Associate Professor Rachel Busbridge

Associate Professor of Sociology
National School of Arts and Humanities

Dr. Rachel Busbridge

Areas of expertise: social and political theory; culture; identity and space; postcolonialism; city politics; local government

Phone: +613 9230 8594

Email: rachel.busbridge@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5348-9335

Rachel Busbridge is Associate Professor of Sociology in ACU’s National School of Arts and Humanities (Melbourne). She is a political sociologist who specialises in cultural and urban politics.

Prior to joining ACU in 2018, Rachel was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin, a Research Fellow at La Trobe University, and a postdoctoral research associate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has taught Sociology and Politics at al-Quds University (Palestine), al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences, and the University of South Australia.

Rachel has particular research interests in social and political theory, postcolonialism, city politics, and local government. Her work has appeared in leading international journals like Urban Affairs Review, Political Geography, Political Studies, Theory, Culture and Society, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies and Social Identities, amongst others. Rachel’s first book, Multicultural Politics of Recognition and Postcolonial Citizenship: Rethinking the Nation (2018), was published by Routledge as part of the Postcolonial Politics series. Her second book How Local Governments Govern Culture War Conflicts (co-authored with Mark Chou) is published with Cambridge University Press. Her third book, Postcolonialism and Political Theory, is under contract with Polity Press as part of the ‘And Political Theory’ series.

Along with Howard Prosser (Monash), Rachel is current Managing Editor of Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology (Sage).

Academia

ResearchGate

Publications

Books

  • Busbridge, R. (under contract) Postcolonialism and Political Theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
  • Chou, M. & Busbridge, R. (2020). How Local Governments Govern Culture War Conflicts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Busbridge, R. (2018). Multicultural Politics of Recognition and Postcolonial Citizenship: Rethinking the Nation. Oxon & New York: Routledge.

Journal Articles

  • Busbridge, R. (2024) Re-imagining and Remembering in Gaza: A Response to Spivak’s ‘Humanities beyond the Disciplines: Towards Imaginative Activism’. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. https://rdcu.be/dX2cF
  • Chou, M., Busbridge, R. & Moffitt, B (2024) Far-Right Translocalism: Towards a New Research Agenda. Political Geography, 114: 1-3.
  • Chou, M., Busbridge, R. & Rutledge-Prior, S. (2024) From the Three Rs to the Culture Wars? How Australians Perceive Local Government Action on Climate Change, Indigenous Reconciliation, and LGBTQIA+ Advocacy. Urban Affairs Review, 61(2): 260-281.
  • Busbridge, R., Chou, M. & Rutledge-Prior, S. (2024) The Three Rs and Beyond: Public Perceptions on the Role of Australian Local Government Today. Urban Policy and Research, 42(2): 204-216.
  • Busbridge, R., Cunningham, A. & Chou, M. (2024) Enhancing Perceptions of Employability amongst First-Year Arts Students and Implications for Student Belonging. Higher Education Research & Development, 43(4): 792-808.
  • Busbridge, R. (2023) Changing the Date: Australia Day, Local Councils and Cultures of National Commemoration. Journal of Sociology, 59(2): 403-420.
  • Chou, M., Moffitt, B. & Busbridge, R. (2022) The Localist Turn in Populism Studies. Swiss Political Science Review, 28(1): 129-141. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/spsr.12490
  • Busbridge, R. & Chou, M. (2022) Culture Wars and City Politics, Revisited: Local Councils and the Australia Day Controversy. Urban Affairs Review, 58(1): 68-102.
  • Busbridge,R., Moffitt, B. & Thorburn, J. (2020) Cultural Marxism: Far-right Conspiracy Theory in Australia's Culture Wars. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 26(6): 722-738.
  • Busbridge, R. (2020) Messianic Time, Settler Colonial Technology and the Elision of Palestinian Presence in Jerusalem's Historic Basin. Political Geography, 79(May): 102158.
  • Chou, M. & Busbridge, R. (2019) Culture Wars, Local Government, and the Australia Day Controversy: Insights from Urban Politics Research. Urban Policy & Research, 37(3): 367-377.
  • Bashir, B. & Busbridge, R. (2019) The Politics of Decolonisation and Bi-Nationalism in Israel/Palestine. Political Studies, 67(2): 388-405.
  • Busbridge, R. (2018) Israel-Palestine and the Settler Colonial Turn: From Interpretation to Decolonisation. Theory, Culture & Society, 35(1): 91-115.
  • Busbridge, R. (2017) The Wall has Feet but So Do We: Palestinian Workers in Israel and the Separation Wall. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 44(3): 373-390.
  • Busbridge, R. (2016) Between Continuity and Change: Contemporary Indigenous Identities and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. International Sociology, 31(5): 515-524.
  • Busbridge, R. & Winarnita. M. (2015) Dialogue and Other ‘Men’s Business’: Gender, Conflict and Multicultural Politics in the Diaspora. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 36(2): 202-220.
  • Busbridge, R. (2015) On Haunted Geography: Writing Nation and Contesting Claims in the Ghost Village of Lifta. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 17(4): 469-487.
  • Busbridge, R. (2014) Frontier Jerusalem: Blurry Separation and Uneasy Coexistence in a Divided City. Thesis Eleven, 121(1): 76-100.
  • Abraham, I. & Busbridge, R. (2014) Afghan-Australians: Diasporic Tensions, Homeland Transformations and the 2014 Syndrome. Journal of Minority Muslim Affairs, 34(3): 243-258.
  • Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N., Woodsum, N.G., Zu’bi, H. & Busbridge, R. (2014) ‘Funding pain’: Bedouin Women and Political Economy in the Negev/Naqab. Feminist Economics, 20(4): 164-186.
  • Busbridge, R. (2013) Performing Colonial Sovereignty and the Israeli ‘Separation’ wall. Social Identities: Journal of Race, Nation and Culture. 19(5): 653-669.

Book Chapters

  • Busbridge, R. (2024) Gender, Political Citizenship and Intersectional Feminism in Australia: #MeToo and the March 4 Justice. In Birte Siim & Pauline Stoltz (eds.) Palgrave Handbook on Gender and Citizenship, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N., Woodsum, N.G., Zu’bi, H. & Busbridge, R. (2018) ‘Funding pain’: Bedouin Women and Political Economy in the Negev/Naqab. In Ebru Kongar, Jennifer C. Olmsted & Elora Shehabuddin (eds.) Gender and Economics in Muslim Communities: Critical Feminist and Postcolonial Analyses. London: Routledge.
  • Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. & Busbridge, R. (2014) (En)gendering De-Development in East Jerusalem: Thinking through the ‘Everyday’. In Mandy Turner & Omar Shweiki (eds.) Decolonising Palestinian Political Economy: De-development and Beyond. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Reference Works

Research Reports

Projects

  • 2024-2027: Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Program (DP230100001) ($312,266), ‘Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity and Localism in Populist Politics’ with A/Prof Ben Moffitt (CI), A/Prof Mark Chou (CI) & Prof Annika Werner (PI)
  • 2022-2024: Anti-Racism Hallmark Research Initiative Interdisciplinary Seed Funding, University of Melbourne ($28,920), 'Global Anti-Racisms: Political Discourses Against Race and Caste in Comparison' with A/Prof Clayton Chin (UniMelb), Prof Farrah Ahmed (UniMelb), Dr Anurag Bhaskar (Jindal Global Law School, India)

Accolades

  • 2024: Executive Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, ACU
  • 2023: Visiting Scholar, University of Leeds
  • 2020-2023: The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Social Theory Thematic Group Co-Convener
  • 2022: Faculty Research Grant Scheme, ACU ($8,782)
  • 2021: Research Award for Academic Women Staff, ACU ($12,500)
  • 2021: Executive Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Teaching, ACU
  • 2020: University Citation for Outstanding Achievement in Student Learning, ACU ($5,000)
  • 2020: Teaching Development Grant, ‘Enhancing Student Perceptions of the Employability of Arts Graduates’, ACU ($7,860)
  • 2016: Visiting Fellowship, Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Spain
  • 2014-2016: Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (75,000 EUR)
  • 2014: Visiting Fellowship, CIDE Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico City
  • 2012: Invited Researcher, Irmgard Coninx Stiftung 15th Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality, WZB Berlin Social Science Center
  • 2011: Winner of the Junior Sociologists Essay Writing Competition, International Sociological Association (ISA)
  • 2011: Invited Researcher, ISA’s Junior Sociologists Seminar, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 2007: Invited Researcher, ISA’s PhD Laboratory, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria
  • 2004: University Medal, University of South Australia
  • 2003: Charles Dow Memorial Prize, University of South Australia

Appointments and affiliations

  • 2025- present: Associate Professor of Sociology, ACU
  • 2022-2024: Senior Lecturer in Sociology, ACU
  • 2018-2021: Lecturer in Sociology, ACU
  • 2014-2016: Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin
  • 2012-2013: Research Fellow, Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University
  • 2012: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Al-Quds Bard College
  • 2011-2012: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Al-Quds University (Palestine)
  • 2011-2012: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Editorial roles

  • 2024-2027: Managing Editor, Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology (SAGE)
  • 2017-2023: Commissioning Editor, Thesis Eleven

Grant agency review panels

  • Australian Research Council
  • European Commission
  • Israel Science Fund

Public engagement

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