Associate Professor Gour Dasvarma

Academic Status

College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

+61 8 82012429

gour.dasvarma@flinders.edu.au

Social Science South (213)

GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

I was Director of the Applied Population Studies program, 1992-2013. My current teaching includes convening and teaching in one postgraduate subject (Women's Health and Child Survival) and teaching in three other postgraduate subjects (Population and Enviornment, Population Studies and Sustainable Development). As of February 2020, I have supervised 18 completed PhD theses (10 as Principal Supervisor), 67 completed Masters and seven completed Diploma theses. I am currently supervising four PhD theses (as Associate Supervisor), two Masters coursework theses and one Honours thesis. I initiated and completed a major restructuring of the population studies program in 1996, 2003 and 2009, and coordinated external reviews of the program in 1999, 2004 and 2009. During 2006 - 2010, I negotiated and completed a major contract between Flinders University and the Indonesian National Population and Family Planning Board for postgraduate training in population studies with funding from the Asian Development Bank. I coordinated the Master of Environmental Management program during 2003-2005. I have provided consultancies to the Government of South Australia, the United Nations Population Fund (in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar) and the then Australian Agency for International Development (in Indonesia)

Qualifications

PhD (Demography), Australian National University, 1980
Postgraduate Diploma in Population Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay, India, 1971
Postgraduate Certificate in Demography, International Institute for Population Sciences,Bombay, India, 1970
Master of Science (Statistics), Patna University, India, 1964
BSc, Patna University, India, 1961

Honours, awards and grants

Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching 2011
Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) Citation for Excellence inTeaching 2012
Member, Flinders College of Distinguished Educators 2012

Key responsibilities

Adjunct Associate Professor in Population Studies

Teaching interests

At Flinders, I am involved in post graduate teaching in the areas of population studies, human resource development, women's health and child survival, ageing of populations and population data analysis and two undergraduate subjects in demography.

Topic lecturer

GEOG9050 Population Dynamics

GEOG9101 Population, Environment, Sustainable Development

Supervisory interests

Fertility and family planning

Maternal health, inequality

Maternal mortality

Population policies in Australia, South Asia, South-East Asia

Higher degree by research supervision

Current

Associate supervisor: Climate change and community resilience in Bangladesh (1), Using Indigenous knowledge to enhance food security in the wake of climate change in Papua New Guinea (1), Public Investment Policies affecting Economic Growth in Timor-Leste (1)

Completion

Principal supervisor: The Paradox of High Fertility in a Matrilineal tribe in North-Eastern India. (1), The Differentials in Child Nutritional Outcome in Rural (1), Determinants of Infant and Child Mortality in West (1), The Implementation of Regional Autonomy and the Challenge of a Rapid Poverty Reduction in Indonesia (1), The Demographic Behaviour of an Indigenous Population in Urban Papua New Guinea: the Motu Koitabu of Hanuabada (1), Health care seeking behaviour of women with maternal morbidity in Bangladesh (1), Factors affecting reproductive tract infections in southern India (1), Envirnmental behaviour in Indonesia with special reference to South Sumatra province (1), Governance and health service provision in Bangladesh (1), Inequalities in maternal mortality in West Java, Indonesia (1)

Associate supervisor: The role of indigenous solid waste management practices (ISWMP) in management of solid waste in urban centres in PNG (1), Population growth, poverty and environmental sustainability in Timor-Leste (1), The Contribution of Small Scale Pig Farming to Sustainable Development in the Lao PDR (1), Female Labour Force Participation and Its Impact on Economic Development in Papua Indonesia (1), Public Participation in Tourism Planning: The Case of the Langkawi Islands, Malaysia (1), Addressing childhood malnutrition in Iran: moving (1), The relationship between the socioeconomic factors and child malnutrition at district and family level in South East Sulawesi (1), The analysis of the gap between married women's desired and actual fertility in Tehran, Iran (1), Sexual, cultural and gender relations, and HIV/AIDS among indigenous heterosexual married people of Tanah papua, Indonesia (1), Foreign Direct Investment in Timor-Leste (1), Socio-cultural and Health Care Contexts of Perinatal Survival in Rural Mountain Villages of Nepal (1), The onset of fertility decline in urban Nepal : a study of Kathmandu city - Uni Adelaide (1), Psycho-social wellbeing of Vietnamese adolescents with visual and physical disabilities (1), Integrated River Basin Management for the Ganges: Lessons from the Murray- Darling -Uni Adelaide (1), Decolonising Thinking about HIV/AIDS in West Papua: Colonialism, Sexuality, and HIV Prevention among Kamoro People (1), Coping with psychological distress among Vietnamese (1), Mobilising new partnership networks to increase capacity for climate change related planning and migration in the South Pacific (1), Risk and protective factors affecting youth reproductive health in Indonesia (1)

Higher degree by research student achievements

Merve Hosgelen

UNDP internship - Timor Leste - October 2011 - OCT 2011

Merve Hosgelen

Australian Population Association Conference Travel Award - September 2012 - SEP 2012

Merve Hosgelen

JC Caldwell Research Grant - February 2011 - FEB 2011

Professional engagement

Member:

International Union for the Scientific Study of Population;

Asian Population Association;

Indian Association for the Study of Population (life member).

Australian Population Association (National Council 1996-1998; 2004-2006. Vice President 2006-2008. Editor, newsletter Demoz 2006-2008).

Reviewer, Australian Research Council in 2011-2014, 2018

Advisory Functions

Australia
South Australian Department of Planning and Local Government (May 2003 to May 2006; August-December 2009). Analysis
of mortality trends in South Australia and future prospects for population projections of the state.
i.d. consulting, Community Profiles, Melbourne (Apr 1999-Jan 2000). Production of Community Profiles for Victoria of
selected birthplace groups based on the 1996 census.
SAGRIC/AusAID (1993-1998). Population and Family Planning Project, Papua New Guinea.

Bangladesh
United Nations Population Fund/Dhaka University (Department of Population Sciences). Strategic Visioning. February-March 2013.

Cambodia
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)/Royal Government of Cambodia (2009 and 2013): Preparation of Analytical Reports on Fertility and Mortality from 2008 Population Census and 2013 Intercensal Population Survey..
(Also see under Previous Employment: July 2001-January 2003).

Indonesia:
UNFPA Jakarta - CST Bangkok (1-11 December 2004). Review of District Database and documentation of best practice/
lessons learned.
Flinders Technology, Adelaide (June 1999). Two-week training in HIV/AIDS Information, Education and Communication
organised by IASTP1/AusAID in Nusa Tenggara Barat and Nusa Tenggara Timur provinces.

Myanmar

UNFPA, Myanmar: Review of Thematic reports on Mottality and Maternal Mortality from 2014 Population Census

Papua New Guinea:
United Nations Development Program, Papua New Guinea (December 2005-April 2007)- Human Development
Report for the Bougainville Autonomous Region.

National Resource Inst.(2018)

Vietnam
United Nations Development Program. 2010. Review of mortality component of Vietnam Human Development Report. 2010.

General
International Union for the Scientific Study of Population/UNFPA (Nov 2008-March 2009): Survey of technical demographic training in Asia. Report presented at an IUSSP/UNFPA meeting held The Hague, The Netherlands, 26-28 March 2009.

Expert for media contact

Ageing

Demography

Development

Environment

Fertility

India

Indonesia

Migration

Mortality

Population

South Australia