“VISA 485 Lives Matter”: Digital Activism of Indian ‘Australian-International’ Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Surjeet Dogra Dhanji is the Manager of Victorian Government Projects and a Director for the Cultural Diplomacy Program at the Australia India Institute, and an Honorary Post-doctorate Fellow at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on the Indian diaspora, immigration, and international students’ higher education in Australia. Her recent publications include Aana Janaa: opportunities for Increasing Air Connectivity between Victoria and India (Report); The Underrepresentation of Indian Australians in the Three Tiers of Government (Working Paper) and ‘Diaspora to the rescue: The role of civil society groups in helping Indians stranded by the COVID-19 pandemic’ (book chapter) in Transnational Civil Society in Asia with Dr Pradeep Taneja. Email: surjeet.dhanji@unimelb.edu.au

Mousumi Mukherjee is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building, and the founding Executive Director of the Centre for Comparative and Global Education, O.P. Jindal Global University. She is also an Honorary Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She is a distinguished Fulbright alumna with over 23 years of experience in higher education in the United States, Australia, and India, and over 30 internationally peer-reviewed scholarly publications. She is the Vice-President, Research and Partnerships Development of the STAR Scholars Network.

Sandal Agrawal is a Senior Research Fellow at International Institute of Higher Education and Capacity Building (IIHEd), O.P. Jindal Global (Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University). She was a recipient of the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship in Hochschule Bremen, Germany from 2015-2016. In 2020, she graduated from the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy with an M.A. in Public Policy. Her research interests are diverse, such as education and life-long learning, democratic governance, gender equity, climate action and research, sustainable development. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0581-2660

Raju Karjigi is currently working as an Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor at Plaksha University in Mohali, Punjab, India. He also worked in the President's office at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. Prior to this, he worked in both academic and administrative positions at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat, Haryana, as an Academic Tutor and “Teaching and Research for Intellectual Pursuit” (TRIP) Fellow at the International Institute of Higher Education Research and Capacity Building (IIHEd) and as a Junior Manager at the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Institutional Research (OSIIR). He holds an MA in European Studies from Manipal University, Karnataka. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1701-0566