Debbie Bargallie

Biography

I am a descendant of the Kamilaroi and Wonnarua peoples of the Liverpool Plains and Upper Hunter regions of New South Wales, Australia. I was born and raised on Dharawal Country in Wollongong, New South Wales, where I continue to have strong connections. I currently reside on the land of the Quandamooka peoples in Queensland. My paternal great-grandfather came to Australia in the late 1890s from the Punjab region of India, now located in Pakistan.

My Stanner Award-winning monograph, Unmasking the racial contract: Indigenous voices on racism in the Australian Public Service, was published by Aboriginal Studies Press in 2020. My co-edited book titled Critical Racial and Decolonial Literacies: Breaking the Silence was published in 2024 by Bristol University Press.

I am an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at Griffith University. My research focuses on the critical theorisation of race and racism across sociology, social and political science, law and justice, and education. My primary research examines the experiences of Indigenous peoples at work. Beyond this focus, I explore the intersections of Indigeneity and Islam, as well as the transnational family histories of early Punjabi Muslim migrants who married Indigenous Australians. Together, these strands of research illuminate how historical relationships have forged enduring intercultural kinships that challenge national, racial, and colonial boundaries of identity and belonging.

I am a member of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR) and Griffith Institute for Educational Research (GIER) at Griffith University. I am an Honorary Professor at Macquarie University with the Centre of Critical Indigenous Studies in the Faculty of Arts. I also hold an Adjunct Professor position at Universitas Pesantren Tinggi Darul Ulum (UNIPDU) in Jombang, East Java, Indonesia. I serve as President of the Queensland Muslim Historical Society. In addition, I am a member of the Macquarie University Global Indigenous Futures Research Centre, the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW), and the BERA (British Educational Research Association). I have been appointed as a member of the ARC College of Experts. Before joining the Academy, I held a long-term executive-level management career in the Australian Public Service.