Claire Loughnan

Claire Loughnan is a lecturer in Criminology at the University of Melbourne who is currently researching the modes, practices and effects of living and working in carceral and confined spaces, including immigration detention, prisons and aged and disability care. This includes a research project on practices in an aged care home in Melbourne to build an appreciation of the intersections between the brutality and neglect in aged care and immigration detention. Her focus on institutional sites of confinement includes a collaboration with award-winning artist Hoda Afshar on whistleblowing as truth-telling, in which those who speak out against institutional violence occupy the space of the 'Agoniste', a term explored in Afshar's naming of her forthcoming exhibition for the inaugural PHOTO2020 Festival.

Claire is currently completing a book on the institutional effects of a policy of immigration detention, and is editing a collection of articles by Behrouz Boochani. She has published in international journals and in local and international media outlets.

Claire is a researcher partner with the the EU-funded, international Comparative Network on the Externalisation of Refugee Policies, a member of the OPCAT Australia Network and Co-Convenor of the University of Melbourne branch of Academics for Refugees.