Addressing the contemporary issues of asylum-seeking, migration and statelessness across the areas of law, health, culture, education, creative arts, history, social policy, housing, social sustainability, community wellbeing and mental health.
The Melbourne Social Equity Institute's Interdisciplinary PhD Program is open to graduate researchers in any faculty at the University of Melbourne undertaking a PhD related to migration, refugee studies or statelessness.
Students are supported to build networks across the University and with relevant external organisations and to develop their research in reference to current real-world challenges. Masterclasses, workshops and seminars will include a focus on ethics, research methods and approaches for communicating research to diverse audiences across and beyond the academy.
The program enriches the PhD experience by creating a strong cohort and intellectual community that assists students in developing their post-doctoral pathways.
Eligible students must have commenced a PhD and have at least one supervisor based at the University of Melbourne.
The PhD program in Migration, Statelessness and Refugee Studies has given me great opportunities to learn from people with robust experiences and knowledge in migration and human rights. Its masterclasses, workshops and informal meetings have introduced me to a wide range of topics crucial to researching in this area; ethics, engaging with community and so on. I found it most wonderful that this program brings together individuals with different areas of research and creates spaces for conversations and collaborations.. Nurul Azizah Zayzda, PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School
As a supervisor it's been a joy knowing that a PhD candidate I am supervising is able to be part of this Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Migration, Statelessness and Refugee Studies. It's also made it possible for us to create an interdisciplinary supervisory team. Three cheers for interdisciplinary team work! Dr David Denborough, University of Melbourne PhD Supervisor
The program in has enabled me to connect with PhD candidates from other faculties who are interested in similar research areas. This opportunity to engage in discussion, and share resources and perspectives, has been energising and valuable for my own dissertation. I especially appreciated the fortnightly Shut-Up and Write sessions as it is wonderful to write with others, rather than in isolation, which largely characterises the PhD journey Melina Mallos, PhD Candidate, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
In addition to the formal events below, program members have fortnightly "shut up and write" sessions and regular casual catch-ups, as well as sharing information about relevant webinars, conferences, scholarships, post-doc opportunities, funding opportunities and more.
Upcoming Events
- Tuesday 17 October 2023
- 12.00pm
Masterclass with Professor Yiorgos Anagnostou and Dr Andonis Piperoglou on Diasporas, Ethnicities and The Politics of Whiteness
- Thursday 19 October 2023
- 1.00pm
Masterclass with Professor Jenny Phillimore and Professor Gabriella Elgenius on Civil Society and Superdiversity
- Thursday 2 November 2023
- 1.00pm
Masterclass with Dr Julia Hurst and Dr Nicholas Apoifis on Insider/Outsider Research
- Thursday 16 November 2023
- 9.00am
Migration, Refugees and Statelessness Interdisciplinary Conference
Past Events
- Friday 1 September 2023
- 1.00pm
'Brown Paper Bag' Seminar Kate Coddington on Border enforcement and Feminist Mapping
- Wednesday 19 July 2023
- 1.00pm
'Managing Up' Supervisors Workshop
- Wednesday 26 April 2023
- 12.30pm
Reading Group – The challenges and rewards of conducting participatory research for your PhD
- Monday 20 March 2023
- 10.30am
Reading Group – Identity and Belonging
- Friday 3 March 2023
- Afternoon
Welcome Event 2023
- Friday 18 November 2022
- All Day
Migration, Refugees and Statelessness Interdisciplinary Conference 2022
Learn More - Friday 7 October 2022
- 1.00pm
Insider/Outsider Research Workshop with Dr Julia Hurst and Dr Nicholas Apoifis
- Friday 13 May 2022
- 10.30am
Migrants, Settlers, Sovereignties: A Workshop on Migration and Colonialism with Dr Andonis Piperoglou
- Friday 18 March 2022
- 2.30pm
Welcome Event 2022
- Monday 22 November 2021
- 2.30pm
Masterclass with Associate Professor Cathy Vaughan (Interim Director, Melbourne Social Equity Institute) on Using Photovoice in Research
- Thursday 30 September 2021
- 10.00am
Workshop – The Politics of Solidarity and Anti-Racism in Settler Colonial Contexts
- Thursday 16 September 2021
- 4.30pm
Masterclass with Professor Lynn Gillam (Centre for Health Equity) on Managing Ethical Tensions in Research
- Tuesday 16 August 2021
- 12.30pm
Panel: Post-PhD Careers in Academia and Beyond
- Thursday 3 June 2021
- 2.30pm
Seminar: Funding Opportunities and Strategies for Grant Writing
- Thursday 1 April 2021
- 2.00pm
Reading Group: Spatial Politics and Migration
- Monday 22 March 2021
- 11.00am
Workshop: Working with Supervisors
- Friday 26 February 2021
- 2.00pm
Welcome Event 2021
- Wednesday 28 October 2020
- 1.00pm
Writing and Publishing for ECR and HDR Researchers (open to all)
Video Available - Thursday 8 October 2020
- 3.00pm
Workshop on Policy and Policy Change in Asylum Governance
- Wednesday 2 September 2020
- 10.00am
Masterclass with Professor Karen Farquharson (Faculty of Arts) on Critical Race Theory
- Wednesday 13 May 2020
- 3.00pm
Masterclass with Professor Deborah Warr (Charles Sturt University) on Co-produced Research
- Friday 21 February 2020
- 2.00pm
Welcome Event 2020
- Monday3 December 2020
- 3.00pm
Activism and Academia Workshop
- Tuesday19 November 2019
- All Day
Migration, Refugees and Statelessness Interdisciplinary Conference
- Friday20 September 2019
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Carolina Gottardo (Jesuit Refugee Service) on Global Compacts and Regional Refugee Processes
- Wednesday21 August 2019
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Dr Ibi Losoncz (ANU) on Unforced Migration
- Wednesday29 May 2019
- 10.00am
International Fieldwork Workshop
- Monday25 March 2019
- 2.30pm
Ethics Workshop
- Thursday14 March 2019
- 1.00pm
Welcome Event 2019
- Thursday21 February 2019
- 2.00pm
Workshop on Responsibility for Refugee and Migrant Integration
- Friday7 December 2018
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Associate Professor Val Colic-Peiske, Migration and Mobility Research Network, RMIT
- Thursday15 November 2018
- All Day
Researchers for Asylum Seekers Interdisciplinary Conference
- Friday6 October 2018
- 2.00pm
Share Your Research Session
- Thursday16 August 2018
- 3.00pm
Study Circle led by Shannon Owen: The Research Encounter
- Friday10 August 2018
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Associate Professor Eva Alisic (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health) on children and trauma
- Friday13 July 2018
- 3.00pm
Study Circle led by Anh Nguyen: Refugee Mobility, Framework and Purpose
- Friday29 June 2018
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Gillian Triggs, Vice Chancellor's Fellow and former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission
- Friday8 June 2018
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Professor Nick Haslam, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
- Friday18 May 2018
- 2.00pm
Skills Workshop: Writing and Responding to Journal Review with Professor Julie McLeod, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Capability)
- Friday11 May 2018
- 2.00pm
Masterclass with Erika Feller, Vice Chancellor's Fellow and former Assistant High Commissioner (Protection) at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Friday23 March 2018
- 3.30pm
Welcome Social Event at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute
- Tuesday & Wednesday13 – 14 February 2018
- All Day
Refugee Alternatives Conference
- Thursday16 November 2017
- All Day
RAS Postgraduate Conference
- Friday13 October 2017
- 2.00pm
Abstract writing and presentation skills workshop
- Friday8 September 2017
- 2.00pm
Research translation and communication workshop
- Friday11 August 2017
- All Day
Introductory full-day workshop and launch of the PhD Program
PhD researchers enrolled in the PhD program come from schools and faculties from across the University of Melbourne including Law, Education, Architecture, Fine Arts, Engineering and Population Health.
Current Members
Daphne Arapakis
Mediterranean diasporas, Indigenous sovereignties: the Ethnic dimensions of the settler colonial present
Sayomi Ariyawansa
Tackling the exploitation of temporary migrant workers
Sana Ashraf
Silence behind the locked doors: domestic violence experiences and coping mechanisms of Pakistani immigrant women in Australia
Rashika Bahl
Misinformation behaviour in migrants
Surriya Baloch
Antenatal screening for family violence with migrant south Asian women in Australia
Alan Bechaz
Navigating mental health with diverse linguistic repertoires: an applied linguistic approach to CALD community members’ and mental health workers’ talk
Brendan Casey
Visiting authors: transnationalism and Australian literary history
Sumedha Choudhury
Citizenship and statelessness: a critical enquiry of India’s practice
Salsawi Feleke Debela
Settling well: a longitudinal study of refugees in regional Australia
Vincent Dogbey
The dilemmas of development: forced migration, displacement and involuntary resettlement
Philippa Duell-Piening
The right to be counted for people with disabilities who are refugees or from refugee backgrounds
Jean Claire Dy
The affective tensions between memory and forgetting, between guilt and forgiveness: the use of poetic and observational modes of documentary filmmaking on a post-conflict community
Donya Eghrari
Sexual and reproductive healthcare experiences of refugee families
Wong Yuen Ping Estella
Ethnotheatre as a public artistic process for community building
Trisnasari Fraser
Social cohesion and resilience through intercultural music engagement
Zali Siaw Yen Fung
The uneven development of the Yuam River water diversion project in the Salween river basin: participation, exclusion and resistance
Aishah Jameel
Evaluating the role of bicultural workers in improving maternal and child health outcomes among refugee background women
Sara Javadian
Co-design of a mindfulness-based art intervention for children from refugee backgrounds
Andrea Marilyn Pragashini Immanuel
The Right to Nationality in Armed Conflict
Saltanat Kamenova
Superdiversity in entrepreneurship: the case of refugee women entrepreneurs in Melbourne
Anaita Kanga-Parabia
Migrant and refugee experiences of preconception and pregnancy genetic screening
Mireille Kayeye
Empowerment of women seeking asylum: a voice for change
Sarah Khaw
Exploring community-based doulas' and health care providers' experiences when providing care to migrant and refugee women in Australian maternity settings
Kimberly Lakin
Childbearing Indian migrant women's expectations and experiences of care: a case study for improving health system responsiveness
Meghan Lee
Exploring mental health supports, needs and access with young people of a refugee background in western Victoria
Alison Lemoh
Challenges in nursing sepsis management: an exploration of organisational and cultural barriers and enablers in acute care provision
Melina Mallos
New media and identity: Exploring Greek migrant youth perspectives
Thomas McGee
The displacement-statelessness nexus – Syrians in limbo
Jemima McKenna
Making sense of irregular migration governance: relations of domination within third-state agreements?
Sheenagh McShane
Refugee populations: what role does housing play e.g. accessibility/instability/affordability in mental health outcomes over time?
Bongkot Napaumporn
Negotiating identities and inclusion: analysis of interactions between stateless migrants and the States where they have legal connection - the case of stateless persons from Thailand in Japan
Hoang Tran Nguyen
The role of the artist and the contingent other
Samantha O'Donnell
Precarious Migration Status, Family Violence and Immigration Law and Policy in Australia
Shannon Owen
Projecting futures through documentary film
Daniel Pejic
The city as group agent in global migration governance
Ratu Ayu Asih Kusuma Putri
Refugee mobilisation in ‘transition’: comparing the organisational patterns of Rohingya communities in Malaysia and Bangladesh
MD Mizanur Rahman
Stateless Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: identities, belongings, and aspirations
SM Safiqur Rahman
Performance-based refugee shelter planning and design: the case of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh
Gowri Rajaram
Help-seeking behaviours and service utilisation following self-harm in young people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
Jade Roberts
Beyond the state: an individual rights approach to recognising and protecting the rights of stateless people
Shiva Pourali Roudbaneh
Menstrual needs study: exploring the physical, psychological, social and medical needs of young women with heavy menstrual bleeding and pain
Maryam Sarrafzadeh
Using positive psychology to increase employability of migrants
Eyram Ivy Sedzro
Risk assessment in migration: the impact of information campaigns on the risk perception of unskilled and semi-skilled Ghanaian female migrants
Nina Serova
Inheritances and encounters: Russian migrant women’s experiences in Australia
Farnaz Shahimi
Resilience and sense of identity among refugee children: a social ecological perspective
Claire Sullivan
Legal responses to violence: experiences of women from refugee backgrounds
Shadow Toke
Understanding what works to enable trauma-informed and culturally safe maternity care for Karen women of refugee background: A participatory learning and action research study
Catherine Townsend
Continental European Architects who migrated to Victoria between 1930 and 1940: their experience and contribution to Australian architecture
Ann Truong
Collective memory and collective prospection in victim groups of mass atrocities
Franka Korantemaa Vaughan
Who is a Liberian anyways? The claim for formalised identity by diasporic Liberians
Martha Isela Vazquez Corona
Giving mums a fair go: culturally responsive care for refugee and migrant women
Max Walden
Where to now, if anywhere? The role of international NGOs and grassroots civil society actors in advocating on behalf of asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia
Elodiea Wilson
Borders of knowledge: cross-ontological border violence
Sintayehu Abebe Woldie
Sexual violence against female victims in Ethiopia: health services’ response to the mental health effects
Dana Young
Sports participation, social capital and health for refugee and migrant teenage girls
Nurul Azizah Zayzda
Southeast Asian states’ behaviour on international human rights regime and the dynamics of citizenship practice affecting refugees’ lives
Completed Candidates
Adrienne Anderson
Refugee law and gender-based violence against women: uncovering the political dimensions
Completed in 2022
Duncan Caillard
The art of looking: contemplating emptiness in the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Completed in 2022
Jonathan Daly
Out-of-placeness: mediating intercultural encounter through urban design
Completed in 2019
Caitlin Douglass
Exploring alcohol and other drug use among young people of migrant backgrounds in Victoria
Completed in 2022
Rose Iser
Understanding second-generation African Australian students from refugee backgrounds in the classroom
Completed in 2022
Rasika Jayasuriya
Protecting the right to family unity: the impact of low-waged labour migration on children left behind
Completed in 2019
Ebony King
The role of services in facilitating the resilience of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors
Completed in 2019
Sanaz Nasirpour
Diasporic relations and women’s leadership: the question of women’s rights in Iran
Completed in 2018
Hala Nasr
Safe spaces as a response to gender-based violence in refugee settings: possibilities and limitations
Completed in 2023
Anh Nguyen
Vietnamese child migrants in Australia and the historical use of Facebook in digital diaspora
Completed in 2019
Louise Olliff
Refugee diaspora organisations in the international refugee regime: motivations, modalities and implications of diaspora humanitarianism
Completed in 2017
Elham M Shoorcheh
Examination of key clinical, biological, psychological and social factors associated with post-pubertal anxiety in young people diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Completed in 2018
Kelly Soderstrom
Governance and responsibility in the refugee crisis in Germany: an analysis of institutional change and the capabilities-expectation gap
Completed in 2021
Sarah Strauven
People with and without refugee experience co-creating a shared world through narrative practices
Completed in 2021
Brandais York
The legal rights and protections of Cambodian women within international marriage migration to China
Completed in 2019
The Program is offered by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and graduate researchers remain enrolled in their current departments. Eligible students must have at least one supervisor based at the University of Melbourne and be undertaking doctoral research on a relevant topic.
Timely completion of a PhD thesis remains the priority, with the Program intended to enhance the experience of advanced research training and aid post PhD pathways.
Participants can join the program at any time during their candidature and remain part of the program until the completion of their doctoral studies.
If you are not a current student at the University of Melbourne and would like information about how to apply to undertake a PhD at the University, please visit the Future Students website.
Application Process
Applicants are asked to provide the following information via an online form. We strongly recommend that you prepare your answers offline (in Microsoft Word or similar) and save a copy for your own records.
- Name, enrolment and contact information
- Start and expected completion dates
- Current Supervisor/s
- Thesis title (or proposed title)
- A brief description of their topic (up to 100 words)
- An outline of what they are most interested in gaining from the program (up to 100 words)
The PhD Program in Migration, Statelessness and Refugee Studies is open to graduates researchers enrolled in a PhD at the University of Melbourne through any of its Faculties. If you would like information about how to apply to become a PhD candidate at the University, please visit the Future Students website.
If you a current student or have already applied to study at the University of Melbourne and have questions about the PhD Program please contact:
Associate Professor Karen Block
keblock@unimelb.edu.au
socialequity.unimelb.edu.au
+61 3 8344 0862
For updates about our work in the area of refugees and migration, and the other activities of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, please subscribe to our email newsletter.