writer & researcher
My creative work explores themes including knowledge, embodiment, and loss, and has appeared in Island Magazine and Bent St, and the Emerging Writers Festival 2022's Same River Twice exhibition. I was a 2021-2 West Writer at Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC).
My research on Korean adoption, migration, and diaspora has been supported by the Korea Foundation and the Academy of Korean Studies.
I'm involved in several collaborative projects such as podcasts, research networks, and writing projects.
A list of my publications and academic positions can be found below.


detour, for the Same River Twice exhibition, Emerging Writers Festival 2022. At Footscray Community Arts Centre. Photos: Matto Lucas.
Academic Positions
2022
Research Assistant to Assoc Dean, Diversity & Inclusion, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne
2021-2
Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne
2021
Lecturer, Sociology, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
2020
Korea Foundation Field Research Fellow & Visiting Fellow, Yonsei University, South Korea
Education
2017
PhD, The University of Melbourne
2011
Visiting Scholar, Philosophy Department, Pennsylvania State University
2009
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), The University of Melbourne
Publications - creative
2021
There are no single stories. Bent St #5.1: Soft borders, hard edges.
2021
I want to write how you'd tell it. Island Magazine #161.
Publications - academic
2021
Pan, Q., Song, J., Gustafsson, R., & Maree, C. ‘Sexual Citizenship and Asian Immigrants in Post-Marriage Equality Australia.’ Citizenship Studies 25(8): 1058-1076.
2021
Gustafsson R. ‘Theorizing Korean Transracial Adoptee Experiences: Ambiguity, Substitutability, and Racial Embodiment.’ International Journal of Cultural Studies 24(2): 309-324.
2021
Gustafsson, R. ‘다른 곳’에 있기 ‘조용한’ 이주로서 초국적 한인 입양에 관하여. [Being ‘Elsewhere’: On Korean Transnational Adoption as ‘Quiet’ Migration]. In Kim, M. (ed.) 경계를 넘는 한인들 이주, 젠더, 세대와 귀속의 정치, ch. 10, pp. 316-345. Seoul: Hanul Academy.
2021
Han B.Y., Yang M.O., Gustafsson R. ‘The Social Exclusion of Child-Rearing Unwed Mothers in South Korea.’ In: Liamputtong P. (ed.) Handbook of Social Inclusion. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
2021
Song, J., Gustafsson, R., Choi, D., & Shin, W. ‘South Korea and Australia: 60 years of diplomatic history, 110 years of human stories.’ Melbourne Asia Review 8.
2021
Gustafsson, R. ‘Korean Transnational Adoption to Australia: ‘Quiet’ Migrants, Diaspora, and ‘Hometactics.” Melbourne Asia Review 5.
2021
Gustafsson, R. & Fronek, P. ‘Intercountry Adoptee Suicide: Research and data collection urgently required to inform post adoption services.’ International Social Service / International Reference Centre for the Rights of Children Deprived of their Families (ISS/IRC) Monthly Review, no. 255, Sept- Oct Edition, p. 10-12.
2020
Spectral Genealogies: Korean Transnational Adoptees, Substitutability, and the Korean Diaspora. Peril Magazine: Asian-Australian Arts and Culture #41.
2019
Gustafsson, R., Hill, R., & Ngo, H. (eds.) Philosophies of Difference: Nature, Racism, and Sexuate Difference, Routledge. [Reviewed in Hypatia]
2017
Gustafsson, S. ‘Depth, Nature, Participation.’ Australian Feminist Law Journal 43 (1): 89-105.
2015
Gustafsson, S. “A Provisional Alignment’: Towards the Formation of a ‘We’ (That We Are),’ Journal of Animal Ethics 5 (1): 76-82. (invited review article)
2013
Gustafsson, S. “The Animal is like a Quiet Force’: Emergence and Negativity in Agamben and Merleau-Ponty.’ Chiasmi International 15: 251-267.
2013
Gustafsson, S. “Live and ‘Make’ Live: The (Re)animations of Topsy the Elephant.’ antiTHESIS 23: 37-53.
2013
Gustafsson, S. “Outside of Being’: Animal Being in Agamben’s Reading of Heidegger.’ colloquy: text, theory, critique 25: 3-20.
Teaching
2021
Lecturer & Subject Coordinator, SOCI20017: Sexualising Society: Sociology of Sex, The University of Melbourne
2021
Guest Lecturer, various subjects in Sociology, Continental Philosophy, & Literary Studies, RMIT University + The University of Melbourne (since 2016)
2019
Head Tutor, large multidisciplinary subjects (Qualitative Research Methods) and advanced Anthropology subjects, The University of Melbourne (since 2017)
2019
Teaching Associate, 11 undergraduate and Honours level subjects in the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Deakin University, & RMIT University (since 2013)