
Before her employment at Griffith Law School as an ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer, Dr Bielefeld was the Inaugural Braithwaite Research Fellow at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University.
Dr Bielefeld’s interests include Indigenous law and policy issues, welfare law and policy, race discrimination, racial states, racism, governance and regulation, and poverty surveillance.
Her current research projects are an ARC DECRA: Regulation and Governance for Indigenous Welfare: Poverty Surveillance and its Alternatives (DE180100599) and an ARC Discovery Project: Conditional Welfare: A Comparative Case Study of Income Management Policies (DP180101252), the latter with Professor Greg Marston, Associate Professor Philip Mendes, and Associate Professor Louise Humpage.
Dr Bielefeld’s research and research-based submissions have had an impact on policy debate, and been referred to in major reports by the Australian Law Reform Commission, the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs, the Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Dr Bielefeld has also taught, developed and coordinated numerous courses, including Indigenous Australians and the Law, Contract Law, Property Law, and Constitutional Law.
More of Shelley’s work is available on her SSRN profile page and here.

Is the cashless debit card working?- Dr Shelley Bielefeld interviewed on ABC's 7.30 Report
Dr Shelley Bielefeld was interviewed by Peter McCutcheon’s ABC 7.30 Report, regarding her ARC Discovery Project Study on Compulsory Income Manage

Congratulations to RegNet grant winners
RegNet was delighted to secure a number of grants in the recent round of awards from the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Cashless debit cards for welfare recipients
The cashless debit card, introduced in 2016 in Ceduna and the East Kimberley, restricts 80 per cent of a person’s regular social security payment to an industry-issued card that cannot be used to purchase alcohol and gambling products.

ANU experts examine Constitutional Recognition
While the issue of constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians is gaining more political attention, there is little understanding on how constitutional reform might successfully Close the Gap.

Jon Altman's work honoured in new book
The work of RegNet and ANU Emeritus Professor Jon Altman has been honoured with the publication of the new edited volume of essays, Engaging Indigenous Economy.

Cashless welfare card experiments – regulating vice and virtue?- Inaugural Braithwaite Scholar Shelley Bielefeld writes in Welfare Conditionality blog
In this blog, inaugural Braithwaite Scholar at RegNet, Shelley Bielefeld, examines the impact of the cashless welfare card system and its disproportionate impact on Australia’s First Peoples.
Current

Mapping the Digital Welfare State
This project examines how technologies, such as biometrics, predictive algorithms and risk assessments, are increasingly used in the context of social assistance provision and regulation.

Author(s): Shelley Bielefeld
Date of publications: 2017
Publication type: Government and community sector reports

Author(s): Shelley Bielefeld
Date of publications: 2017
Publication type: Government and community sector reports

Author(s): Altman, Jon, Bielefeld, Shelley
Date of publications: 2016
Publication type: Government and community sector reports

Author(s): Shelley Bielefeld
Date of publications: 2016
Publication type: Government and community sector reports

Author(s): Shelley Bielefeld
Date of publications: 2016
Publication type: Government and community sector reports