Vandra Harris Agisilaou

Dr Vandra Harris Agisilaou is a senior lecturer in International Development in RMIT's School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Vandra's research focuses particularly on the interface between different actors in humanitarian spaces, especially militaries, police and NGOs, and local and international development actors. She has a special interest in humanitarianism(s), children and youth, and ethics in everyday practice.

Vandra is currently working with an international team exploring life course perspectives on development, focused in Sierra Leone. Other recent projects include humanitarian ethics and practice, and NGO-military interaction complex emergencies and disasters (funded by the Australian Civil-Military Centre). She has previously worked on ARC research projects on Australia's international policing and on youth recidivism in Australia.

Past and current PhD supervisions include marginalised citizenships in Bangladesh; Chinese engagement in Zimbabwe; international police traffic safety; trauma and nation-building in Timor-Leste; community-based disaster risk management in Sri Lanka; community policing and militant groups in Pakistan; gender-based violence in humanitarian practice; and pro-poor decentralisation in Ghana

Industry Experience:
Prior to her university career, Vandra worked in local and international NGOs with a focus on community development for over a decade, and consciously maintains this practical orientation in her work through close association with leading organisations and individuals in humanitarian, development and civil-military fields.