Tamasin Ramsay | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 (age 54–55) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Custodians of purity : an ethnography of the Brahma Kumaris (2017) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Anthropologist |
| Sub-discipline | Medical anthropology |
| Main interests | Study of Brahma Kumaris |
Tamasin Ramsay (born 1969) is an Australian anthropologist and former actress. She studied medical anthropology at the University of Melbourne and received her PhD in the same field from Monash University in 2009. Ramsay resides in Victoria, Australia.
Her parents are Robin Ramsay and Barbara Bossert Ramsay (actress and writer). As a child she worked as an actor, with roles in an ABC Television series, The Truckies, and the film Dimboola. At age 17, she was cast in the Australian television series Possession (1985).[1] She played Princess Talitha in Return to Eden (1986), followed by roles in Prime Time (1986), Neighbours (1987), Darlings of the Gods (1989), The Great Gatsby (Rippon Lea, directed by Robert Chuter), Blue Heelers (2001),[2] Queen of the Damned (2002), and Tao of the Traveller (2008), a film based on a theatre script and book written by Barbara Bossert Ramsay, and produced and directed by her father, Robin Ramsay.
During the 1990s, Ramsay left television and became a qualified ambulance paramedic in Melbourne. She was awarded a number of commendations during her paramedic career.[citation needed] During the 1990s Ramsay also earned her black belt in Gōjū Kai karate after winning a number of national and international titles in martial arts.[citation needed]. While continuing to volunteer in the health and emergency services, Ramsay attended graduate school at the University of Melbourne and was awarded a PhD for studies in anthropology and health at Monash University in 2009, for which she wrote an in-depth ethnographic study of the Brahma Kumaris as her thesis.[3]
Between 2010 and 2014, she worked as an NGO Representative to the United Nations for the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, focussing on climate change, sustainability and the environment.[4]
After representing civil society at the United Nations and participating in climate change deliberations, Ramsay returned to working at the level of local communities as an activist for social, environmental and animal justice. Ramsay was the candidate for the Animal Justice Party in the seat of Albert Park, in the 2018 Victorian state election.[5] She worked as senior policy adviser to Andy Meddick (member of parliament for the Western Victoria Region, Animal Justice Party),[citation needed] and was the Animal Justice Party candidate in the electorate of Lowan at the 2022 Victorian state election.[6]