Michael Leach is Professor in Politics and International Relations in the Department of Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, and a visiting fellow at the Department of Pacific Affairs. He has researched and published widely on the politics and history of Timor-Leste, and is a founder of the international areas studies body the Timor-Leste Studies Association. His other research interests include national identity and nation-building in the Timor-Leste and the Pacific, and comparative immigration and asylum policy. He is a co-Chief Investigator on the Pacific Attitudes Survey project with A/Prof Julien Barbara. He teaches at SUT in Comparative Politics, and the Politics of the Pacific. Michael is also an Australian legal practitioner, and officer of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He has previously taught in politics at Deakin University, at the University of Queensland, and South Thames College in London.