Books by Jennifer Creese
This book offers a timely insight into ideas of ‘belonging’ in multicultural society from a Jewis... more This book offers a timely insight into ideas of ‘belonging’ in multicultural society from a Jewish perspective, one which is largely missing from the discourse on multiculturalism. There is a current climate in Australia, as there is in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, of rising tensions around migration, religious freedom, and far right extremism. These tensions have been fanned the Israeli-Palestine conflict coming under increased international scrutiny in recent months. Understanding how Jewish communities attempt to build and guide an understanding of what Jewishness means in contemporary multicultural societies is crucial for supporting the right to safety in diversity, not only for Jews but for multiple minority groups. In delivering such understanding, this book has insights not only in an Australian, but a broader international, context.
This book explores how various facets of Jewish life are experienced and expressed in Australia, drawing on rich ethnographic and archival research conducted within the mid-sized Jewish community in South-East Queensland, Australia, which has never before been examined. Jewish Identity in Multicultural Australia explores how Jewish identity is manifested and experienced across a wide range of facets: religion and religiosity, ethnicity and ethnonational identity, history and memory, antisemitism and racism, Zionism and diasporic identity, and family and kinship. Across these key themes, the book builds on a core argument: that contemporary Jewish communities work in certain, set ways and promote certain, set norms within a framework of state multiculturalism to forge a safe, supported place for Jewish life, practice and identity of all shapes and sizes.
Published by the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, 2016. Website: http://jewishqld.com/
Journal Articles by Jennifer Creese
Behavioral Sciences
There is a growing body of research on resilience in family carers of people with dementia, but c... more There is a growing body of research on resilience in family carers of people with dementia, but carers' voices are noticeably absent from it. The aim of this study was to explore carers' definitions of resilience and their opinions on the factors associated with resilience. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted in Australia with people who were currently, or had previously been, caring for a family member with dementia. Transcripts were analysed thematically and three themes emerged: the presence of resilience, the path to resilience, and characteristics of the resilient carer. Although carers struggled to define resilience, the vast majority considered themselves resilient. Carers identified a range of traits, values, environments, resources, and behaviours associated with resilience, but there was no consensus on the relative importance or causal nature of these factors. Carers also considered resilience to be domain-and context-specific, but did not agree on whether resilience was a trait or a process. These findings highlight both the importance of including carers' voices in resilience research and the limitations of the extant literature. There is much to be done to develop a field of carer resilience research that is theoretically sound, methodologically rigorous, and reflects the lived experience of carers. A model is provided to prompt future research.
Innovation in Aging
Family caregivers' represent the backbone of support to older adults who have a chronic condition... more Family caregivers' represent the backbone of support to older adults who have a chronic condition such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Given the changes in the health care environment and in family structures and dynamics, it is important to understand the current demands on caregivers and how these vary with the context of caregiving. This paper will present comparison data from the Miami site of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (Reach) II trial and our ongoing trial, Caring for the Caregiver Network. The trials were conducted with family caregivers of AD patients in the same geographic area two decades apart, had similar eligibility criteria and used similar recruitment strategies. We use baseline data for the two studies to compare and contrast caregivers who join an intervention trial separated by two decades, the nature of the caregiving challenges they confront, areas of need, and magnitude of stress and burden. We discuss secular changes in health, social service systems, and public awareness of AD and caregiving that might account for observed differences.
Published in the Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 21.4 (2014): 531-555. This article... more Published in the Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 21.4 (2014): 531-555. This article explores the historical roles and experiences of women in the formative years of the developing Jewish community in Brisbane. In key areas of Jewish communal activity, the contribution of women to the effective development of the community has been significant. Through examination of archival and newspaper documents and oral history interviews with members of the local Jewish community, this article shows that women's experiences and efforts are an integral part of Brisbane's Jewish history
From the late 19thcentury to the Russian Revolution, millions of Russian Jews left the Russian Em... more From the late 19thcentury to the Russian Revolution, millions of Russian Jews left the Russian Empire, with many seeking new lives in Australia. Brisbane became a main destination for large numbers of these immigrants, pulled by the draw of the established Russian community and the familiar languages and structures of home. Russian Jews first appear in Queensland’s Jewish records in 1912, and later established a formal Jewish congregation, the South Brisbane Hebrew Congregation, in 1915. The decade that followed this ‘first contact’ between new Russian Jewish arrivals and the established Brisbane Jewish community was one of great change. The period was characterised by the political and social upheaval of the Russian Revolution and its global effects, including violent riots and a ban on Russian immigration to Queensland until 1922. Brisbane’s Russian Jewish population was forced into a complex and troubled negotiation of identity during that decade, caught between competing ideologies of politics, religion and nationalism. Drawing on anthropological frameworks of identity and diaspora, this paper explores the negotiation of group identity in the South Brisbane Russian Jewish community during this period, assessing the effects of political, religious and ideological conflict within identity formation, and examining the lasting effects of this period on the community.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a challenge to the physical and mental wel... more The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a challenge to the physical and mental well-being of doctors worldwide. Countries around the world introduced severe social restrictions, and significant changes to health service provision in the first wave of the pandemic to suppress the spread of the virus and prioritize healthcare for those who contracted it. This study interviewed 48 hospital doctors who worked in Ireland during the first wave of the pandemic and investigated their conceptualizations of their own well-being during that time (March–May 2020). Doctors were interviewed via Zoom™ or telephone. Interview transcripts were analyzed using structured thematic analysis. Five composite narratives are presented which have been crafted to illustrate themes and experiences emerging from the data. This study found that despite the risks of contracting COVID-19, many doctors saw some improvements to their physical well-being in the first wave of the pandemic. However, most...
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2019
The Jewish community of SouthEast Queensland, Australia, has always been in constant negotiation ... more The Jewish community of SouthEast Queensland, Australia, has always been in constant negotiation with the mainstream Queensland society around it regarding its relationship with dominant Australian national identity. This results in two different forms of identitya compartmentalized identity, where Australianness and Jewishness are experienced and expressed separately within their own discrete situations, and a creolized identity, where elements of both Australianness and Jewishness are taken and blended into a distinctive new cultural form. Using ethnographic data, this article explores the negotiation between Jewishness and Australianness in group identity. Rather than compartmentalising Jewishness
Teaching Anthropology
Object-based learning, where students learn by hands-on interactive experiences with skills and o... more Object-based learning, where students learn by hands-on interactive experiences with skills and objects, provides an active, multi-layered learning experience. Engaging haptic perceptual styles to build meaning and understanding through tactile stimuli, object-based learning can increase student engagement and satisfaction, and improve knowledge retention and higher-level critical thinking. This paper examines three case studies where haptic pedagogical principles were employed to develop learning experiences for key themes, practices and challenges of anthropology. The first, an archaeological laboratory interaction, gave students physical artefacts to touch, manipulate and critically consider, embedded within real-life archaeological case studies. The second, an interactive session using hand-written letters from asylum seekers drawn from an archival collection, connected students with otherwise-inaccessible asylum-seeker voices and multi-sensory modes of critical archival researc...
Religions, 2019
Many Australian Jews label their Jewish identity as secular. However, public representations of J... more Many Australian Jews label their Jewish identity as secular. However, public representations of Jewish culture within Australian multiculturalism frequently highlight the religious practices of Judaism as markers of Jewish cultural authenticity. This study explores how secular Jews sometimes perform and reference Jewish religious practice when participating in communal events, and when identifying as Jewish to non-Jews in social interactions and in interactions with the state. Ethnographic participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews with nine self-identified secular Jews living in Queensland, Australia, were employed to gather data. These self-identified secular Jews within the community incorporate little religiosity in their private lives, yet in public they often identify with religious practice, and use a religious framework when describing and representing Jewishness to outsiders. This suggests that public Jewishness within Queensland multiculturalism might ...
European Journal of Public Health, 2020
Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Challenging working conditions and poor work–life b... more Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Challenging working conditions and poor work–life balance, particularly in the hospital sector, are often cited as a driver. The aim of this study was to obtain insight into hospital doctors’ experiences of work and of work–life balance. In late 2019, a stratified random sample of hospital doctors participated in an anonymous online survey, distributed via the national Medical Register (overall response rate 20%; n = 1070). This article presents a qualitative analysis of free-text questions relating to working conditions (n = 469) and work–life balance (n = 314). Results show that respondent hospital doctors, at all levels of seniority, were struggling to achieve balance between work and life, with work–life imbalance and work overload being the key issues arising. Work–life imbalance has become normalized within Irish hospital medicine. Drawing on insights from respondent hospital doctors, this study reflects on the sustainability of th...
Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal, 2020
Within anthropology, there is a distinguished history of Jewish ethnographers and ethnographic re... more Within anthropology, there is a distinguished history of Jewish ethnographers and ethnographic research on Jewish life. There is also a wealth of “insider anthropology” conducted by Jewish anthropologists in their own Jewish communities. Of these, many take a feminist anthropological approach, actively interrogating the power dynamics at play within and around the communities they discuss, and within the ethnographic relationship itself. In this essay, the author reflects on her own experiences as a feminist and insider anthropologist in Brisbane’s Jewish community. The essay discusses the negotiation of the dual roles of insider and scholar, and the ways in which feminist epistemological approaches work within this negotiation.
Qualitative Health Research
In this article we outline how a team of qualitative researchers responded to the challenging cir... more In this article we outline how a team of qualitative researchers responded to the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, describing how we successfully and speedily adopted remote/digital methods to research the experiences of hospital doctors. In 2020, we used Zoom to conduct qualitative interviews with 48 hospital doctors; in 2021, we used Zoom and WhatsApp to conduct a Mobile Instant Messaging Ethnography with 28 hospital doctors. We explain how we adapted to a virtual setting and provide clear insights (case study vignettes) into the additional demands on researchers and respondents, in particular, the impact on the research team. Finally, we analyse the positive and negatives of using remote qualitative methods and highlight the potential of hybrid data collection models that combine remote and face-to-face methods. We also highlight our success in communicating findings to a policy audience, important in time-critical situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health Care Management Review
European Journal of Public Health, 2020
Background Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Difficult working conditions, particular... more Background Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Difficult working conditions, particularly in the hospital sector, are often cited as a driver of doctor emigration. In October 2019, a random sample of Ireland's hospital doctors were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their working conditions. Methods The survey was distributed via the national Medical Register (with the assistance of the Medical Council of Ireland). Invitations were sent to 5356 hospital doctors, stratified by registration status (including interns, trainees, those not in training and consultants). An overall response rate of 20% was achieved (N = 1070). This paper focusses on responses to two free-text survey questions: (1) Do you have any other comments about your work-life balance? (N = 314). (2) Do you have any other comments on your working conditions as a hospital doctor? (N = 469). Results Respondent hospital doctors, at all levels of seniority, were struggling to achieve ...
Societies, Sep 18, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Methodological Innovations
The understanding of what ethnography looks like, and its purpose, is continuously evolving. COVI... more The understanding of what ethnography looks like, and its purpose, is continuously evolving. COVID-19 posed a significant challenge to ethnographers, particularly those working in health-related research. Researchers have developed alternative forms of ethnography to overcome some of these challenges; we developed the Mobile Instant Messaging Ethnography (MIME) adaptation to ethnography in 2021 to overcome restrictions to our own research with hospital doctors. However, for ethnographic innovations to make a substantial contribution to methodology, they should not simply be borne of necessity, but of a dedicated drive to expand paradigms of research, to empower participant groups and to produce change – in local systems, in participant-collaborators and in researchers and the research process itself. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences using MIME, involving collaborative remote observation and reflection with 28 hospital doctors in Ireland from June to December 2021. After ...
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies
Aging & mental health, Nov 20, 2015
Family carers of people with dementia have higher than average rates of suicidal ideation, but th... more Family carers of people with dementia have higher than average rates of suicidal ideation, but there has been no research on homicidal ideation in this population. The aim of this study was to explore thoughts of homicide in family carers of people with dementia. A descriptive qualitative approach was taken. Twenty-one Australian carers (7 men, 14 women) participated in individual, in-depth interviews and the transcripts were analysed thematically. Seven themes were identified in the data - active thoughts of homicide; understanding homicidal thoughts in others; passive thoughts of death; euthanasia; homicidal thoughts in other caregiving situations; abuse; and disclosing thoughts of harm. Two of the 21 participants had actively contemplated the homicide of their care recipient, four expressed a passive desire for the care recipient's death, and four reported physically or verbally abusing the care recipient. Only one carer had previously disclosed these experiences. Homicidal i...
BMJ Open
ObjectivesCOVID-19 has prompted the reconfiguration of hospital services and medical workforces i... more ObjectivesCOVID-19 has prompted the reconfiguration of hospital services and medical workforces in countries across the world, bringing significant transformations to the work environments of hospital doctors. Before the pandemic, the working conditions of hospital doctors in Ireland were characterised by understaffing, overload, long hours and work–life conflict. As working conditions can affect staff well-being, workforce retention and patient outcomes, the objective of this study was to analyse how the pandemic and health system response impacted junior hospital doctors’ working conditions during the first wave of COVID-19 in Ireland.Methods and analysisUsing a qualitative study design, the article draws on semi-structured interviews with 30 junior hospital doctors. Informed by an abductive approach that draws iteratively on existing literature and empirical data to explain unexpected observations, data were analysed using inductive and deductive coding techniques to identify the...
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Books by Jennifer Creese
This book explores how various facets of Jewish life are experienced and expressed in Australia, drawing on rich ethnographic and archival research conducted within the mid-sized Jewish community in South-East Queensland, Australia, which has never before been examined. Jewish Identity in Multicultural Australia explores how Jewish identity is manifested and experienced across a wide range of facets: religion and religiosity, ethnicity and ethnonational identity, history and memory, antisemitism and racism, Zionism and diasporic identity, and family and kinship. Across these key themes, the book builds on a core argument: that contemporary Jewish communities work in certain, set ways and promote certain, set norms within a framework of state multiculturalism to forge a safe, supported place for Jewish life, practice and identity of all shapes and sizes.
Journal Articles by Jennifer Creese
This book explores how various facets of Jewish life are experienced and expressed in Australia, drawing on rich ethnographic and archival research conducted within the mid-sized Jewish community in South-East Queensland, Australia, which has never before been examined. Jewish Identity in Multicultural Australia explores how Jewish identity is manifested and experienced across a wide range of facets: religion and religiosity, ethnicity and ethnonational identity, history and memory, antisemitism and racism, Zionism and diasporic identity, and family and kinship. Across these key themes, the book builds on a core argument: that contemporary Jewish communities work in certain, set ways and promote certain, set norms within a framework of state multiculturalism to forge a safe, supported place for Jewish life, practice and identity of all shapes and sizes.
Workplace silence impedes productivity, job satisfaction and retention, key issues for the hospital workforce worldwide. It can have a negative effect on patient outcomes and safety and human resources in healthcare organisations. This study aims to examine factors that influence workplace silence among hospital doctors in Ireland.
Design/methodology/approach
A national, cross-sectional, online survey of hospital doctors in Ireland was conducted in October–November 2019; 1,070 hospital doctors responded. This paper focuses on responses to the question “If you had concerns about your working conditions, would you raise them?”. In total, 227 hospital doctor respondents (25%) stated that they would not raise concerns about their working conditions. Qualitative thematic analysis was carried out on free-text responses to explore why these doctors choose to opt for silence regarding their working conditions.
Findings
Reputational risk, lack of energy and time, a perceived inability to effect change and cultural norms all discourage doctors from raising concerns about working conditions. Apathy arose as change to working conditions was perceived as highly unlikely. In turn, this had scope to lead to neglect and exit. Voice was seen as risky for some respondents, who feared that complaining could damage their career prospects and workplace relationships.
Originality/value
This study highlights the systemic, cultural and practical issues that pressure hospital doctors in Ireland to opt for silence around working conditions. It adds to the literature on workplace silence and voice within the medical profession and provides a framework for comparative analysis of doctors' silence and voice in other settings.