Farida Fozdar (aka Tilbury) is a sociologist and Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, with a research focus on migration, race and ethnicity, refugee settlement, racism, nationalism, global citizenship and cosmopolitanism. She has published widely with over a hundred journal articles, chapters, books, and reports. She has supervised over 20 PhD students. Farida joined UWA in 2011 as an ARC Future Fellow, and has been in a teaching and research role since 2016. From 2016-2019 she was Deputy Head of Social Sciences (Research), and acting Head of School in 2018. She is currently Chair of the UWA Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Working Group, a Grand Challenges 'Champion' for 'A just and equitable world post Covid-19', and leader of a 'Research Pursuit' on Engaged Citizenship. She coordinates the Migration, Mobilities and Belonging research cluster at UWA, and is co-convenor of the annual Migration Update. In 2021 she initiated the Sociology in the West network.

Deputy Head Research (Social Sciences); Chair, School Research Committee, and member of School Executive Committee (2016-2019)

Acting Head of School (Social Sciences) and member Faculty Executive Committee Jan-August 2018

Member, School Community and Engagement Committee (2017-2019)

Member, School Teaching and Learning Committee (2017-2018)

Course Coordinator, Master of Social Research Methods (2016-2020)

Chair, UWA Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Working Group and member of UWA Inclusion and Diversity Committee (2018-current)

UWA Global Citizenship/Internationalisation at Home academic champion (2020-current)

UWA Research Pursuit Leader (‘Engaged Citizenship’) (2021-2022)

UWA ‘Grand Challenges’ Champion (2020-2021)

Coordinator, Migration, Mobilities and Belonging Research cluster (MMoB) (2014-current)

Co-convenor, annual Migration Update (2014-current)

Convenor, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) national conference, 2017

Convenor, Sociology in the West (2021)

International: Assisting development of strategy for international educational opportunities; UWA delegation to Korea, SKKU (Sept, 2017) to build research and teaching links; guest teaching of Research Design intensive to upskill Indonesian academic staff (UIN, Pekanbaru) (Oct, 2017); School representative to USM (Penang, Malaysia) (2015) re research training partnership.

Research Fellow, UWA Africa Research and Engagement Centre (2018-current)

Fellow, UWA Public Policy Institute (2019-current)

Convenor, Australian Sociological Association (TASA) National Conference, 2017 

Assessor, reviewer, examiner of national and international grants including ARC DPs and FTs, of books and journal articles, and of PhDs.

Previous roles (pre 2015)

Faculty of Arts Associate Dean Research (acting), 2015

Faculty of Arts Research Committee, Member, 2013–2015

Co-convener Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism Thematic Group, The Australian Sociological Association (2010-2011)

Research Grants
Farida has received over $2.1 million in grants to research topics ranging from refugee settlement and belonging, nationalism and racism, evaluations of settlement programs, migrant mental health and wellbeing, mobilities across the lifecourse, training, education and employment issues for migrants, migration and media use, health and wellbeing, intercultural confidence among university students, creating inclusive school environments, international legal obligations and settlement support, and mixed race.  Her 4 year Australian Research Council Future Fellowship explored contemporary Australian identity, particularly affective aspects of national versus transnational and postnational/cosmopolitan identities.

Farida has taught a number of units as part of the Master of Social Research Methods, including SOCS5003 Research Design, SOCS5005 Social Research Ethics, SOCS5501 Evaluation, SOCS5009 Innovative Social Research Methods, and SOCS5001 Engaging Cultural Difference. In collaboration with Honours and Masters' coordinators across disciplines, she adapted her SOCS5003 unit as MIXD5005 Designing Social Research, now a required unit across a range of disciplines and year levels. She has taught previously at undergraduate levels in the areas of introductory sociology, social research methods, race and ethnicity, refugees and migration, community development, and sociology of health and illness and sociology of religion. She is committed to the 'teaching/research' nexus, and uses examples from her applied research in everyday teaching, as well as providing opportunities for learning through application.

Farida supervises a range of postgraduate students. She has supervised students studying media representations of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; representations of Australian identity; historical metaphors of migration; characteristics of various migrant communities; mixed race families and relationships; barriers to higher education among Sudanese migrants; and more. She is also experienced in supervision of students undertaking thesis by publication. She is interested in higher degree students in the areas of racism/anti-racism, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, global citizenship, international education, mixed race, migration and refugee settlement, and social inclusion. 

Farida uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand the ways in which society engages cultural difference, demonstrating inclusion and care or exclusion. Her particular focus is  how racial, ethnic, national and religious identities are constructed, issues around refugee and migrant settlement, and questions of cultural diversity. Farida has a particular interest in discourse analysis, seeking to understand how racism and nationalism are perpetuated through language; and takes an applied focus in much of her work including social research consultancies such as evaluations of migrant resettlement programs. 

Farida is among Australia’s leading authorities on issues of migration, race relations and multiculturalism. Her intellectual contributions over the two decades since completing her PhD have included developing:

• a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which everyday and institutional racism occurs and is communicated, using discursive analysis, but with the added contribution of investigating everyday anti-racism, particularly in everyday talk, media representations and online blog sites – specific contributions include identifying linguistic and rhetorical devices used to perpetuate, but also challenge, racism;
• an understanding of the processes and drivers of downward mobility for refugees and migrants, demonstrating the importance of social and cultural capital and information networks, as well as justifications for discriminatory practices by employers;
• insights into the ways in which interpersonal cross cultural contact influences people’s ethnic identity, perceptions of others who are ‘different’ from them, and attitudes to race relations issues;
• understandings of diversity and 'internationalisation at home' on university campuses and how they can become more inclusive;
• new insights into the ways in which migrants see well-being, mental health, care and belonging, particularly in relation to settlement, access to services, and opportunities for interaction with others, offering recommendations (among others) about how to communicate health messages effectively to migrant communities, including through the use of community media;
• understanding of the experiences of Australia’s most recent humanitarian entrants, including those from African backgrounds, and in relation to concerns about their representation by media and political actors;
• a focus on mixed race identities in multicultural Australia;
• a large body of work on Australian identity, citizenship, nationalism, and political discourse around social inclusion and exclusion, including the religious and racial foundations of the construction and communication of Australian identity, and elements of ethno and civic belonging seen as important among migrants; and
• significant work on global citizenship, postnationalism and cosmopolitanism, challenging the social injustices associated with nationalism.

The policy relevance of this work has been recognised in invitations to contribute to parliamentary inquiries on a range of issues to do with migration and nationalism. Farida's interest in global citizenship, cosmopolitanism and post-nationalism has generated over 35 academic publications from her Future Fellowship. Rather than using a deficit approach to understanding issues for ethnic minorities, she has sought to recognise strength and resilience, and to avoid a siloed approach to analysis which treats ethnic communities in isolation from the broader, ‘mainstream’ society. Farida seeks to support the work of younger scholars through mentoring and co-pulication, supporting younger scholars’ careers. While the work has an Australian focus, it has had international impact, and she has been invited to contribute to international Encyclopaedias, international Handbooks, multiple international edited collections, and as international keynote speaker. Her contribution has been in identifying the taken-for-granted ways in which social exclusion based on race and ethnicity is perpetuated, and exploring ways to promote inclusion.