Penelope Mathew

A distinguished professor of law whose career has been devoted to human rights, particularly the rights of refugees

Professor Penelope Mathew is the former Dean and Head of School at Griffith Law School (Brisbane and Gold Coast, Australia). Prior to her appointment at Griffith Law School, she held the Freilich Foundation chair at The Australian National University. From 2008-2010, she was a visiting professor and interim Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she convened the 5th Michigan Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law.

From 2006-2008, she was a legal adviser to the ACT Human Rights Commission, where she conducted the human rights audit of the ACT’s Correctional Facilities. Professor Mathew has also taught at the Australian National University College of Law and Melbourne Law School, and she is a past editor-in-chief of the Australian Yearbook of International Law. Her main area of expertise is refugee law. Her new book, co-authored with Tristan Harley, is Refugees, Regionalism and Responsibility (Elgar, 2016).