The University of Western Australia

Asst/Prof Mel Thomas

Assistant Professor/Law Coordinator
School of Indigenous Studies

Contact details

Address

School of Indigenous Studies
The University of Western Australia (M303)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

6488 2973

Fax

6488 1100

Email

Mel.Thomas@uwa.edu.au

Location

Room G10, Shenton House, Crawley campus

Biography

Mel Thomas graduated from The University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts (History) and a Bachelor of Laws in 1996.

In August 1999, Mel was appointed to The University of Western Australia as Associate Lecturer in the School of Indigenous Studies as tutor for Aboriginal law students. Now tenured at the School, Mel has also taken on other responsibilities, such as the Co-ordination of the Aboriginal Pre-Law Programme and is the School’s Associate Dean of Research. Since 2000, Mel has taught two units on politics and law in the Aboriginal Orientation Course. Many students who have undertaken these units have gone on to succeed in Pre-law and Law degree studies.

Mel completed his Master of Laws Dissertation on the history and theory of International Law in 2001 where he argued that only human rights rather than state sovereignty would provide international law with an authoritative and intellectually coherent foundation. Since competing his masters thesis Mel has published papers on the experiences of Indigenous law students at UWA as well as the need for Australian legal academies to include Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in undergraduate law degree courses.

Key research

- Human rights and equal opportunity law

- International law

- Jurisprudence and legal history

Publications

MA Thomas, J Milroy and R Bartlett ‘Teaching and Learning the Law: The University of Western Australia Indigenous Law Program’ Indigenous Law Bulletin, 2010, vol 7 (19).

MA Thomas ‘Law and Gay Identity’, 2007 Australian Law Teachers’ Association Conference http://www.alta.edu.au/2007_published_conference_papers.html (also re-printed in the 2009 volume of ISAA Review: The Journal of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, April 2009 Vol 8(1) pp. 14-21)

MA Thomas ‘The Search for the Foundation of International Law’ Outskirts 2005 (UWA) vol 12, Online Journal at: http://www.chloe.uwa.edu.au/outskirts/archive/volume12)

MA Thomas and B Farmer ‘Aboriginal Law Students at the University of Western Australia’ Indigenous Law Bulletin, 2005, vol 11, p 6-11.

MA Thomas ‘Indigenous Jurisprudence and Legal Education in the 21st Century’ ISAA Review: The Journal of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, November 2005, vol 4, pp. 6-13.

H Goodwin, A Stuart and MA Thomas ‘Imprisonment for Contempt of the Western Australian Parliament’ The University of Western Australia Law Review Vol 25 (1), July 1995, pp. 189-201

Honours and awards

ALTC Awards for Teaching Excellence 2009 Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education
* Melville Thomas, Jill Milroy, Richard Bartlett & Neil Morgan

Previous positions

Mel was a Lecturer at the West Coast College of TAFE from 1996 to 1999, where he taught legal studies and human rights in the department of Community Services.

Teaching

- coordination and teaching of the five-week intensive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Pre-Law Programme during the summer vacation
- coordination of the Law Degree Programme for Indigenous Students (tutoring and mentoring students throughout the four-year degree);
- lecturing in the year-long Aboriginal Orientation Course in politics and law units each semester.

Research profile

Research profile and publications