A/Prof. David Mickler joined Curtin University in July 2022 as part of the new Curtin Global Futures initiative. He was appointed as Dean Global, Africa in the Office of the DVC Global and is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the School of Media, Creative Arts & Social Inquiry (MCASI), Faculty of Humanities. He is the Founder of the Centre for Australia-Africa Relations at Curtin.

A/Prof. Mickler is also the Australian Representative to the Indian Ocean Rim Association Academic Group (IORAG), a Board Member of the Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN), a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), and an External Member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Organisation of African Communities in WA (OACWA).

A/Prof. Mickler was previously Founding Director of the Africa Research & Engagement Centre (AfREC) and a Senior Lecturer in Foreign Policy & International Relations at the University of Western Australia, Perth, where he also led the postgraduate International Relations program, served on the School Executive Committee, and was an inaugural Fellow of the UWA Public Policy Institute (PPI). Before this, he was a Lecturer in International Relations and Chair of the Africa Regional Strategy Group in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. 

A/Prof. Mickler was the inaugural Co-Chair, with Prof. Maano Ramutsindela from the University of Cape Town, of the Global Africa Group in the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). He has has been a Visiting Scholar at the Future Africa Institute (FAI)/Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS), University of Pretoria, South Africa (2019 & 2022) and at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia (2013), and he was a Visiting Researcher at the African Union Commission, Ethiopia and South Africa (2017).

Research & Leadership

A/Prof. Mickler is a Political Scientist whose research sits at the intersection of International Relations and African Studies. He is partiuclarly interested in Africa's international relations, including issues of diplomacy, human security and governance, the role of the African Union in regional integration, and contemporary Australia-Africa relations, including African diasporas in Australia.

Current Projects

• ARC Discovery Project grant DP220101642 (2023-26) [$435,304],The Political and Economic Agency of Africans in Australia. Partners: University of Melbourne, ANU, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of Newcastle and Swinburne University.

• Scanlon Foundation Research Institute grant (2021-22) [$50,000], African-Australian Youth: Navigating Identities, Partners: African Union Commission Citizens and Diaspora Organisations Directorate (CIDO) and Organisation of African Communities in Western Australia (OACWA).

Current Roles

• Founding Director, Centre for Australia-Africa Relations, Curtin University

• Convenor, Emerging Leaders in Australia-Africa Diplomacy (ELAAD) Program.

• Deputy Chair, Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN), and Convenor, annual AAUN Australia Forum

• Future Africa Visiting Fellow, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

• Convenor, inaugural Australia-Africa literacy training program, Diplomatic Academy and DFAT Africa Branch, Canberra.

• Co-Convenor, WA African Women's Leadership, Empowerment & Development (A-LEAD) Program.

• Mentor, Tsuha Global Fellows Program, Tsuha Foundation (Hawaii, USA).

• Winner, Community Pillar (Excellence in Innovation) Award, Western Australian African Community Awards (WAACA), 2018. 

• Subseries Advisor, Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, SpringerNature Publishing, Switzerland.

Publications

Books 

Maano Ramutsindela and David Mickler (eds.), 2020, Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals, Springer: Switzerland.

Samuel M. Makinda, F. Wafula Okumu and David Mickler, 2016, The African Union: Addressing the Challenges of Peace, Security and Governance, 2nd Ed., Routledge: London and New York.

David Mickler and T. Lyons (eds), 2013, New Engagement: Contemporary Australian Foreign Policy Towards Africa, Melbourne University Press: Melbourne.

Articles and book chapters

Muhammad Dan Suleiman, Christopher Isike and David Mickler 2023, "'No Colonial Baggage': Imagining a Decolonised Australia-Africa Relations", Australian Journal of Politics and History.

David Mickler and Farida Fozdar 2023, 'Unlocking the Potential of the African Diaspora in Australia', pp. 47-51, in S. Saggar, C. Lin, M. Fisher and R. Rey (eds.), Indian Ocean Futures: Prospects for Shared Regional Success, UWA Public Policy Institute, May. 

Farida Fozdar, David Mickler, Sarah Prout Quicke, Mary B. Setrana, Muhammad D. Suleiman and Dominic N. Dagbanja 2022, 'Transnational Economic Engagements: The Australia-Africa Nexus', pp. 61-85 in Melissa Phillips and Louise Olliff (eds.), Understanding Diaspora Development: Lessons from Australia and the Pacific. Springer: Switzerland.

Farida Fozdar, Sarah Prout-Quicke and David Mickler 2022, 'Are Africans in Australia a Diaspora?', Diaspora Studies 15(1): 1-31.

David Mickler and Kathryn Sturman 2021, ‘Pan-Africanism, Participation and Legitimation in the African Governance Architecture’, Journal of Common Market Studies 59(2): 446-548.

Kelly Gerard and David Mickler 2021, ‘Remaking the Regional: Legitimacy and Political Participation in Regional Integration’ (and Editors of Special Section), Journal of Common Market Studies 59(2): 404-416.

David Mickler and George Wachira 2020, ‘The AU’s African Governance Architecture and SDG 16: Examining Intersections’ in Maano Ramutsindela & David Mickler (eds.), Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals, Springer: Switzerland, pp. 49–57.

Maano Ramutsindela and David Mickler 2020, ‘Global Goals and African Development’ in Maano Ramutsindela & David Mickler (eds.), Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals, Springer: Switzerland, pp. 1–9.

David Mickler and Nikola Pijovic 2020, '"There are no votes in Africa?": Australia, Africa and the UN Security Council’, Australian Journal of Politics & History, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 130–148.

David Mickler, Muhammad Dan Suleiman and Benjamin Maiangwa 2019, '"Weak State", Regional Power, Global Player: Nigeria and the Response to Boko Haram', African Security, vol. 12, no. 3-4, pp. 272–299.

David Mickler 2016, ‘Civilian Protection in Darfur: Promise, Politics, and Practice’ in Cecilia Jacob & Alistair D.B. Cook (eds.), Civilian Protection in the Twenty-First Century: Governance and Responsibility in a Fragmented World, Oxford University Press: UK, pp. 212–234.

David Mickler and Nikola Pijovic 2015, ‘Engaging an Elephant in the Room? Locating Africa in Australian Foreign Policy’, Australian Journal of Politics & History, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 100–120.

David Mickler 2013, ‘UNAMID: A Hybrid Solution to a Human Security Problem in Darfur?’, Conflict, Security and Development, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 487–511.

Nesam Macmillan and David Mickler 2013, ‘From Sudan to Syria: Locating ’Regime Change’ in R2P and the ICC’, Global Responsibility to Protect, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 283–316.

David Mickler 2013, ‘Australia and Insecurity in Africa: New Interests and Influence’ in David Mickler & Tanya Lyons (eds.), New Engagement: Contemporary Australian Foreign Policy Towards Africa, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 148–175.

David Mickler 2012, ‘Australia’s ’new engagement’ with Africa: What role for human security?’ in Dennis Altman, Camilleri, Joseph A., Robyn Eckersley and Gerhard Hoffstaedter (eds.), Why Human Security Matters: Rethinking Australian Foreign Policy, Allen & Unwin: Crow's Nest, NSW, pp. 127–147.

David Mickler 2012, ‘Responsibility for Providing Human Security’ in Ghassan Hage and Robyn Eckersley (eds.), Responsibility, Melbourne University Press: Melbourne, pp. 68–82.

David Mickler 2010, ‘Darfur’s dread: contemporary state terrorism in the Sudan’ in Richard Jackson, Eamon Murphy and Scott Poynting (eds.), Contemporary State Terrorism: Theory and Practice, Routledge: London and New York, pp. 28–47.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• The Contemporary International System (Level 1)

• Foundations of Foreign Policy (Level 2)

• Strategy, Diplomacy and Conflict (Level 2)

• Australian Foreign Policy (Level 3)

• The International Politics of Africa (Level 3)

• Emerging Challenges in International Relations (Level 3)

• Africa's International Relations (Level 3)

• Political Science Research Methods (Level 4 - Honours)

Postgraduate units (onshore)

• Peace and Security in Africa           

• International Security

• International Governance and Law

• Responding to International Crises

• Engaging Africa

Postgraduate units (offshore, international collaborative study) 

• International Relations in the Indian Ocean Region (Jakarta; Pretoria; Mauritius; COIL)

• Security and Development in South Asia (New Delhi)