Home The CentreOur peopleDr Cai Wilkinson

Cai Wilkinson (she/her) is the Associate Director of Teaching and Learning, supporting the development, design and delivery of CHL’s educational programs and initiatives.

An Associate Professor of International Relations, since joining Deakin University in 2012, Cai has held a variety of academic leadership positions including Course Director for the Graduate Certificate of Humanitarian Leadership, Faculty Director of Work Integrated Learning, Course Director for the Bachelor of International Studies and Associate Head of School (International and Partnerships). In addition to contributing to CHL’s programs, Cai teaches units in Deakin’s International Relations programs and Bachelor of International Studies, and supervises Honours, Masters and Doctoral research projects.

Cai received her PhD from the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham in the UK in 2009. Her research focuses on community and individual experiences of insecurity in the former Soviet Union, with a particular focus on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. She has undertaken fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan several times, including researching the development of LGBT activism in the republic, and her research has been published in journals including Security Dialogue, Journal of Human Rights, Nationalities Papers, and Critical Studies on Security. Cai is currently working on projects about the politics of LGBT rights in the post-Soviet space and the production of queer knowledges.

Cai holds a PhD in Eurasian Studies, a Masters in Russian and East European Studies, a BA (Hons) in Russian, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, all from the University of Birmingham. She is also an Intercultural Readiness Check Licensee (Level 2) and is Hogan Assessment Certified.

All profiles