The Resilient Humanitarianism Team congratulates our student, Anna Wilkinson, who was awarded a First Class Honours this week from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University.
What a great way to conclude 2020! We commend Anna for her hard work, persistent effort and her resilience in what has been a difficult and unusual year.
Anna’s thesis was titled: ‘Speaking But Not Heard – The League of Red Cross Societies and its Development Programme: A Case Study on the 1964 South East Asian Red Cross Forum.’
Her abstract reads:
Despite the voluminous scholarship on humanitarianism and not-for-profit organisations in recent years, there are few studies that focus on the League of Red Cross Societies, re-named the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent in 1991. The end of World War II and the collapse of the colonial empires fundamentally reshaped the world and had a direct impact on humanitarianism, decolonisation, and the rise of development in the Global South.
This thesis seeks to fill a gap in the historical literature by exploring how the League responded to these global shifts including the expansion of the Global South and navigated the shift of humanitarianism from ‘help’ to ‘self-help’ in the South East Asian region in the early 1960s.
This thesis argues that the League of Red Cross Societies responded to these global shifts through the creation and implementation of its Development Programme, a five-year funded scheme centred on the promotion of the establishment of efficient Red Cross Societies in all newly independent countries. The thesis uses the archival documents of the 1964 South East Asian Red Cross Forum as a case study in how the Red Cross attempted to address inequality in the region. It suggests that although the Forum created a space where the voices of the Global South could be heard, they were ultimately not listened to by the League.
The conclusion is that the League maintained its colonial Eurocentric, western hegemony over its members from the emerging South East Asian region despite appearing as though it had adapted to the changing world.
Like to know more? You can read more about the Flinders University Bachelor of Arts (Honours) program online.
Interested in joining our team in 2021 for your Honours year? We are offering a $3000 bursary for the 2021 academic year, which you can read about online.
You can focus on the following areas of interest concerning the League of Red Cross Societies:
• children and humanitarianism – the Junior Red Cross
• nursing and humanitarianism
• humanitarianism and conflict.
Please contact us via email at: resilienthum@flinders.edu.au