Melanie Baak

Melanie Baak is an Associate Professor in UniSA Education Futures, co-convenor of the Migration and Refugee Research Network (MARRNet), and a member of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI). She holds a 2023-2025 ARC DECRA Fellowship, focusing on enhancing belonging for African diaspora youth in Australian schools. Her research addresses systemic marginalization of culturally diverse groups, particularly through refugee education and resettlement. She has received awards including the Mid-Career Researcher Award (2023) and Early Career Researcher Awards (2020, 2017).

Education & Professional Background: Holds an Australian Government Endeavour Research Fellowship (2017) and has worked in community development, education, and research with refugee communities for 15+ years. Her work spans policy analysis, qualitative studies on racism, and restorative practices.

Research Interests: Equity in education, refugee student resilience, decolonial approaches to curriculum design, and the intersection of race, policy, and schooling. She collaborates with refugee communities and institutions like Catholic Education SA.

Grants & Projects: Leads the ARC DECRA project on Black African youth belonging and contributes to the ARC Linkage study on refugee student resilience. Engages in policy evaluations and CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) initiatives in schools.

• Labs & Networks: Active in MARRNet and CRESI, focusing on migration studies and educational inclusion.
• Teaching: Specializes in equity, inclusive education, and diversity in teacher training programs.

Key Themes in Publications: Explores tensions between policy and practice in refugee education, racism in schools, and decolonizing curricula. Recent work emphasizes 'conditional inclusion' dynamics in settler colonial contexts.