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Australia is a multi-ethnic, multi-faith, multicultural society. Its future depends on the constructive engagement of ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. Though they have lived in Australia for a number of years, ethno-specific groups that are on opposite sides of the conflicts in the Middle East have had remarkably little contact with each other. Isolation of this kind can deepen mistrust and suspicion, lead in some cases to provocative actions that hinder conflict resolution, deepen old divisions and create new tensions within Australia. There is therefore an urgent need to bring these groups together and facilitate constructive dialogue between them.

Principal investigators: Joseph A. Camilleri (La Trobe University)︎, Michalis S. Michael (La Trobe University)︎, and N.A.J. Taylor︎
Institutional partner: La Trobe University’s Centre for Dialogue︎
Sponsors: The William Buckland Foundation; Victorian Government; La Trobe University
Funding: $200,000 (external)
Key output: more than thirty hours of inter-cultural dialogue


I began making photographs of Australian uranium mining sites in the early 2000s whilst working as an applied ethicist in the institutional investment industry, although I did not begin exhibiting or publishing my nuclear photography until 2009. The process of making photographic images, and the decision to publish some of them, has increasingly informed how I both comprehend and communicate the spatial and temporal enormity of nuclear harms. To date fieldwork of nuclear sites has been conducted in Australia, Belgium, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Finland, Iran, Israel, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. I am a active member of the Advisory Board of the Atomic Photographers Guild which was established in 1987.︎

Principal investigator: N.A.J. Taylor︎
Institutional partner/s: Atomic Photographers Guild︎
Key output: an award-winning essay︎

Just as the human body may be subject to either direct exposure to nuclear radiation that harms some cellular component critical for survival (e.g. DNA), it may also face indirect exposure that damages, destroys or in some way interferes with life-sustaining systems (e.g. water). Investors too—such as companies, pension and sovereign wealth funds, and individual investors—all variously face vulnerability to exposure along two pathways: 1. direct exposure through nuclear-related assets allocations or market risk (e.g. nuclear safety, natural events, and terrorism); and 2. indirect exposure to the global problems of nuclear weapons, war, accidents and waste that originate outside the fund (e.g. proximity of members, operations or assets to a nuclear disaster which is not among the funds holdings). A wider-reaching study that underpinned this work was awarded the inaugural prize for sustainable investment research in 2007 where the panel of judges convened by Australia’s University Pension Scheme noted my “pioneering role” which “may have single-handedly debunked any residual concerns [...] and could fundamentally change how [legislators and trustees] now tackle this subject”.︎

Principal investigator: N.A.J. Taylor︎
Collaborators: M. Scott Donald (The University of New South Wales)︎ and Robert McKellar (Harmattan Risk)︎
Institutional partners: United Nations Global Compact Expert Group on Responsible Business in Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas︎ and Network for Sustainable Financial Markets︎
Funding: Commercial contracts
Key output: an award-winning report︎