28th CCCM Conversation

Who am I? Stories of identity work of Sri Lankan skilled immigrant women in Australian workplaces

• Skilled immigrant women make up almost 50% of the migrant population worldwide.
• In 2021, they made up 47.4% of the skilled migrant population of Australia.

Gayani will share her doctoral research findings by sharing stories on how Sri Lankan skilled immigrant women developed stable identities in Australian workplaces. The talk will focus on how Sri Lankan skilled immigrant women:

• shape and reshape their identities in their interactions with others at work and by drawing on wider, non-work related social structures
• engaged in identity work at the intersection of culturally provided gendered role identities and professional identities
• developed intersectional identities as multiply identified immigrant women in Australia.

Location: 24.101 and Via Zoom  (Passcode 751441)

Who will benefit: This presentation may benefit qualitative researchers, higher degree research students and academics interested in immigrant, gender and identity studies.

Presenter:

Dr Gayani Gunasekera is a Sessional Academic at University of Wollongong and University of Sydney. She received her doctorate from University of Wollongong. Her thesis explored stories of identity work among Sri Lankan skilled immigrant women in Australian workplaces. Gayani’s research interests include identity work by skilled immigrants, sensemaking of identities in organizations and student experience in higher degree research. Her work has been presented at the annual conferences of the Academy of Management (AOM), the British Academy of Management (BAM) and the Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM). In the teaching and learning space, Gayani’s research interests include peer learning in higher education, higher degree research students’ well-being and effective feedback in the workplace.