Timothy Heffernan

2

Articles

1

Comment

Timothy Heffernan is lecturer in anthropology at the Australian National University and holds a PhD in Social Science (Anthropology) from UNSW Sydney.

Tim's research interests include the 'lived experience' of event-based hardship and recovery. Tim's PhD in anthropology examined the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on European society and culture, particularly Iceland, and the emergence of concerned citizens' movements in response to the GFC.

Current research at UNSW and ANU seeks to identify how best to support individuals and communities in Australia to be resilient to, and recover from, human-induced climate change, especially bushfires and floods. This extends to the characteristics of building resilient towns and citizens.

Tim has previously worked at the UNSW School of Built Environment and the Native Title Research Unit (NTRU) at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Experience

  • 2025–present
    Lecturer, Australian National University
  • 2021–2024
    Postdoctoral research fellow, UNSW School of Built Environment
  • 2020–2022
    Research assistant , Australian National University
  • 2015–2021
    Sessional Academic, UNSW Australia
  • 2015–2016
    Research assistant, Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies

Education

  • 2022 
    UNSW Australia, Ph.D. Social Science
  • 2014 
    UNSW Australia, Bachelor of Arts & Social Science (Hons, Class 1)
  • 2013 
    UNSW Australia, Bachelor of Arts

Publications

  • 2025
    Is trauma isolating, or does isolation traumatize? Loneliness and posttraumatic stress mutually reinforce one another in the aftermath of environmental disaster., Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy
  • 2025
    Building cross-sector recovery collaborations after Australian bushfires: The importance of embracing and linking diverse capitals and capacities, Environmental Hazards; https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2024.2368498
  • 2025
    Building age-inclusive disaster risk reduction: Insights among geographically mobile young adults in regional Australia, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
  • 2024
    Reshaping disaster management: An integrated community‐led approach, Australian Journal of Public Administration
  • 2024
    Solastalgia following the Australian summer of bushfires: Qualitative and quantitative insights about environmental distress and recovery, Journal of Environmental Psychology
  • 2024
    The Brief Solastalgia Scale: A Psychometric Evaluation and Revision, EcoHealth
  • 2024
    Flipping the script: young people mobilise adults to increase participation in disaster risk reduction, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/media/10533/ajem-2024-01_09.pdf
  • 2024
    The anthropology of ambiguity (eds. Alimardanian, M and Heffernan, T.)), Manchester University Press
  • 2024
    Queering the crisis-recovery nexus: Personhood and societal transformation after economic collapse in Iceland, In 'The anthropology of ambiguity', edited by M. Alimardanian and T. Heffernan, pages 67-84
  • 2024
    Improving long-term disaster recovery research in Australia through boosting dataset comparability: Improving long-term disaster recovery research in Australia through boosting dataset comparability, Australian Journal of Emergency Management 39 (2), 79-80
  • 2023
    James Martin Institute for Public Policy ; NSW Education Department ; Heffernan T, 2023, Local links and learning: Resilience in regional, rural and remote schools. Fostering community ties and harnessing learning opportunities to boost resilience, The James Martin Institute for Public Policy, Sydney, http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22693.68325,
  • 2023
    Social group connections support mental health following wildfire, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02519-8
  • 2023
    Predictors of individual mental health and psychological resilience after Australia’s 2019/2020 bushfires, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1177/00048674231175618
  • 2022
    Economic Anthropology in View of the Global Financial Crisis, The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences
  • 2022
    Mental health, wellbeing and resilience after the 2019-20 bushfires: The Australian national bushfire health and wellbeing survey—A preliminary report, ANU Research School of Psychology. https://dx.doi.org/10.25911/AG7D-7574
  • 2020
    Crisis futures: The affects and temporalities of economic collapse in Iceland, History and Anthropology, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 314-330. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2020.1762589
  • 2020
    Crisis and Belonging: Protest Voices and Empathic Solidarity in Post-Economic Collapse Iceland, Religions, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 22. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11010022
  • 2020
    “Where Is the New Constitution?” Public Protest and Community-Building in Post–Economic Collapse Iceland, Conflict and Society, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 236–254. https://doi.org/10.3167/arcs.2020.060114
  • 2016
    Livelihood values in Indigenous cultural fishing: Report of a meeting with Indigenous cultural fishers on the south coast of NSW, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra ISBN 9781922102430
  • 2015
    Implementing native title: Indigenous leadership in land and water livelihoods, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra ISBN 9781922102409

Grants and Contracts

  • 2024
    Reducing childhood psychological distress in disasters: Evaluation of Psychological First Aid in Schools
    Role:
    Named Investigator
    Funding Source:
    National Health and Medical Research Council
  • 2023
    Enhancing housing recovery policy and practice for improving community resilience to future disasters
    Role:
    Named Investigator
    Funding Source:
    Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

Professional Memberships

  • Australian Anthropology Society
  • European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)

Research Areas

  • Anthropology (1601)

Contact Timothy for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision