DrMichelle Peterie

Dr Michelle Peterie is Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. She is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Social Issues, an executive member of the Australian Social Policy Association Management Committee, and co-convener of The Australian Sociological Association's Families and Relationships Thematic Group. Michelle co-leads the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies' research themes on 'Work, Education and Welfare' and 'Migration, Im/mobility and Belonging'. She has previously held academic positions at the University of Queensland and the University of Wollongong. 

Michelle's research investigates the impacts of social policies and practices on individual and collective wellbeing. Taking a person-centred approach - and in close collaboration with research participants and third-sector stakeholders - her work seeks to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children, families and communities. Michelle is currently leading an ARC DECRA project about the impacts of parental immigration detention and deportation on children and young people, and an ARC Linkage Project about the long-term impacts of immigration detention in the lives of people who were detained as children. She is also involved in several collaborative projects exploring the complexities of grief, loss and care therein.

Michelle has published six books to date: A Sociology of Care (2027, with Alex Broom), Infrastructure of Informal Care (2026, with Katherine Kenny, Alex Broom and Gaby Ramia), Immigration Detention and Social Harm (2024), Visiting Immigration Detention (2022), Compulsory Income Management in Australia and New Zealand (2022, with Greg Marston, Louise Humpage, Philip Mendes, Shelley Bielefeld and Zoe Staines) and Emotions in Late Modernity (2019, with Roger Patulny, Alberto Bellocchi, Rebecca Olson, Sukhmani Khorana and Jordan McKenzie). Michelle has been the recipient of both the biennial award for the best article in the Journal of Sociology and the Mayer Journal Prize for the best article in the Australian Journal of Political Science, among other awards. She has been invited to give expert evidence to the Australian Senate, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the NSW Crown Solicitor, and her research has received international media attention.

Full details of Michelle's research program and publications can be found at www.michellepeterie.com