Our people

Dr Rachel Stevens

Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences

Areas of expertise: Australian immigration and refugee policies; Australian humanitarianism, development and foreign aid policies; Australian relations with South Asian nations and diplomatic history; Australian history, 1970 to present

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Provisional

Phone: +61 3 9953 3931

Email: rachel.stevens@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9580-6733

Dr Rachel Stevens is a Lecturer in History and Politics in the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. Prior to joining the Australian Catholic University in 2020, she was a researcher on Professor Joy Damousi’s ARC Laureate Project ‘Child Refugees and Australian Internationalism’ at the University of Melbourne (2015-2019) and a Lecturer in International Studies at Monash University (2010-2014).

She is the course coordinator of the Bachelor of Global Studies double degree program (NSW and QLD students) and has extensive experience teaching history, politics and international studies units across all year levels and modalities. She designs and delivers units that foster interactive educational environments, facilitate student engagement and promote excellent learning outcomes.

She is the author of Citizen-driven Humanitarianism and the Bangladesh Liberation War (2024) and Immigration Policy from 1970 to the Present (2016).

Current research projects

• With the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: ‘“Australia leading the way”: Australian diplomats and the recognition of Bangladeshi independence, 1972’.
  This project recalibrates traditional understandings of Australia’s engagement with postcolonial Asia. Based on new access to archival materials, this project demonstrates how the Australian government led the western world in recognising the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, ushering in a new era of deep, reciprocal engagement with region.

• With financial support from the Public Records Office Victoria: ‘The birth of Australian ethnic community health organisations in the 1970s’ ($15,000).
  This project explores the political tension inherent in the provision of government-funded community health programs within the context of the rise of neoliberal economic policies during the Fraser government (1975-83). It shows how the push-pull dynamic of publicly funded community health organisations operating within a semi-private, user-pays model remains unresolved to this day, leaving community health providers and the constituents they serve in a chronic state of uncertainty.

• With financial support from ACU’s Faculty of Education and Arts and in collaboration with the University of Melbourne Institute for Peace Building: ‘The Longest War: Australian Encounters with Afghanistan, 2001-2021’ ($8,000).
  Australia’s involvement in the American-led war in Afghanistan (2001-2021) is the nation’s longest military engagement, yet there is still no holistic, scholarly analysis of this conflict. The project will explore Australian engagement with Afghanistan, integrating diverse military, political, civilian and humanitarian perspectives.

• With financial support from the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences: ‘Welcoming the Stranger: Rural and regional refugee community settlement in central and northern Australia’ ($16,000).
  Community resettlement is considered by the UN as an alternative solution to long-term migrant detention and forced repatriation. Meanwhile, western governments extol its ability to transfer the costs of resettlement from the state to the community. This study offers the first detailed analysis of the origins of Australia’s community refugee settlement scheme, examining the experiences of Australian volunteers, government officials, and refugees from Asia, Europe and Latin America during the 1980s.

Public engagement with research

• First point of contact for media outlets and journalists that require fast, expert commentary on immigration and refugee policy, Bangladeshi history and Australian political history.
• Invited submission and attendance at the Joint Standing Committee on Migration public hearing, ‘Migration, Pathway to Nation Building’.
• Invited speaker at the National Library of Australia (2018) and Clunes Book Festival (2023).

Fellowships

• 2018: Awarded a National Library of Australia fellowship ($20,000) for the project ‘Australians in the Bangladesh Liberation War’
• 2013: Awarded a United States Department of State fellowship (US$27,000) to study American Studies at New York University in recognition of demonstrated capacity and potential to influence undergraduate teaching in Australia
• 2007: Visiting scholar at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, the University of California San Diego (in-kind fellowship)
• 2006: Visiting scholar at the Department of Government, the University of Texas at Austin (in-kind fellowship)

Awards

• 2024: Awarded Faculty of Education and Arts research discovery grant ($8,000)
• 2024: Awarded Public Records Office Victoria community history grant ($15,000)
• 2021: Awarded IHSS Linkage partnership seed grant ($16,000)
• 2013: Awarded the Vice Chancellor’s teaching citation for outstanding contributions to student learning ($1,000)
• 2012: Awarded the Dean of Arts Faculty teaching citation for outstanding contributions to student learning ($1,000)
• 2005-9: Awarded a Monash Graduate Research Scholarship ($67,723)
• 2006: Awarded a Social Science History Association Grant (US$500)

Publications

Sole-authored monographs

• Rachel Stevens(2024). Citizen-driven Humanitarianism and the Bangladeshi Liberation War: Australian Aid during the 1971 Refugee Crisis. London: Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/citizendriven-humanitarianism-and-the-bangladesh-liberation-war-9781350381445/
• Rachel Stevens(2016). Immigration Policy from 1970 to the Present. New York: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Immigration-Policy-from-1970-to-the-Present/Stevens/p/book/9781032242538

Edited collections

• Jordana Silverstein and Rachel Stevens(2021). Refugee Journeys: Resettlement, Representation and Resistance. Canberra: ANU Press. https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/refugee-journeys
• Joy Damousi and Rachel Stevens(2019). Refugees: Past and Present. Special issue of the Australian Journal of Politics and History, volume 65, issue 4, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14678497/2019/65/4

Refereed journal articles

• Rachel Stevens(2019). ‘Humanitarianism from the Suburbs. Australian Refugee Relief and Activism during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, volume 64, issue 4, pp. 566-83. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajph.12622
• Rachel Stevensand Seamus O'Hanlon (2018). ‘Intimate Oral Histories: Intercultural Romantic Relationships in Post-war Australia’, Australian Historical Studies, volume 49, issue 3, pp. 359-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2018.1486444
• Seamus O'Hanlon and Rachel Stevens(2017). 'A Nation of Immigrants or a Nation of Immigrant Cities? The urban context of Australian multiculturalism, 1947-2011', Australian Journal of Politics and History, volume 63, issue 4, pp. 556-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12403
• Rachel Stevens(2015). 'Role-play and student engagement. Reflections from the classroom', Teaching in Higher Education, volume 20, no. 5, pp. 481-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1020778
• Rachel Stevens(2014). 'After the 'Great White Walls' Came Down. Debating the ethnicity of immigrants in Australia and the USA, 1980-1990', Immigrants & Minorities, volume 32, no. 3, pp. 262-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619288.2012.759748
• Rachel Stevens(2012). 'Political Debates on Asylum Seekers during the Fraser Government, 1977-1982', Australian Journal of Politics and History, volume 58, issue 4, pp. 526-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8497.2012.01651.x
• Rachel Stevens(2006). 'Captured by Kindness': Australian Press Representations of the Vietnam War, 1965-1970', History Australia, volume 3, pp. 45.1-45.17. https://doi.org/10.2104/ha060045

Book chapters

• Rachel Stevens(forthcoming, June 2025), ‘Australian Baptist missionaries, humanitarianism and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971’ in Rediscovering Humanitarianism, edited by Jessica Stroja. London: Routledge, under contract.
• Rachel Stevens(2023). 'Understanding British Return Migration' in When Migrants Fail to Stay, edited by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Joy Damousi and Ruth Balint. London: Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/when-migrants-fail-to-stay-9781350351134/
• Rachel Stevens(2021). 'The other Asian refugees in the 1970s. Australian responses to the Bangladeshi refugee crisis in 1971', in Refugee Journeys. Resettlement, Representation and Resistance, edited by Jordana Silverstein and Rachel Stevens. Canberra: ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/RJ.2021.05
• Rachel Stevens(2021). 'Refugee Journeys', in Refugee Journeys. Resettlement, Representation and Resistance, edited by Jordana Silverstein and Rachel Stevens. Canberra: ANU Press.
  http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n7824/pdf/introduction.pdf
• Rachel Stevens(2011). 'Mismanaging Multiculturalism. The Official English Movement in the United States', in Intercultural Relations in a Global World, edited by Michele Lobo, Vince Marotta and Nicole Oke. Champaign: Common Ground Publishing.

Book reviews

• Rachel Stevens (2024). Jessica Stroja, Displaced Persons, Resettlement and the Legacies of War, and Seth Bernstein, Return to the Motherland. Queensland Review. https://doi.org/10.1558/qre.28843
• Rachel Stevens (2024). Volker Prott. “‘We Have to Tread Warily’: East Pakistan, India and the Pitfalls of Foreign Intervention in the Cold War,” Cold War History 23:1 (2023), H-Net network on Diplomatic History and International Affairs.
• Rachel Stevens (2022). Book review: Narratives of Statelessness and Political Otherness – Kurdish and Palestinian experiences, Australian Outlook.
• Rachel Stevens (2018). ‘Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians’. Australian Historical Studies, volume 49, number 2, pp. 282-283, 1080/1031461X.2018.1454283.

Media – opinion pieces

• Rachel Stevens (forthcoming 16 December 2024). ‘International Recognition of Bangladesh’, The Daily Star, Victory Day special edition.
• Rachel Stevens (2024). ‘Unlike politicians, numbers tell real story on immigration’, org.
• Rachel Stevens (2024). ‘Australian involvement in the Bangladesh Liberation War’, The Daily Star.
• Rachel Stevens (2023). ‘The government is bringing immigration back to ‘normal levels’ but cuts are not as dramatic as they seem’.The Conversation.
• Rachel Stevens (2021). ‘We can’t compare Australia’s intake of Afghan refugees with the post-Vietnam War era. Here’s why’,The Conversation.
• Rachel Stevens (2012). ‘No, the Fraser era was not a golden age for asylum seekers’, The Age.

Media – podcasts

• ABC Radio National Sunday Extra, SBS News Who We Are, ABC This Week, The Guardian Full Story.

Media – article interviews

• Herald Sun, SBS News, SBS World News TV broadcast, Daily Telegraph, Toronto Star, RMIT Cross Check, Agence France-Presse (syndicated in Europe and Asia), and The Daily Star (the largest English language newspaper in Bangladesh).