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Susan Harris Rimmer

Professor and Director of the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith Business School, Griffith University

Dr Susan Harris Rimmer (BA[Hons]/LLB[Hons] UQ, SJD ANU) is a Professor and Director of the Griffith University Policy Innovation Hub.

Susan is the author of Gender and Transitional Justice: The Women of Timor Leste (Routledge, 2010), the Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar, 2019, with Kate Ogg) and over 40 refereed academic works. Susan was chosen as the winner of the Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on the Human Rights of Women for 2006. Sue’s interests are in public diplomacy, gender and foreign policy, global and regional governance and international human rights law. Her ARC Future Fellow project 2014-2019 was called 'Trading' Women's Rights in Transitions: Designing Diplomatic Interventions in Afghanistan and Myanmar.

She is a keynote speaker, frequent contributor to the public press and often called upon for commentary. She often acts as a policy adviser to government and produces policy papers, such as MIKTA, IORA, G20 and the UN Security Council. Susan was selected as an expert for the official Australian delegation to the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March 2014, with the delegation headed by Minister Michaelia Cash and Ambassador for Women and Girls, Natasha Stott-Despoja.

Susan was part of the Think20 process for Australia’s host year of the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane 2014, and the Turkish and Chinese Presidencies. She was one of Australia's representatives to the W20, with Anne Fulwood for Turkey, China and Germany.

Sue was awarded the Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Award in 2002, selected as participant in the 2020 Summit 2008 by then Prime Minister Rudd, and awarded the Future Summit Leadership Award, 2008, by the Australian Davos Connection (part of the World Economic Forum). In 2014 she was named one of the Westpac and Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence in the Global category.IN 2018, she was named one of Apolitical's 100 Gender Experts.

Sue was previously the Manager of Advocacy and Development Practice at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), She has also worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the National Council of Churches and the Parliamentary Library.

She has been a board member of UN Women National Committee Australia, the Refugee Council of Australia and has previously been president of the voluntary non-governmental organisation Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. From 2014-2020, she served on the board of the International Women's Development Agency.

Experience

  • –present
    Director of Studies, Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University

Education

  • 2008 
    ANU, Doctor of Juridical Science
  • 1997 
    UQ, BA (Hons)/LLB (Hons), University Medal