Monique Failla

Thesis: Designed to fail: Gender, violence and the tactical application of law in Australia’s ‘Fast Track’ Asylum Process

Biography

Monique Failla is a PhD candidate in the School of Social Sciences and the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, supervised by Professors Marie Segrave and  JaneMaree Maher and Dr Naomi Pfitzner.

In 2021, Monique was awarded the PhD Scholarship in Social Science – Family Violence and Gender Equality and commenced her PhD in 2022, after completing a Bachelor Arts and Laws (Hons) at Monash University in 2016. Monique holds a First-Class Honour’s degree in law, with her research focused on refugee law and resettlement policy in Australia, supervised by Dr Maria O’Sullivan. Monique has previously worked in the areas of migration and employment law, and currently holds a position as a Senior Policy and Programs Advisor at the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector.

Thesis summary

The focus of Monique’s PhD is on investigating the design, operation and impacts of Australia’s now-abolished ‘Fast Track’ refugee status determination process (FTP). The study reveals the individualistic, patriarchal and heteronormative nature of the FTP’s frame of recognition, and the cumulative and compounding impacts of the violence of the system on women, LGBTQIA+ people and families subject to the process.

Contributing to border criminology scholarship, the study demonstrates how the law and legal policies are tactically applied, suspended and contorted as a means of filtering, managing and controlling asylum seeker mobility and belonging, and illuminates the connections between the treatment of these asylum seekers and Australia’s ongoing colonialism.

Supervisors:  Professor JaneMaree Maher, Professor Marie Segrave, Dr Naomi Pfitzner.