Dr. Louise Olliff is a Senior Research Associate at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW working part-time on an Australian Research Council Linkage grant to research skilled employment for refugees in regional Australia. Outside of her role at the Kaldor Centre, Louise is a sessional lecturer and works part-time for the Refugee Council of Australia as a senior policy advisor leading the Council’s work on resettlement and complementary pathways. 

Louise holds a PhD in Anthropology and Development Studies from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Arts (Collaborative International Development Studies and Anthropology) from the University of Guelph, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts Hons. (Journalism and International Development Studies) from Deakin University.

Louise is the author of Helping Familiar Strangers: Refugee Diaspora Organizations and Humanitarianism (Indiana University Press, 2022) and co-editor of Understanding Diaspora Development: Lessons from Australia and the Pacific (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).