Dr Reshmi Lahiri-Roy

Adjunct Research Fellow
  • is notAvailable for media queries
  • is notAvailable to supervise research students at VU
Adjunct Research Fellow
  • is notAvailable for media queries
  • is notAvailable to supervise research students at VU

Areas of expertise

  • Gender and migration
  • Race and ethnicity in higher education
  • Critical and evocative authoethnography
  • Inclusive Education
  • Critical pedagogy
  • Postcolonial and intersectional feminisms

Contact details

(03) 8780 5752

Email

About

Dr Reshmi Lahiri-Roy is a Lecturer within the Institute of Education, Arts, and Community at Federation University, Australia. Reshmi obtained her first PhD (English and Cultural Studies, 2005) from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and her second PhD (by publication) in 2026 in Education from Deakin University, Australia. Reshmi also holds two Masters (Gender Studies and Comparative Literature), along with a Diploma in Journalism. Her current research focuses on issues of inclusive education, gender-based violence, and diaspora studies. Reshmi’s career in education encompasses research, teaching and industry engagement across the tertiary education, school, and non-profit sectors. As an interdisciplinary social scientist, Reshmi’s teaching and research interests straddle the disciplines of sociology and education intersecting with cultural studies, innovative methodologies, and literary studies. A commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion of all forms of diversity drive her teaching and research agendas.

Reshmi’s publications are in high impact journals including Gender and Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, Journal of Intercultural Studies, Emotion, Space and Society, Women’s Studies International Forum, among others. She is an invited reviewer for reputed journals such as HERD, International Migration Review, Cultural Studies ó Critical Methodologies, Journal of Gender Studies, Gender, Work and Organization among others. Reshmi is an Associate Editor for The Australian Educational Researcher and is on the editorial advisory board of Qualitative Research Journal and the editorial review board of International Journal of Qualitative Methods.She is the co-editor of Asian Women, Identity and Migration Experiences of Transnational Women of Indian Origin/Heritage (Routledge UK, 2020/21).

Portfolios

Mitchell Institute

Qualification

PhD UC, MArts UC, MArts MU, DipJourn, BArts MU

Institute

The Mitchell Institute

Publications

Journal articles

  • Lahiri-Roy, R., Daniel, R. & Hart, K. (2026—in press). "Arduously reconciling the ‘good mother’ with the ‘academic worker’: a collaborative autoethnography on academic motherhood and sisterhood in Australian higher education". Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education (JWG) 
  • Roy, R. (2025). Book review: Diti Bhattacharya, Unfolding Spatial Movements in the Second-Hand Book Market in Kolkata: Notes on the Margins in the Boipara. Cultural Geographies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740251378753
  • Martinussen, M., & Lahiri-Roy, R. (2025). The politics of intersectional (un)belonging: a duoethnographic mapping study with academic women. Gender and Education, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2025.2546055 
  • Sum, N., Lahiri-Roy, R., Culton, W., Gough, L., Koziaris, H. and Strain, E. (2025), "School leadership, communities and crises: a collaborative autoethnographic exploration of humanism as professional and community capital", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-12-2024-0298  
  • Gatwiri, K., McPherson, L. & Lahiri-Roy, R. (2024). "Embedding cultural safety in Social Work Education: Reflections from Masters of Social Work Students at a Regional Australian University.", British Journal of Social Work. bcae132 https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae132 
  • Webb, S. C, Lahiri-Roy, R., Knight, E., & Koshy, P. (2024). The Intersection of Geography, Topography and Mindset: A Nuanced Understanding of Regional, Rural and Remote Students’ Tertiary Participation in Australia. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education. https://www.journal.spera.asn.au/index.php/AIJRE/article/view/727 

Books

  • Lahiri-Roy, R. & Sum, N. (2027-under contract and in progress). Negotiating Literacies: Conversations as Transnational Women Academics. DeGruyterBrill.

Thesis

Book chapters

  •  Sum, N., Lahiri-Roy, R.,Culton, C., Gough, L. Koziaris, H. & Strain, E. (2026).  “School leadership and ‘empowerment’ during crisis: understanding relationships within and beyond school walls.” Barnes, N., Riddle, S., Hughes, B., Hughes, J., & Beabout, B. (Eds.). The Routledge International Handbook of Schooling in Times of Crisis (1st ed.). Pp. 442-52. Routledge. Maintenance - Taylor & Francis 
  • Lahiri-Roy, R. & Sum, N. (2026). “Diasporic women and cultural enclaves: An acculturation lens on inhabiting and traversing diverse sites.” Southcott, J., Gindidis, M. & wake, R. (Eds.), Women of the Diaspora: Generational Transformations. Bloombury Publishing. Pp. 29-48. Women of the Diaspora 
  • Lahiri-Roy, R. (2024). “Seeking Academic Voice”: An Autoethnographic Study of Casualisation in Teacher Education. Burke, J., Cacciattolo, M., & Toe, D. (Eds.), Inclusion and Social Justice in Teacher Education, Springer Nature: Switzerland, AG.

Conference presentations

  • Querying our ‘researcher authenticity’ in domestic violence within the Indian community at home and abroad: A reflexive duoethnography. Abstract accepted for Gender and Education Association Conference 2026 to be held at AUT, Auckland, New Zealand, Nov 30-Dec 3, 2026.
  • Talking our privileged marginalisations into being: Gender and Social Class in Higher Education contexts. Abstract accepted for Gender and Education Association Conference 2026 to be held at AUT, Auckland, New Zealand, Nov 30-Dec 3, 2026.
  • Rights, Responsibilities, Resilience and Resistance: Dialoguing on the Nexus between Critical Thinking and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Australian Higher Education. Abstract accepted for HERDSA Annual Conference 2026 to be held at NUS, Singapore, July 6-9, 2026.
  • "Connecting, intersecting and disconnecting across multiple spaces”: diasporic women academics of colour culturally negotiating academic enclaves. Paper presented at the 2025 AARE Conference - New Connections and Directions for Educational Research. Nov 30-Dec 4, 2025. University of Newcastle, Australia.
  • “Academic sisterhoods”: connecting to collaboratively converse on concomitantly being ‘good workers’ and ‘academic mothers’ in Australian Universities. Paper presented at the 2025 AARE Conference - New Connections and Directions for Educational Research. Nov 30-Dec 4, 2025. University of Newcastle, Australia.
  • “Slaking educational desire”: Sifting through my connections with the educational roots and routes of my foremothers. Paper presented at Re-Routing and Re-Imagining Gender and Education annual conference. May 27-30, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
  • “Navigating Rivers of Blood”: The impact on routes through academia of menstruation, pain and shame in Australasia (co-author Dr Aimee Turner, Federation University). Paper presented at Re-Routing and Re-Imagining Gender and Education annual conference. May 27-30, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
  • Crisis, repair, remedy: A collaborative autoethnographic exploration of school leadership/community through a humanist lens. Paper presented by co-author Dr Nicola Sum (Monash University) for "Research, Remedy, and Repair: Toward Just Education Renewal." AERA (American Educational Research Association) Annual Meeting/Conference 2025. April 23-27. Denver, Colorado, USA.
  • Going Beyond Intersections of Geography, Topography and Mindset: Considering the Interplay of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Social Class on Regional, Rural, and Remote Students’ Tertiary Education Participation in Australia. Paper presented at the Rural Education Research Conference 2025 (AARE Rural Education SIG), University of Canberra, ACT, March 14-15,
  • “School leadership as humanist practice: addressing crisis to sustain learning”. Paper presented at the Redefining Education, Purpose, and Possibilities. ICSEI Congress 2025, University of Melbourne, Victoria, February 10-14, 2025.
  • Outsiders, Strangers, or Insiders? Shape-shifting resistant migrant selves in cultural enclaves. Paper presented at the Alfred Deakin Institute Conference: Remaking Futures: Justice, Equality and Global Flourishing. November 25-26, 2024.

Professional memberships

Industry experience

  • 2020-2023: Principal Consultant and Director, Institute for Studies in Race, Migration and Education.
  • 2003-2011: Principal Consultant and Director of NZCE Ltd and Kiwibears International Schools, New Zealand.
  • 1995-1999: Owner, World Educational Consultants (unit of Theos Infotech Pvt Ltd), Mumbai (Founding member Association of Australian Education Representatives in India).

Appearances in the media

  • Lahiri-Roy, R., Daniel, R. & Hart, K. (April 10, 2026). Symposium organisers for “Solidarity and Beyond”: Metamorphically Enacting, Embracing, and Expanding the Sisterhood as Academic Mothers.Hosted at Federation University, Asutralia, Berwick Campus & Online (Hybrid Event)
  • Waldron, D. & Lahiri-Roy, R. (2026). Lamps for the Lost. Chaosium. DriveThruRPG 
  • Sharma, A. & Lahiri-Roy, R. (2025. December 8-9). Symposium organisers for REFLECT, RESIST, RESOLVE: GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AS EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN IN INDIA AND THE INDO-AUSTRALIAN DIASPORA Co-hosted by IT Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India & Federation University, Victoria, Australia
  • Lahiri-Roy, R. (2025).SBS (Special Broadcasting Service). (2025, September 1).  SBS World News. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/video/ministers-condemn-protest-violence-and-warn-of-neo-nazi-exploitation/ina9na553

Grants

  • CRERD (centre for Rural Education Research and Development) Research Grant, Federation University, (2026). Brave Yet Unsafe Spaces: A qualitative study. $4595
  • Outside Studies Program, IEAC, Federation University (2026). $5500 approx.