Dr Melissa Phillips
Melissa is a practitioner-academic (pracademic) who has previously worked for the United Nations and for international NGOs in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa (Kenya and Ethiopia), Libya and the Middle East. She has also worked with asylum seekers in immigration detention in Australia and managed a refugee resettlement project.
Melissa's research considers the many facets of migration - both in Australia and internationally with a focus on transit sites, diasporas and settlement. She is Managing Editor of the Journal of Intercultural Studies and a Board Member of the Swedish Observatory for Human Rights Information.
She has been a guest presenter to groups such as the Lowy Institute and UNHCR (Protection Dialogue) and was formerly a Board Member of Australian Red Cross and the International Detention Coalition.
Current projects - ARC Linkage Project Settling well in regional Australia a longitudinal, comparative assessment of the impacts of the settlement of people from refugee backgrounds in regional Australia, for both people from refugee backgrounds themselves and the communities in which they settle.
Qualifications
- PhD, 2013, University of Melbourne
- MA (Applied Anthropology and Development), 2000, Macquarie University
- BA, 1996, University of New South Wales
Awards and Recognition
- 2023: Researcher Development Award, Women's Fellowship, Western Sydney University
Areas of Research/Expertise
- Diaspora Communities and Trans-nationalism
- Humanitarian Aid
- Migration Studies
- Refugees and displaced persons
Selected Publications
Phillips, M. and Gottardo, C. (2023), 'Deconstructing the myth of the need for immigration detention', Handbook of Critical Whiteness: Deconstructing Dominant Discourses across Disciplines, Springer 9789811916120.
Cuttitta, P., Pecoud, A. and Phillips, M. (2023), 'Civil society and migration governance across European borderlands'(opens in a new window), Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol 44, no 1 , pp 1 - 11.
Phillips, M. (2023), 'Advocates, implementers or allies? : NGOs between humanitarian borderwork and migration management in Libya'(opens in a new window), Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol 44, no 1 , pp 110 - 124.
Phillips, M. and Olliff, L. (2022), 'Understanding Diaspora Development: Lessons from Australia and the Pacific'(opens in a new window), Palgrave Macmillan 9783030978655.
De Nardi, S. and Phillips, M. (2022), 'The plight of racialised minorities during a pandemic : migrants and refugees in Italy and Australia', Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, vol 41, no 1 , pp 98 - 111.
Phillips, M. (2021), 'Cautionary tales from the geographic South : the impact of Australia's 'worst-practice' on international policy-making towards asylum seekers and refugees in times of crisis', Immigrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Times of Crises B, An International Handbook on Migration, Asylum, Social Integration and Exclusion, European Public Law Organization 9786185417123.
Phillips, M. (2020), 'Managing a multiplicity of interests : the case of irregular migration from Libya'(opens in a new window), Migration and Society, vol 3, no 1 , pp 89 - 97.
Missbach, A. and Phillips, M. (2020), 'Reconceptualizing transit states in an era of outsourcing, offshoring, and obfuscation'(opens in a new window), Migration and Society, vol 3, no 1 , pp 19 - 33.
Boese, M. and Phillips, M. (2017), ''Half of myself belongs to this town' : conditional belongings of temporary migrants in regional Australia'(opens in a new window), Migration, Mobility, and Displacement, vol 3, no 1 , pp 51 - 69.
Boese, M. and Phillips, M. (2017), 'The role of local government in migrant and refugee settlement in regional and rural Australia'(opens in a new window), Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol 52, no 4 , pp 388 - 404.
