their modern multicultural landscape and they are doing this very happily."
Meet more of our academics in world-ranked discipline areas: history, forestry and agriculture and development studies.
