Meet Anna Hickey-Moody!
To finish off our little “get to know our team” segment for the week – meet our amazing Project Leader Anna!
Anna Hickey-Moody is the Project Leader for Interfaith Childhoods and currently lives on the land of the Kulin Nations in Naarm. Anna is Professor of Media and Communication, ARC Future Fellow and RMIT Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University. Anna has worked in social research with young people and communities for over 20 years and she often includes arts practice as a way of sharing stories and exploring experiences. Anna has written 5 books and edited 5 very widely cited collections.
We asked Anna a few questions:
What should we call you?
“My name is Anna, which in Irish is Áine (awn-ye). I answer to either! Some children call me Miss, my partner calls me 'Professor' 🤨.”
Why did you decide to launch this project?
“I developed this project for a number of reasons, mainly because I felt that popular discourses about religion in Australia were very divisive and left out the most interesting, interwoven aspects of what people believe and how they live. I wanted to better understand and share the every day messiness of faith and life, not as a story of those who believe and those who don’t, but rather as the way everyone makes meaning in different ways.”
What's your role with Interfaith Childhoods, what does that look like?
“Well, it’s very much 'my project' though I really love watching it grow in new ways through the different approaches of team members who bring a range of worldviews to the work - especially through the work of the UK faith based artists who have really inspiring re-writings of Muslim women's identities in England.”
Is there one experience or piece of data from the project that’s really interested you?
“I think the data from my work on estates in south east London is very interesting when considered in the context of a lot of literature on estates, as the mothers I worked with had a very strong 'happiness bubble' that was made up of the world they experienced on their estate. The other story that comes from a lot of families is of multi-religious relationships, where parents from two different religions or worldviews have married and bring their children up in both worlds. This is more common than I had anticipated and generates stories and phrases I think about a lot, like "there is a saint everywhere you look". I love that line.”
What are you reading?
“I've just finished Breda Gray's fantastic book called "Women and the Irish Diaspora" which has an excellent chapter on whiteness, femininities and migration in it - compulsory reading for anyone interested in the racialization of the Irish.”
Have you picked up any new pets during lockdown?
“We have adopted Angus who is a dragon horse disguised as a recently retired racing greyhound. I think having a baby would have been a lot more relaxing and required less roaming the streets looking for the escaped family member.”
Want to hear more from Anna? Check out this amazing sneak peek of Chapter 1 of Anna’s upcoming book about her work with Interfaith Childhoods!
Anna working with participants during an Interfaith Childhoods workshop.