Bina Fernandez

Bina Fernandez is Professor in Development Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD in 2011 and MPhil at the University of Oxford. Fernandez joined the University of Melbourne in 2011 as Lecturer in Development Studies, progressing through the ranks to her current position. Prior to this, she held teaching positions at the University of Leeds, the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, the University of Oxford, and Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom. Her academic career emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to development, with a focus on empirical research grounded in fieldwork across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Fernandez's research specializations include gender, migration, and social policy, particularly the experiences of African migrants and refugees, Ethiopian women migrating as domestic workers to the Middle East and Gulf countries, and rural women's collective livelihoods initiatives in India. She has authored and co-edited key works such as the book Land, Labour and Livelihoods: Indian Women's Perspectives (2016), Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East: The Home and the World (2014, co-edited with Marina de Regt), and articles including 'Racialised institutional humiliation through the Kafala' (2021, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies), 'Dispossession, social reproduction and the feminization of refugee survival: Ethiopian refugees in Nairobi, Kenya' (2024, Review of International Political Economy), 'Health inequities faced by Ethiopian migrant domestic workers in Lebanon' (2018), and 'Children Born in Lebanon to Migrant Domestic Workers' (2023). Current projects encompass the Migrant Motherhood project examining care relationships of Ethiopian migrant mothers in Australia and Lebanon, Diaspora Humanitarians exploring how Australia-based migrants respond to crises abroad, and Reason to Care addressing the care needs of migrants in social policy. Fernandez serves as coordinator for the Master of Development Studies program at the University of Melbourne.

Professional Email: bina.fernandez@unimelb.edu.au