Rate My Professor Heidi Hetz

Dr Heidi Hetz is a lecturer in the AU Pathways and Participation at Adelaide University, where she has been teaching sociology, academic writing, and literacy in enabling pathway programs since 2021. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of South Australia, conferred in June 2020, with her thesis examining refugee narratives in Australia’s asylum seeker debates. Prior to her lecturing role, Hetz worked in various sessional capacities at the University of South Australia from 2015 to 2020, serving as tutor, online tutor, head tutor, guest lecturer, and research assistant. She has taught sociology at the undergraduate level, including through Open Universities Australia, and developed courses in academic writing and literacy for UniSA College and UniSA Online. Her teaching portfolio includes courses such as Critical Thinking: Media and Academia, Tertiary Learning Strategies, Migration, Diversity and Belonging, Introduction to Global Issues and Identities, Individual and Society in Contemporary Australia, and Understanding Globalisation.

Hetz's research focuses on forced migration and displacement, the sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism, humanities and social sciences curriculum and pedagogy, teacher development, and pedagogical approaches for refugee-background students. Key publications include 'The Concept of the "Good Refugee" in Cambodian and Hazara Refugee Narratives and Self-Representation' (Journal of Refugee Studies, 2022), 'Aussies? Afghans? Hazara Refugees and Migrants Negotiating Multiple Identities and Belonging in Australia' (Social Identities, 2021), 'Intersectional Precarity of Hazara Afghan Refugee Migrants in Rural Australia' (Sociologia Ruralis, 2025, co-authored), 'Everyday Refugee Integration: A Holistic Reconceptualization of Refugee Integration through the Everyday Practices of Hazara Afghan Refugees' (Journal of Sociology, 2024, co-authored), and book chapters such as 'Using the H5P Interactive Tool to Teach Critical Thinking and Text Analysis Skills to Online Students' (2025). She has co-authored influential reports including 'Learning from Leeton: A Case Study of Refugee Settlement in Rural Australia' (2022), 'Intergenerational Refugee Aspirations and Academic Success: From Uncertain Pasts to Promising Futures' (2021, commissioned by Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation), and 'Refugees Rejuvenating and Connecting Communities' (2021). Hetz received the 2025 Early Career Researcher Award from UniSA Education Futures, the 2023 UniSA Justice and Society Teaching & Learning Excellence Award, and a 2022 UniSA Education Research Academy fellowship. She co-facilitates the CALD Special Interest Group at NAEEA and is a member of CRESI.