Bio
Linda Bartolomei is the past director of the University of New South Wales Centre for Refugee Research, a co-convenor of the Forced Migration Research Network, and a senior lecturer in social work and international development. Since 2002, Linda has been involved in a series of action research projects exploring the challenges associated with identifying and responding to at-risk refugee women and girls in camps and urban settings. This work has involved research at multiple sites across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and in Australia. The results have had a significant impact on research and policy and were instrumental in the introduction of the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR’s) Conclusion on the Protection of Women and Girls at Risk in 2006. She is currently working with UNHCR Geneva and a team of women from refugee backgrounds to advocate for and monitor the inclusion of refugee women and girls’ protection needs and rights in the new global compact on refugees.
Since 2001, Linda has co-convened several major international refugee conferences, the most recent in February 2016, and made regular presentations of research at UNHCR Geneva. Her research work has made contributions to policy development in the areas of women at risk and community development. In November 2008, she attended the inaugural meeting of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, where she established the Women and Girls at Risk Working Group. She is particularly interested in the nexus between refugee communities’ experiences of conflict and displacement, including women’s experiences of sexual violence, and their impacts on settlement outcomes.