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Professor

Nicholas Farrelly

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Campus Life (Southern Tasmania)

Southern Campus Futures

Orcid identifier0000-0001-7768-0719
  • Pro Vice-Chancellor, Campus Life (Southern Tasmania)
    Southern Campus Futures
  • +61 3 62262317 (Work)

BIO

At the University of Tasmania, Nicholas Farrelly is a Professor and currently the Pro Vice-Chancellor responsible for Southern Tasmania. He was previously Head of Social Sciences, from 2020-2024, where he led a vibrant multi-disciplinary team based in Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Melbourne. Nicholas specialises in the study of political and cultural issues, with an emphasis on rapidly changing Asian societies. As an academic leader, he also works closely with a wide range of Australian government, industry and community organisations to help meet their needs for high-quality social science input.

After graduating from the ANU with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Asian Studies, he completed his M.Phil and D.Phil at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. While a graduate student, Nicholas founded New Mandala, a website which has gone on to become the preeminent public forum in Southeast Asian Studies. After returning to Canberra from Oxford, he was appointed Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security.

He then held a number of key academic positions in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, including as a Deputy Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs and as Director of the ANU Myanmar Research Centre, an institution he helped establish in 2015. From 2017-2019 Nicholas was Associate Dean of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific responsible for development and impact initiatives.

Nicholas currently serves on the Board of the Australia-ASEAN Council, which works to strengthen partnerships with Southeast Asia through stronger business, education, science, arts and cultural links. He is also a Director of Australia's National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

His primary academic focus is the study of political conflict and social change in mainland Southeast Asia. He has examined these themes across the borderlands where Myanmar rubs against India, Bangladesh and China. While studying these areas, Nicholas has continued to research, write and lecture about Thailand, a country at the heart of some of his oldest academic interests. In early 2024 he completed a co-authored report on Australia's engagement with Southeast Asia titled, "Comprehensive Strategic Partners: ASEAN and Australia after the first 50 years".

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • Regional Partnerships

FIELD OF RESEARCH