Rate My Professor Baden Offord

Emeritus Professor Baden Offord AO is a distinguished scholar in the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University, holding the title of Professor of Cultural Studies and Human Rights. He served as Director of the Centre for Human Rights Education and occupied the Dr Haruhisa Handa Chair of Human Rights from 2015 to 2020. Born in 1958 in Aotearoa/New Zealand of Māori (Ngāti Hau/Ngāti Hao, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Māhanga, Waikato Tainui) and Pākehā heritage, Offord migrated to Australia in 1961 and has also resided in Spain, South India, and Japan. His career spans multiple institutions: Professor of Cultural Studies and Human Rights at Southern Cross University (1999-2014), Chair (Visiting Professor) of Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo (2010-2011), Visiting Professor at the University of Barcelona, and visiting scholar positions at Indiana University, the University of Auckland, and La Trobe University. Offord earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney and a Doctor of Philosophy from Southern Cross University.

Offord's research focuses on human rights, sexuality, culture, and education, where he is recognized as a pioneer in human rights and sexuality studies. He has authored and co-edited key works such as Activating Cultural and Social Change: The Pedagogies of Human Rights (Routledge, 2022, co-edited with Caroline Fleay, Lisa Hartley, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, and Dean Chan), Activating Human Rights and Peace: Theories, Practices and Contexts (Routledge, 2016, co-edited with Goh Bee Chen and Rob Garbutt), Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values (Anthem Press, 2015, co-authored with Erika Kerruish, Rob Garbutt, Adele Wessell, and Kirsten Pavlovic), and Becoming Human: Lived Experience, Suicide and the Complexities of Being (Overland, 2019). Additionally, his article “Beyond our Nuclear Engagement: love, nuclear pain and the whole damn thing” appeared in Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities (2017). With over 160 publications, conference papers, and presentations, Offord has supervised 28 PhD students and numerous Honours students. He has received several national teaching awards and, in 2021, was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to tertiary education in the fields of human rights, social justice, and cultural diversity. Currently, he serves on IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board and chairs its Cultural & Area Studies section, contributing significantly to global academic discourse on human rights and cultural studies.