Professor Michelle Foster

Overview

Professor Michelle Foster was appointed Dean of Melbourne Law School in September 2024. Prior to this appointment she was the Director of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the Melbourne Law School. Elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, Michelle is a leading international authority on refugee law, human rights and statelessness. Professor Foster previously served as Associate Dean (Research and Research Training) at the Melbourne Law School from 2014–2017.

Professor Foster established the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness in 2018 with generous philanthropic support from Peter and Ruth McMullin. The Centre is the world’s only university-based interdisciplinary centre dedicated to studying and finding solutions to this global issue. Professor Foster is also a Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre and Research Affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative, University of London.

Professor Foster’s research has had a high impact in scholarship, public policy and debate, and jurisprudence globally, and has attracted significant funding from the Australian Research Council, philanthropy and other domestic and international sources. In 2009 Michelle was awarded the University’s Woodward Medal for her significant contribution to knowledge and research excellence for her monograph International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (CUP 2007).

Professor Foster is also widely regarded for her contributions to teaching and learning. Professor Foster joined the Melbourne Law School in 2005, and over many years was acknowledged for her deep commitment to advancing legal education including in curriculum development. This was recognised through the University of Melbourne’s Barbara Falk Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.

Professor Foster holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons Class 1 and University Medal) and Bachelor of Laws from the University of NSW, and a Master of Laws and Doctor of the Science of Laws from the University of Michigan where she studied as a Michigan Grotius Fellow.