The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia is delighted to announce the Round 1 Visiting Fellowship recipients under the Australia-France Indo-Pacific Studies (AFIPS) Program. Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and delivered from 2024–2027 by the Academy as part of the France–Australia Roadmap, this visiting fellowship component supports early-career social science researchers from France, French overseas territories, and the Indo-Pacific region.
Each fellowship provides the opportunity to spend up to three months at one or several Australian host institution(s), fostering new research collaborations on themes of shared importance for the Indo-Pacific region. We warmly congratulate Dr Justine Muller, Dr Reia Anquet, Dr Phanith Chou, Dr Camille Desjardins, and Dr Joeli Varo, whose fellowships will strengthen people-to-people links and deepen academic cooperation between France and Australia on issues of global and regional relevance.
Dr Camille Desjardins
Australia & France investigation of how platform workers balance their work and childcare commitments under algorithmic management.
Camille Desjardins is Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Prior to joining AUB, she worked for two years at the Renmin University of China in Suzhou. She received her Ph.D. in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management from the University of Toulouse in France. There, she studied the work experiences of mothers and their career-related outcomes in the context of maternity leave and the Covid-19 pandemic. This research was supported by a national grant from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) and was published in the academic journals Group & Organization Management and Journal of Organizational Behavior.
Her main research interests include organizational justice, gender career equality and new ways of working. Her newest research takes a gender perspective on the gig economy.
Home Institution: the American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Host Institution: School of Social and Political Science, the University of Melbourne
Dr Justine Muller
The role of trade law in enhancing and/or mitigating the negative impact of the trade between the EU and the Indo-Pacific region on biodiversity and climate change.
Dr Justine Muller is a Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) with expertise in the nexus between trade and the environment. She holds a PhD (2024) from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, where she wrote her thesis on the integration of biodiversity in the European Union’s trade agreements. Her research mixes doctrinal analysis with other disciplines, such as linguistics and ecology.
Justine also has experience in international negotiations as an assistant to the European Union’s delegation to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem (IPBES). She holds master’s degrees in International Business Law (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France), Law and Sustainable Development (University of Strathclyde; Scotland), and biodiversity geography (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France).
Home Institution: National University of Singapore (NUS)
Host Institution: The University of Melbourne
Dr Phanith Chou
Generating lessons learned and future directions for Nature-based Solutions to climate adaptation and One Health across the Indo-Pacific.
Dr. Phanith Chou is an environmental economist. Dr. Phanith is an Associate Professor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Dr. Chou Phanith earned his PhD in International Development from the Nagoya University (Japan) in 2019. Dr. Phanith has an extensive professional background and has conducted research on the economic assessment of nature-based solutions, environmental impact assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and sustainable food systems for over 15 years. Additionally, he has provided training, policy recommendations, and project implementation. He has collaborated with the private sector, government and international development agencies, and the Ministry of Environment, as well as the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, ACIAR, RECOFTC, Monash University, Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), UNEP-WCMC, GIZ, USAID, UNDP, EU-Switch to Solar, NIRAS-Sweden, Insuco, Oxford Policy Management, NIRAS, GERES, WWF, WCS, UNESCO, UNIDO, ADB, ADPC, GMSTEC, EEPSEA, and World Fish.
Dr. Phanith also supervises Master and PhD students at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and Royal University of Agriculture. Dr. Phanith is currently engaged in the pursuit of research and consultation regarding the valuation of ecosystem services, REDD+, the economic evaluation of nature-based solutions, conservation financing, climate change adaptation, and environmental impact assessment.
Home Institution: The Royal University of Phnom Penh
Host Institution: Centre for Policy Futures, the University of Queensland, Brisbane
Dr Reia Anquet
Governing Rising Seas: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Policy in the Indo-Pacific.
Dr Reia Farrall-Anquet is a researcher and lecturer in cultural studies and the cultures of English-speaking countries. She completed her PhD at the Université Grenoble Alpes in January 2025, which analysed reconciliation and native title policies in the context of Australian public policy and Indigenous–State relations. Since 2014, she has taught English language and cultures at Sciences Po Grenoble–UGA. In September 2025, she will take up a Junior Lecturer position at the Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, where she will contribute to the LLCER English degree, teaching cultural studies on English-speaking countries in the Oceania and Pacific regions. Her research spans cultural history, public policy, Indigenous–State relations, and environmental governance, with a particular focus on interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the Indo-Pacific.
Home Institution: Université de Nouvelle Calédonie, Nouméa,
Host Institution: RegNet, ANU, Canberra and Monash University, Melbourne
Dr Joeli Varo
Urban land tenure in the Pacific.
Dr Varo is a Fijian academic from Naraiyawa Village in Namosi Province and currently serves as Head of Discipline for Land Management and Development at the University of the South Pacific, a role he has held since January 2022. Prior to this appointment, he was an Assistant Professor in Geospatial Science and Urban Planning at Fiji National University, and has held professional positions with the Ministry of Lands and the iTaukei Land Trust Board, where he worked in land administration and estate management.
His academic and professional expertise spans disaster risk reduction, geospatial and geomatic sciences, and urban and rural land use planning, with a strong grounding in geography and applied land development.
Home Institution: the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
Host Institution: the University of Melbourne
For more information on the International Grant Program, click here.