Helen Pausacker

Helen Pausacker is an Academic Research Fellow at the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. She serves as Deputy Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society (CILIS), Academic Convenor of the Hallmark Indonesia Democracy Initiative (IDeHaRI), and Principal Researcher at the Asian Law Centre. She also holds roles as Executive Editor of the Australian Journal of Asian Law.

Dr Pausacker holds advanced degrees from the University of Melbourne (BA Hons, BLitt, Graduate Certificate in Gender and Development) and Monash University (MA), completing her PhD in Law at Melbourne Law School (2013). Her research focuses on intersections of law, religion, and culture in Indonesia, particularly around religious sect prosecution, 'pornography' charges under Indonesian law, and Javanese cultural studies.

Her work has addressed topics including legal frameworks governing religious minorities, moral policing via censorship laws, and the role of cultural symbols in national identity. She has authored/co-edited key texts like Religion, Law and Intolerance in Indonesia (2016) and Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting (2005).

Her career includes prior roles as a lecturer in History and Politics, language facilitator for legal NGOs, and editor at Inside Indonesia magazine. Current research emphasizes legal responses to religious radicalism and gendered legal frameworks in Asia.